North Texas Dentistry Volume 10 Issue 1 2020 ISSUE 1 DE | Page 24

practice management
B
usiness, marketing, and man-
agement experts have told us —
forever — that 70% of new
patients should come from personal
referrals — referrals from the existing
patient family. Hopefully, you are track-
ing all of your new patient sources.
Hopefully, you know where they are
coming from and that, in your practice,
the vast majority are coming as a per-
sonal referral from satisfied patients.
However, ask these questions: Are you
asking for new patients on a regular
basis? Do you know which patients are
referring to you on a regular basis? Do
you know the amount of dentistry being
generated by those referral sources?
How are you recognizing and reward-
ing your referral sources?
Your software will give you that kind of
information if you are entering accurate
BUILD YOUR
PRACTICE
FROM WITHIN
by Cathy Jameson, PhD
data in the first place and, then, if you are
tracking that information.
Patients who refer to you are very valu-
able for many reasons: they come to you,
invest in your services. They accept your
recommendations. They are loyal to you.
They sing your praises in the community
or in their places of employment. And,
when asked, they refer others to you.
Over the lifetime of a patient who stays
with you, they will refer two patients to
you, according to the ADA. If a patient
refers once or twice to you, that means
they trust you to do a good job for their
friend, family member or colleague — or
they wouldn’t refer to you!
What if your present referrers would
increase the number of people they send
to you? Or, what if you could increase the
number of patients who refer? If every
person in your practice would refer one
24 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com
person to you, your practice would dou-
ble in numbers. Why not encourage your
own patient family to become your
“salesforce”?
First of all — and most importantly —
you have to be doing a spectacular job of
taking care of every patient. Every inter-
action with a patient by each team mem-
ber can “make or break” the relationship
with the patient. Practice systems must
be working excellently with every team
member engineering their part of the
system excellently. Customer service
and communication skills are valuable
beyond description.
When people speak about your practice,
what do they say? Are they singing your
praises? Or are they lackadaisical? Are
they walking out the door pleased or
upset and disappointed? The only way to
receive “raving fan” reports is to estab-