Prompt More Patient Referrals ...

The quickest, easiest, most efficient way to get more referrals is to ask for them.

"But, that makes me look like I'm begging for business" you may be thinking to yourself. " And that's not the image I want to portray." It won't if you approach it correctly. In fact, instead of perceiving your request as begging ... your patients will likely see it as a compliment.

How do you accomplish that?**

• First, instead of asking all of your patients to refer someone, you approach only your best patients.
  
  
• Second, you sincerely thank them for their business and express how much you appreciate, and enjoy working with, them.
  
  
• Third, inform them that you would like to add more patients to your practice who are just like them.
  
  
• Fourth, explain that patients tend to refer other patients who are, in fact, quite similar to themselves. (That's generally true.)
  
  
• Finally, ask them.

The way you word your request is important in both patient perception and success.

** If you're looking to add more quality patient referrals to your practice contact me to request more information regarding my Patient Referral Program.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson

Does Your Direct Mail Pass The Millie Test?

I enjoy observing people in everyday situations. And one of my favorite observation posts is the post office. In the P.O. you get to see how people react specifically to direct mail.

You get to see them smile warmly when there’s a personal letter from their romantic interest ... frown when there’s correspondence from the IRS ... get angry when there’s a 30-minute wait-in-line to see a postal clerk ... and exhibit a myriad of expressions as they go through their stack of mail.

Some people whistle while opening every single envelope ... while others grunt and groan while tossing out seemingly everything except the letter from Mom.

It’s an experience.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson

Here's one of my all-time favorite “observations” ...

I was on my way out of the post office lobby when I passed this elderly couple. The woman was holding a big stack of mail and I could hear that they were in a semi-heated “debate.” Assuming it had to do with their mail, I decided to get snoopy (not the dog ... “nosy”).

Here’s what I heard the older lady say to her husband: Charles, didn’t I tell you to tell Millie only to forward the important mail to us ... not this junk.

I smiled and walked away. The reason I walked away was because it sounded like Charles was about to discover his elderly derriere in some darn deep doo-doo, and I didn’t want to stay around to watch the CHASTISEMENT OF CHARLES.

As I was driving home, I started thinking (I do that occasionally): “This could be a real test of direct mail excellence.”

If someone leaves for a vacation and instructs a friend to forward only the important mail ... will that friend forward your direct mail? Does your envelope look or sound important enough to cause “Millie” to forward it?

If it looked like a personal letter and was mailed first class, Millie would almost have to forward it. If you used envelope teaser copy that sounded valuable/important (particularly if there was a time limit noted) ... I think Millie would probably forward it — just to be safe.

My point is simple: Every time you create a new direct mail piece, you should ask yourself ...

Will “Millie" forward this?

What Is Word Of Mouth Marketing?

Isn't Word Of Mouth marketing just another name for seeking patient referrals?

Patient referrals represent only one aspect of word-of-mouth marketing. It involves strategy and tactics designed specifically to facilitate and encourage the media, local community people (whether they're patients or not) and influential people in your community to talk positively about you to others.

One example would be providing appropriately valuable information to local professionals via letters, newsletters, recordings, dvds, etc. What would be an example of appropriate info? Keeping local physicians abreast of the most recent mouth/body connection research would fit that "appropriate" definition.

Another example would be setting up speaking engagements with local groups ... and providing media with press releases to announce it.

Sponsoring high profile events and popular local social causes is another, as is developing unique advertising or incorporating a practice feature that causes people to talk to their friends about it ... and, thus, you.

I'll be covering a number of word-of-mouth topics in in the future. If you'd like to read more about it now, a good place to start would be a visit to the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) web site and read Word of Mouth 101. You can also check it out in Wikipedia.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson

Use Caution When Using Two Colors In Your Promotional Material

If you choose to use two-color (or more) printing for your ad or other marketing material, be sure to use the second color only to highlight a few key points.

Reason: A second color, particularly a bright color like red, attracts the eye like a magnet. Thus, it give you an opportunity to attract a reader to the key selling points (benefits) in your ad. But when you overuse color and try to make too much stand out, you dilute it's value. In fact, I've seen ads where so much of the second color was used that the black stood out as different. The result, the reader's eye was attracted to the less important copy printed in black.

Here's a rule-of-thumb regarding attention-grabbing devices (of which color is one):

The more *things* you try to make look important,
the less important each will be perceived.

So, be selective with what you choose to highlight.

Also as a general rule ... two color ads will increase readership and response when compared to a single color ad, BUT, not usually by enough to justify the extra cost. However, there are other attention-grabbing devices you can use with a single color ad. For example ... bolding, italics, CAPS (BUT USE SPARINGLY BECAUSE ALL CAPS ARE DIFFICULT TO READ), underlining, font type (use with caution because misuse of fonts can be very distracting, which is never a good thing),

Font Size,

white space, centering,

------Tabbing, etc.

