Internal Dental Marketing Strategies: Boost Patient Retention and Referrals

Shannon: We’re going to talk about something super fun today, Mel, my creative director. All right, guys, this is going to be short and sweet but super powerful. Punch, punch, punchy. It is about patient retention and referrals, referral marketing, and internal marketing. It’s a little bit crazy that we love this so much because we take care of external marketing, but I think what differentiates us is that we support internal marketing [too] to make your external marketing even more valuable for you.

And for retention, we’re going to talk about that a bit.

I’m trying to think if that was everything … ah … absolutely.

So, my first question when I’m educating the doctors is talking about what’s the connection between patient retention and referrals or profitability for their practice?

Mel: Well, it’s much more cheaper and it’s much more profitable to focus on your internal marketing because there’s stats that show that returning customers spend 67 % more than new customers because they like you, they trust you, you’ve built a relationship with them. So when you have a service you recommend or a new service that you recommend, they’re much more likely to say yes, because you’ve already built that trust with them.

Shannon: Right. And I think even to speak to that more, because like I said before, we’re about external marketing, is we’re talking about profitability, right? So marketing has become, um, more expensive with less ROI.

Mel: Yes, it has.

Shannon: … because of all the pieces. So then, if we can work with the practices to really build up their patient referrals and that patient retention, then that’s where they become profitable.

So, let’s say external marketing through organic or paid ads—If we can help them with their systems and automations for this referral base and build up that culture in their practice—if they [the existing patients] refer one, two, three, five family members or friends, oh my gosh, we’re way, way, way more profitable in that way.

And like you just mentioned, they say yes to treatment faster and it’s easier to roll them into the practice. So I think that’s why we get excited about it.

Mel: Exactly. And, one of the, when a doctor’s desperate for …

Shannon: To say it politely, [laugh].

Mel: … new patients or it’s like, I just need to get some ROI fast, right away. One of the biggest campaigns we recommend is a reactivation campaign because they have this relationship capital in place, and it’s so much easier to reactivate that. Bring them back into the practice and try to rebuild that relationship with them. And we’ve seen a lot of success with that.

Like, we’ve had tons of success with that, tons of success with that. When we use treatment acceptance to get them back into the practice, it can generate thousands of dollars. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of dollars in less than 90 days. And it’s just through simple text messages like, “Hey, we’ve been thinking about you, and I talked to the doctor; he wants to give this gift to you: 15% off the treatment that was recommended. Do you want to come in and talk about it more?”

Shannon: So, you say simple messages, but honestly, Mel, you’re the one that has really watched them, monitored them, and the messaging going out. To you it’s simple messaging, but to them, what they’re used to is the team, the front desk or the hygienist who doesn’t have a patient, they say, “Hey, Sally, are you ready for your crown and your root canal yet?” Or “Are you ready to come in to get your teeth cleaned?” What do patients need for that reactivation? Because that’s relationship building, right? That’s retention. Yes. So tell me a little bit about that simple messaging.

Mel: The simple messaging behind the text message? [laughing]

Shannon: It’s marketing psychology, right?

Mel: Yeah, it is. It’s just, honestly, it’s not being professional. It’s being authentic, and you know that we preach that a lot. It’s just showing that you care and personalizing the message by just using your front desk [person], your treatment coordinator’s name. Say, “Hey, this is Sally with Smith Dental. And we’re so excited to meet with you and talk to you.”

[It’s] having an incentive to draw them back into the practice and having some urgency in that offer as well.

Shannon: Yes, like we’re celebrating with our patients who are taking care of their oral wellness by this gift basket or this wellness package, you know. Something like that.

So, after we interview the office, [we ask]. “Tell us about your patients and how we can re-enroll them with something healthy? It’s about their health, it’s about their wellness. That’s a great way for them to be profitable and build up their patient retention because they’re not talking to their patients enough.

Mel: And another way to bring them back in is giving them an offer, like the dangling carrot as you like to say. Because we had to give you this gift, because people like that. People like gifts.

Shannon: We have a gift for you. Come and get it.

Mel: Yeah, exactly. Come on in and you’ll get your gift.

