Your dental practice revolves around patients. As a dentist, you naturally want dedicated patients who fully enjoy and benefit from your service. These kinds of patients are high-value patients.
Who are High-Value Patients?
High-value patients are your ideal patients. They are patients who refer your dental practice and its services to others and leave reviews about your practice on public platforms and forums. They are usually willing to pay full price for your service on a timely basis. More so, they are respectful to you and your team. These are the kinds of patients you enjoy seeing walking through your door.
Attracting high-value patients to your dental practice is essential to increasing your practice’s visibility, profitability and sustainability. High-value patients are your practice’s ambassadors. Other than their positive attitudes and timely payments, they spread the word about the quality of your service and through your engagement with them, you can learn about loopholes in your practice or areas that need to be improved. Ultimately, attracting and having high-value patients can lead to the sustained success and growth of your dental practice.
In this article, you will learn the five steps you need to take to attract high-value patients to your practice. These are action steps that you can start taking, today. When put in motion, these steps can help your practice attract and retain your ideal patients and guide you to become a better dental service provider.
Five Steps to Attract High-Value Patients to your Dental Practice
1. Define your ideal patient
Since you started reading this article, you have probably thought about one or two of your patients who tick the boxes of a high-value patient. With those patients in mind, you should note down the specific attributes that define who your ideal patient is.
Create a profile of your ideal patients: What age group do they fall under? What is their geographic location? Do they have a family? Are they willing to recommend your service to others? How do they prefer to receive communications? These are a few questions you should ask yourself as you define who your ideal patient is. The answers you come up with will guide you as you make other important decisions and take key steps to attract your high-value patients.
2. Consider how you communicate with your patients
Once you have identified your ideal patients, you should consider how you communicate with them. As a dental service provider, you should understand that your patients do not patronize your dental practice solely because of the service you provide. They also patronize your practice because of how they are treated and communicated to. The way you treat and communicate with your patients matters.
Your brand voice and identity should be consistent across all communication channels - in person, on your website, on social media, via emails or through advertisements. Let your patients know that their health and satisfaction are your dental practice’s priority. Your communication and messaging should evoke positive emotions in your prospective patients and convince them that you are indeed the best choice for them.
3. Have an engaging online presence
The next step is to make sure you are showcasing all of your dental practice’s services and features. Having an engaging online presence allows you to do this effortlessly. Your ideal patients need to know that you have what they need. You are their top choice. The design, quality and messaging on your website and social media platforms go a long way to attract and retain high-value patients.
With Connect the Doc, you can have a website that automatically asks your patients for a referral and converts referrals into qualified leads. You can also track referrals made by your high-value patients and rewards them for their loyalty to your dental practice. To increase the operational value of your website and improve your online presence and engagement, contact a Connect the Doc expert.
4. Improve your service experience
The best way to retain your high-value patient is by improving the quality of the service experience. Remember to put your patients at the center of your working process. You should have an excellent system for serving and engaging with patients from the moment they find out about your dental practice to the moment they step out of your practice after receiving a treatment.
Consider your prospective patients’ potential inquiries and concerns. Do you have a system in place for communicating with them when they visit your website or dental practice? How do you collect their patient’s information? How do you address their safety concerns? How do you schedule appointments? How do you educate them about treatments and surgeries? How do you follow up with them? How do you collect reviews or encourage them to refer your service to others? Develop a solid process for dealing with these situations. If you need to talk to an expert about the tools you can leverage to improve your service experience, contact us today.
5. Work on your dental marketing strategy
After identifying your ideal patients, reviewing how you communicate with them and improving your online presence and service experience, the next thing to do is fully design a comprehensive dental marketing plan. Your marketing plan should target your high-value patients, include a system for engaging with them, and encourage them to refer your service to others.
If you are not attracting and retaining your high-value patients, you are losing revenue and referrals. If you need assistance with developing a concrete plan and having the right tools to attract and retain high-value patients in your dental practice, contact a Connect the Doc expert today. We will provide you with the referral and online marketing tools you need to increase your dental practice’s profitability, visibility and sustainability.
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