How to attract more patients to your dental office?

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WHAT CAN THE DENTIST DO TO BRING MORE PATIENTS TO THE CONSULTORY?

Unsurprisingly, the dental market is becoming increasingly complicated for the dentist. According to the Federal Council of Dentistry, we are already more than 300 thousand dentists.

To get an idea of ​​how catastrophic this is, increasing numbers of dentists do not keep up with population growth. The proportion that WHO determines is 1200 inhabitants for each dentist. In São Paulo, this proportion is already below 600 inhabitants per dentist.

And to complicate matters further, the dentist does not have the administrative or management skills to treat the office as a company. And that literally makes it go two ways:

- Few patients who bring little profit in the office;
- Many dental insurance patients, who bring little profit and high workload.

Note that the above two situations are very bad for the dentist. But knowing what to do to turn the tables is something very few dentists know and do.

Given this, it is important that the dentist be prepared to attract more patients to his office, or at least have this notion.

Here are some tips for getting more patients to your office TODAY.

  1. Start by tidying up the house, that is, your dental office.

Throughout these years of training and consulting, I've realized that the dentist wants because he wants to attract more patients to his office. This is quite normal. What is not normal is not preparing the office for this new patient demand.

Let's make an analogy with a visit we will receive at our home. Is there not a house preparation to receive some friends? Housekeeping, housekeeping, among others. All this to not give a bad impression, check?

The same thing happens with the office. Incidentally, it occurs worse. Friends may even turn a blind eye to their messy home, but patients may not.

And what makes the patient choose to have treatment in a particular office involves a whole complex of information that includes the entire environment and structure of the office.

I remember one dentist who wanted to start a patient recruitment job, but overlooked the fact that the air conditioner was broken, leaving the reception literally a furnace. And there's nothing worse than being in a very hot or very cold place.

Do you need to get your office ready before you start doing dental marketing to attract more patients? No. One thing does not depend on another for accomplishment, but will depend on the optimization of results.

Let's reason with the broken air conditioner example: Would the end result of dental marketing be the same if the air conditioner were good, thus leaving the environment pleasant? I do not think so. I can't stand hot places myself, and my first wish is to leave as soon as possible.

So start by preparing your office on the following items:

- Structure;
- comfort;
- Leisure (magazines, TV, internet, etc.);
- Decoration;
- Dental advertisements (banners, explanatory leaflets, manuals, etc.)

  1. Deliver true excellence in patient care

You can't imagine an office dealing with PEOPLE offering BAD service. And excellence in care literally brings more patients because everyone likes to be treated well and likes to say they have been treated well.

Prepare your employees to provide show attendance to their patients. As with the office's internal structure, there is no point in attracting more patients if your secretary is rude or even unprepared to deal with people.

  1. The dentist has to be present on the internet

Who do you know today who is NOT connected to social networks, particularly Facebook and Instagram? Very few people, is it?

And how many people do you know who will fetch information about a particular subject on google? Almost everyone, isn't it? Want to get an idea? Every day, google gets over 100 BILLION searches.

Both above phrases only show that people are increasingly connected and dependent on the digital medium. A dentist who has a website with several relevant articles is sure to come out ahead of other competitors.

Therefore, nowadays, any company that wants to grow in its area of ​​operation must have a digital presence. And that includes the dental office.

  1. MAKE Dental marketing actions CONSTANTLY

With everything ready to receive new patients, it is time to invest in dental marketing, which inevitably includes building a dental marketing plan.

These dental marketing actions aim to show the world that you exist! It's no use being technically good if you don't know that.

The dental marketing actions include several variants, such as:

- Study your target audience;
- Know the competition (to know what marketing actions they do that bring results);
- Creation of partnerships with other offices;
- Perform dental marketing actions with both offline and online media.

Source: Empreenda Dentista. Avaliable at:  https://empreendadentista.com.br/2018/05/22/atrair-mais-pacientes/. Access on: 08/05/2020.
Image: prostooleh, de envatoelements