Shannon: So, if you have a list and it’s easy to find, you know, go to DI for a free snapshot or look at how much unscheduled treatment do you have in the practice? We’re, we’re seeing 800K, 1.2 million, up to 2 million in unscheduled treatment or hygiene reactivation. So this could not only bring in profitability, but it’s also good for patient retention.

That’s why we do love that.

Mel: Absolutely. And I think another thing too, is, to help build up your internal marketing, your referral sources, you need to get your patients to be referral champions. Yes. And the best way to do that is to really make the patient experience all about them. Make them feel like a VIP.

And you love this term, ‘surprise, delight, and wow.’ I love it. Why don’t you go into what that is and how to really make that patient experience all about them.

Shannon: Well, I mean, you just think about it, right? They see the hygienist and get a little bag. What do they put in the bag? A toothbrush and floss, and maybe a card or something.

They’re expecting that. How did you surprise them?

Even your current patient base, how can we [make them say], “I’ve never gotten that before at the dentist!” Because what that is going to do is when someone says, “Oh, this tooth,” or, “We need a new dentist.” [Your patient is going to say,] “Oh my God, you’ve got to go to my dentist because you know, they put essential oils in my [bag] at my every-six-month.” You go to Alibaba or Aliexpress and get these beautiful essential oils or a bath bomb, something to do with wellness, or a creative wellness center, and they can pick something out.

Grumpy Lou goes up there and grabs his lemon or lavender essential oil. He’s going to tell everybody at bridge about his great dentist, right? Because we’ve triggered something in their brain for that surprise. That’s what you remember. And you stay top of mind.

Mel: Well, we say it, you trigger something in their brain. That’s marketing psychology at play and it’s called reciprocity. When you do something for someone and they don’t, you’re not expecting anything in return, they will feel the need to return the favor. And it’s used all the time, all the time.

Shannon: Who’s the expert at that?

Mel: Us. Taylor Swift.

Shannon: Yes, like look at the Swifties. They’re fanatics. Yes. Right?

Mel: Yes. She is the queen at Reciprocity. I don’t listen to her music a lot, but I respect her marketing because she has so much reciprocity. It’s always in the news. She’s always giving, she’s surprising her fans by paying for their colleges, paying for their student loans.

She’ll surprise someone like a super fan on their 10th birthday just to make them happy. She just wants them to be happy and people come back. They want more. That’s why she has such a hardcore fan base. That’s why they’re called the Swifties.

Shannon: She’s a billionaire from it. Like, it’s crazy the difference. And why we use her as an example is, what’s the difference from the guy down the road? And then when you have already spent all these marketing dollars to get this patient, even from your current patient base, we’re not talking to them enough. If we can just take an ounce of that [reciprocity], this is really working and people want that.

People want a tribe. They want to belong to your practice. They want to love you. They want to refer to you. So we need to make it easy on them. And that’s how we support them.

Mel: Yes, yes, for sure. Absolutely.

Shannon: And so, I guess some low cost ways, the question that I always get asked by my doctors is what are some easy ways we can do that?

I kind of mentioned it. Create a wellness center. Make a couple of baskets of some essential oils, some bath bombs, make a tin of mints, on 30 different ways to smile and share. And you have a QR code there that leads them to a wellness quiz, right? It’s really easy that way. And it’s top of mind.

They throw that in their little bags. The guys throw it on their gear shift in their truck and it’s always there and they’re thinking about it. Those are some really easy, low-cost ways to have the clients thinking about you and having that surprise. But they always have a little piece of you with them.

Mel: Absolutely. But then, why do you think doctors aren’t doing this? Why are they struggling with asking for referrals?

Shannon: You know why I think it’s an interesting topic is because when we’re talking to doctors that come to us, they’re like, well, what’s the majority, you know, what is the main marketing that you’ve been doing over the years?

I would say referrals. We’re really word-of-mouth. We’re not quite getting enough anymore. That’s a whole other podcast! [laughter] I ask, now do you have any systems and automations to make it easy for the team? Two percent have a system automation that makes sense, and is easy on the team. We’re really setting it up for the practice to appreciate them [the team] and no one gets missed.

