Your biggest untapped pool of new patients

Have you heard stories of businesses that never advertise, but have a seemingly never-ending stream of new clients coming in? While this is utopia for most dental practices, it’s actually relatively straightforward to boost new patient numbers by increasing referrals from existing clients.

Know where you are now

Before embarking on a new patient referral system, it’s important to know where you are starting from. This will help you to understand how effectively the new system you’re going  to introduce is working once it’s underway.

In this regard, conduct an audit of the number of new patient referrals your practice has been receiving in the preceding months. If you’re not capturing this data, you really need  to start.

Most practices ask new patients, at the time of their first appointment, how they came to know about the practice. It’s a pretty simple matter to:

1. Add this to the new patient questionnaire; and
2. Record this data in your patient management system. The results will give you a baseline figure and ultimately, a target to beat in the coming months.

On that note, unless your practice is brand new, most practices, without doing anything, will have a certain level of referral marketing. If you  provide at least a reasonable level of service (and you’re in big trouble if you don’t), there will be a group of your existing patients that will be relatively happy with  what you do.

It’s not difficult to imagine the scenario where someone in a work/social setting asks one of your existing patients if they know a dentist they canrecommend. Assuming you’re providing reasonable service, your existing patient should endorse you as a place to go.

In this context, first time patients  typically want to know:

1. Are your staff friendly? No one likes being served with disinterest or rudeness;
2. What are your technical skills like? They want to avoid dental horror stories; and
3. How much does your practice charge? This doesn’t mean that you need to be cheap, just that your services as perceived as being of value.

Asking for referrals

For some dentists, the idea of asking patients for referrals is akin to asking them to give blood. But the reality is, if you’re wanting to get more new patients, seeking referrals is one of the cheapest, most effective ways to do so.

It may involve a small step out of the collective comfort zone for some dental practices – though the advice below should help. Unless you’re vigorously (and systematically) pursuing other marketing methods, the alternative to referrals is to keep doing what you’re doing – and getting the same result.

As you ponder your next steps, here are a few things to consider:

• Research shows that a referred new patient is more valuable in just about every way than someone who joins your practice without a referral:
• Referred patients are generally more trusting, more forgiving, and spend more easily.
• If you’re providing good service, most clients don’t mind being asked to refer new patients:
• And even if you do ask them, the worst outcome you can expect is the existing patient will do nothing or decline your request.
• If you don’t ask, the answer is already no. You really have nothing to lose.

To help overcome any nerves about asking for a referral, or being seen as too “salesy”, try the following technique:

1. Start by asking about the patient. For example, at the counter after the consult, ask about the patient’s experience:

• Have reception staff ask: “how was everything today”;
• If you know someone has had a good experience, that’s a great base to build on for asking for referrals; and
• If the patient had a bad experience (and they tell you), it’s best not to ask for a referral but then try to help resolve their bad experience.

2. Ask for help. Most people are happy to help if asked (in a non-pushy, nonthreatening way), particularly where they’ve already told you that their experience today was positive
3. Have something to give them. It’s one thing to ask someone if they will refer people to your practice. Even if they agree, they’re likely to forget. However, if you can give them something to remind them, this will increase the number of referrals. Options include a practice business card, or a more specific card for referrals which identifies the referrer with text such as “kindly referred by __________”.

Rewarding your  referring patients

In many things in life, the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) applies. There’s every likelihood that this rule will also apply to referring patients. That is to say, you’ll get 80% of your referrals from 20% of your patients, so cultivate those patients as well as you can.

When referrals come in from existing patients, it makes strong business sense to acknowledge the referrer. Options for  this include:

• Mailing a handwritten note thanking the referrer – this would be the minimum;
• Sending a small gift, gift card or gift voucher; or
• Entering them in a monthly / quarterly draw with a prize of some substance. Attractive offers include holidays, petrol cards, or seasonal hampers.
• If you adopt this latter option, display the prize prominently and ask patients at the counter “have you heard about our competition?”

“For some dentists, the idea of asking patients for referrals is akin to asking them to give blood. But the reality is, if you’re wanting to get more new patients, seeking referrals is one of the cheapest, most effective ways to do so…”

• This is an easy, non-salesy question for staff to ask and generates interest. The worst response you’ll get from a patient is “not interested”.

One other technique to boost the profile of gaining referrals in your practice is to prominently display details of who referred who. “Mary referred John, Sally referred Rajeev,” etc. This can be on a whiteboard or on a loop on a TV in a waiting room.

You want to give the clear vibe that your patients are readily referring other patients because yours is a good business to deal with.

Conclusion

With referrals offering such an untapped pool of new patients, establishing a systemised referral program is a must for any practice wanting to grow. Start by measuring where you’re at now. Then, agree on and train staff in the new system and measure the results in an ongoing manner. Finally, reward referrers – they are worth their weight  in gold!

*This article was first published in Australasian Dental Practice – March/April 2017 Issue