White space around copy can really make it stand out. And, of course, you can combine one or more of the attention-grabbing devices ... as I've done above. But, as you can see, when you combine too many it's very distracting. And again, distractions are not a good thing.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson

The Importance Of Clear Communication

It is absolutely imperative that your ad copy be crystal clear to your prospect.

You simply can’t afford to have a prospect questioning what you meant ... or misunderstanding your intent. If prospects don’t precisely understand your copy — and understand it on first reading — the outcome is likely not to be to your liking.

Let me reinforce the importance of clear communication via a quick, little story ...

A hapless hobo comes to the front door of a neat looking country home and raps gently on the door.

Soon, the well-dressed owner of the home -- a dentist -- answers, "Yes, what is it ?"

The hobo begs, "Please, sir, could you give me something to eat? I haven't had a good meal in several days."

The dentist sternly says, "I have made a fortune in my lifetime by providing quality services for people. I've never given anything away for nothing."

"However, if you go around to the back of the house you will see a gallon of gray paint and a clean paint brush. If you will paint my porch back there, I will give you a good meal."

So the hobo gladly agrees and quickly goes around back. Soon afterwards, he again knocks on the door.

The dentist smiles, "Finished already? Good. Come on in. Sit down. Enjoy your meal."

After the hobo finishes a grand meal he turns to the dentist and says, "Thank you very much, sir... By the way, there's something that I think you should know. That's not a Porsche you've got back there. It's a BMW."

As this story points out, sometimes seemingly clear communication ... really isn’t.

Before you ship that ad off to the newspaper (or the direct mail package/brochure to your printer), re-read your copy. Then, have other people read it. Watch them. Do you find them re-reading portions? Do they look confused? When finished, ask them questions to make sure they got out of it precisely what you intended.

Look for every possible instance of potential reader misunderstanding in your copy. Then, correct it. If you don't, you'll be wasting much of your advertising dollar.

Of course, communicating with your staff (and communication between members of your staff) requires the same attention to clear communication details. Miscommunication can create all sorts of unnecessary problems and grief within the practice.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson

Prospective Patients: Quality vs. Quantity

When asked what they would like their advertising to accomplish, most dentists say, "bring in lots of new patients."

But that's not precisely what they mean. The problem with "lots of prospects" (quantity) is that many of them may not be "good" prospects (quality).

How does one distinguish between a good prospect versus a not-so-good one in this context?

A good (quality) prospect is someone who ...

... has a self-identifiable dental problem, and,
... is looking for a solution to that problem, and,
... has the money to pay for the solution to the problem.

A not-so-good prospect is someone who ...

... doesn't have the money to afford quality dental care, and/or,
... is only looking for the cheap solution, and/or,
... is only looking for information.

This obviously doesn't tell the entire story of who are, and are not, good prospects and patients. But for the purpose of creating successful dental response advertising, the above definition will work just fine.

The question is, how can you create your advertising so that mostly quality patients respond?

Here's a general rule of thumb: The more generalized your message and the more you feature (or infer) low-price, the higher the number of prospects who will likely respond ... and the lower the overall quality of those prospects. (Of course, if your practice is geared towards lower income patients, this approach makes sense.)

Conversely, the more specific your ad message, without the inference or perception of bargain-basement pricing ... the fewer the responses, but the higher the quality of prospect.

Full article: New Patient Quality vs. Quantity

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson

The "Holy Moly" dental factor ...

If you want your patients to talk to others about your practice, you need to give them something to talk about.

It would be nice if patients were able to recognize your special dental skills (99% of patients can't tell a great dentist from a not-so-good one) and, because of that, be inclined to tell all of their family and friends about you. But that rarely happens.

So, what will cause patients -- without your prompting -- to get excited and talk to their family and friends about you? With acknowledgement to Tom Peters' WOW factor, we'll call it ...

The Holy Moly factor.

What is the *holy moly* factor? It's something new, unique, unusual, or out-of-place which causes the patient to react with a "Holy Moly!"

It might be a shiatsu lounge chair in the waiting room ... being served expresso and blueberry muffins by one of your staff ... having a patient-controlled high definition television in your operatories ... providing hot towels for clean-up after a procedure ... providing each patient with a "thank you so much"** package after each procedure ... or a working 1950's-1960's style jukebox in the waiting room (if you have lots of older patients). Do some brainstorming to come up with ideas.

** The "thank you so much" package might include, for example, the normal dental products (new toothbrush, floss, etc.) along with a couple of tasty treats and a surpise gift (like restaurant gift coupon, movie ticket, lottery ticket, etc.) Of course, you'd change the contents of the package on a regular basis.

If you would like help creating a logical "Holy Moly" factor for your practice, give me a call or drop me an email.

Copyright 2007 by Galen Stilson