And when you make it so easy in a system and automation for referral based, they say, “Well, we’re getting a lot of patients.” The practices that implement this with us, see an easy 20-30% increase. They get more referrals. Because it’s easy on the team and just right in front of them.

Yep. So, that is an easy way for them to start doing that. And, they’ve just been so busy and it’s just one of those things that they’ve tried; the $25 Care2Share cards. Oh my God. Throw them away. Throw them away! [laughter] They’re garbage. No one carries a card around anymore. We need to do something new and innovative.

Mel: Something that they think about. Like little buttons that say, “Ask me for a tin of gum.”

Shannon: Exactly . . . We have a whole system we can help you with if you’re interested. But, we want to think outside the box, and it can’t be just an afterthought. For example, you have one patient you love, and the doctor says, “Oh, by the way, do you have any friends and family that we could refer to?” It can’t be about the afterthought. It has to be … you have to set up the systems and you also have to reward the team for them taking advantage of this system that you’ve set up or put in place for them.

Because they can benefit from that.

Mel: Yep. Absolutely.

Shannon: I was just looking at some of the questions that the doctors always ask us about. If you could only focus on one internal marketing, I would say it would honestly—If you have low, low, low reviews—it would be a reviews campaign. Putting a sign in each operatory, having them leave a review while waiting for their goodie bag, or something like that, and giving the team a target to hit. When they hit that target, you’ll bring in lunch for everybody. You’re going to take them out to dinner. You’ll buy them a designer bag, whatever that looks like. So the reviews are also another important internal marketing [tool]. Most practices know that, but they don’t have some good ideas or just don’t prioritize it.

Mel: I think the biggest thing is every dental office says that they just send an automated message. It’s like, thanks for visiting us. Would you mind leaving us a review, and it’s one of those things where you read it and see it so many times it just doesn’t do it. It’s just, they forget about it.

So, what are some fun ways that you can spice it up? And it could be as simple as just spice up the messaging, right? You could just throw something, a joke, some emojis, maybe just some follow-up that’s a little funny meme that says “This is me waiting for you to leave us a review.”

Shannon: Exactly.

Mel: It’s whatever you’re comfortable with in getting snarky with your messaging. But you have to be different.

Shannon: Interrupt.

Mel: Interrupt what they’re doing. A dentist never sends me this [funny meme], because you can tell it’s automated. And so, what can you do?

Shannon: [The doctors] “I’ll do it next time.” Exactly.

Mel: How can you make it more human, more personal for them to finally leave a review?

Shannon: So yes, spicing up the messaging for the reviews, if that’s really low for you. If you’re doing great on reviews, then the referrals are just a no brainer. To think differently and innovatively and always marrying it with being more [about] wellness, like a wellness quiz. Because what it does is it gives the team something different besides the weather to talk to their patients about. “Oh, the doctor, he made this wellness quiz. And it’s because he cares and because people are coming into the dentist more than their doctors.”

You know, you could get ahead of a stroke. You can get ahead of dementia. There are different things. People don’t understand the mouth-body connection. Share it with your friends and family. We care about the community. So that builds up the kind of patients coming in, right?

Mel: Something else, because we talk about referral systems, and “surprise, delight, and wow.” We were talking to a doctor yesterday about what he does to make his patients feel comfortable.
He’s like, “Well, I always call them before their first appointment with me.”

Shannon: I know! That is so cool.

Mel: It’s like, you do? No one does that. That was so different, and so, it could be as simple as that, making a phone call.

Shannon: Right. Right.

Mel: I’m actually a person, I can’t wait to meet you.

Shannon: And, even though we have a system, let’s say you put the system of the referrals into a CRM, that’s what we do once they’re scheduled, I would still have the doctors write a note or the team write a note. That personal touch means everything.

Mel: Absolutely.

Shannon: So, there you go. There you go. Internal marketing. It’s solved. Added to your external marketing, you’ll become so much more profitable and have better patient retention. It’s a big help to all of our doctors and I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

Mel: If you want more tips for your marketing, external marketing, internal marketing, we even talk about team building because that’s a huge part of your marketing, measuring and optimizing your marketing, make sure you subscribe to our newsletterThis link opens a new tab to the Marketly Newsletter because we release videos every week to help you make your practice growth possible.