Four sources of new patients that will start building your practice today!

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2 Four sources of new patients that will start building your practice today! by Dr. Donna Galante Copyright 2010 Donna Galante All rights reserved. No part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is expressly prohibited. Page 2 of 15

3 This report will give you a glimpse into what we have done in our Orthodontic Practices to attract new patients, retain them, and get them to refer consistently to us. You will be able to use these ideas in your business to attract the clients, customers and patients you need to continue to thrive and grow your business. These ideas are not necessarily anything that you haven t heard before. However, the difference in our practices and what makes them work so well is that we DO ALL OF THEM. Massive action on a consistent basis is what has propelled our growth to a seven figure grossing practice in under 5 years. Setting up a marketing plan that is executed consistently with tracking and follow-up of its effectiveness will keep your marketing time and money well spent. It is imperative that you have a way to track your results. Make sure your ads, direct mail pieces; radio and TV ads have specific telephone numbers associated with those campaigns. This is a really simple way to make sure your dollars are well spent. It is much harder to track results with other types of marketing that you do. Train your staff, secretary or office administrator to be effective in gaining as much information as possible about how they found out about your business. Many times, with multiple marketing campaigns going on simultaneously, the patient will tell us they hear about us from a neighbor, saw an ad in a publication, and then met one of our staff at a Chamber of Commerce lunch and realized it was time to call our offices! That is why multiple marketing strategies are necessary and effective. Some of the strategies I will outline are relatively free or low cost and others will require some investment of capital. You may need to hire Page 3 of 15

4 additional staff to help you execute these strategies. We budget approximately 10% of our gross revenues for marketing. In the dental world, 10 % is considered extremely high. If you are looking to continue to grow your business, the number one thing you need to do is ramp up your marketing. The investment of money, time and resources will keep you ahead of the competition because the majority of your competitors are not willing to do what it takes to be super successful. In fact research shows that only 2% of business owners consistently take the time to educate themselves about marketing, business development and leadership. So congratulate yourself for buying my book and reading this special report. you are in the TOP 2%! Page 4 of 15

5 New Patient Source #1 - Dentist Referrals Our main sources of new patients come from referrals from general dentists. If you have a business that relies on referrals for new patients, clients or customers, here is what we do on a regular basis to make sure our referring dentists know we appreciate their referrals and that their patients are being well cared for. Find ways to adapt these ideas to your business. Lunch and Learn, Guest Speaker Seminars, Staff to Staff Lunches We offer to come in to the dentist office, bring lunch, a power point presentation on a specific dental/orthodontic related topic and even continuing education credits during their lunch break. The CE credits are very much appreciated because most dentists and their staff need credits each year to maintain their license. We do dinner events as well with a guest speaker, light dinner and more continuing education credits. Staff from our office will go out to lunch with another office. This builds rapport between the staff and increases referrals consistently. This strategy works very well because it builds relationships (face to face meetings), establishes trust and credibility through the presentations that we give, and rewards them with continuing education credits that they would normally have to pay for. Instead they get credits, lunch or dinner and network with fellow colleagues. Printed Newsletter to all our referring offices This is a monthly publication that has articles about marketing, motivation, leadership and general interest topics. Occasionally we will add an article related to Orthodontics, but it is mostly designed as a gift to Page 5 of 15

6 our doctors to help them with building their practices and teams. It works well because it puts our name on their desk each month and the staff sees it too. The articles are timely and helpful to their marketing and sales strategies. Treats and Sweets We will put together packages to our top offices every other month. These packages vary but always include food, a theme, a letter related to the theme, a current patient newsletter, referral forms and any other item that might be new to our office. We deliver these ourselves and are creative in how we do it. For example at Christmas, we had some children (including my own) dress up in very cute elf outfits and deliver the Christmas goodies to all the offices. It was a hit and we received several phone calls and thank you notes about the Elves. Valentines day, we had utilized children again (staff children volunteered and we donated to their sports team or school) and dressed up in suits and very dressy dresses to deliver the Valentine s Day goodies. Again, another hit and very memorable. Offices now look forward to our visits and comment on how well we take care of them. Can you think of ways to take care of your referral sources to your business? Dentist Birthday Cards and Gifts Everyone who is a patient in our practice receives a birthday card from us signed by the staff. For those doctors who are consistently referring, they receive a card and a gift hand delivered by the doctors or our marketing director. I usually will personally buy or order the gifts based on what I know about the dentist i.e. their hobbies, passions, sports they play, food they like. Page 6 of 15

7 Think about it, do you ever get a birthday gift from a business that you have referred to in the past? The goal of these strategies is connection, appreciation, and top of mind awareness, building credibility, confidence and trust and also having fun too! Page 7 of 15

8 New Patient Source #2 - Patient Referrals Our second source of new patients comes from other patients and parents referring them to our offices. Here are the strategies we use to promote referrals, thank the referring party and keep them referring more and more. Handwritten Thank you card from the doctor All patients/parents who refer another patient for a consult will get a handwritten thank you note from the doctors. We go one step further as well. If the patient ultimately gets started with treatment, they receive another thank you along with a gift card that has our logo imprinted on it. Quarterly referral contests We have various contests every quarter that reward patients for their referrals. We give away Water Piks, Sonicare Toothbrushes, Weekend getaways, Gas Cards, Family Portraits, Grocery Cards etc. We encourage patients to refer through our printed Guess Passes that are business card size, have our addresses, website, phone number and the words FREE EXAM. There is a blank space for the patient to put their name as the referral source. We then enter the card into our quarterly drawing. Patient Newsletter We send out a patient newsletter every other month. I would recommend minimally doing this at least once a quarter. It is done in house by my staff. It is very personalized and includes information about our patients, what is new in our practice, parenting articles, recipes, a staff member biography, congratulations to patients with brand new brace free smiles and information about upcoming events. Page 8 of 15

9 The newsletter is another way to stay in touch, sent to patients with gratitude for their trust and confidence and we continue to ask for their support in referring their family and friends to our offices. Weekly Notices These s are sent out weekly to keep in touch, let patients know about upcoming events, share some information about a new product or service we are offering and sometimes to provide related information about parenting, school, study habits, the best foods to eat, how to brush properly, the importance of a healthy diet, how clean teeth make your heart healthier and much more. The objective is to keep them short and sweet and stay in touch. Birthday Cards, Care Cards and More Cards All patients receive a BIRTHDAY CARD personally signed by all the staff members. We also do daily CARE CARDS. Every clinical assistant writes a note to a patient they saw that day. These notes are handwritten encouraging and congratulating them on their progress and commitment to their Orthodontic Treatment. The staff is also empowered to send a card when they hear about a death in the family, new baby, a graduation or other personal situations. These cards show that we care out you (the patient) and that you are special to us. Pending Letter to Patients Who Have Not Had Braces Yet We have a very efficient tracking system for patients who have come in for a consultation about braces but have not gotten started. Twice a year this list of patients is mailed a letter that uses a long copy sales letter approach. It has an offer, a limited time to respond and usually several bonuses and premiums for starting treatment before the deadline ends. Patients are Page 9 of 15

10 kept in this pending file until they start treatment or tell us to stop sending the letters. These campaigns are very effective for our practice and will typically bring in over 100K in patient revenue per year. Special Events We hold several special events for our patients during the course of the year. Most of these are done during the day when we are seeing patients. For example we have a Mad Science Day, a Root Beer Float Day and Hawaii Day to name a few. Patients are given special snacks, gifts and prizes. We encourage them to bring a friend too and they get to have their name entered into our raffle for even more special gifts. These events build a sense of community, partnership and fun for the patients and they create a buzz about our practices. Page 10 of 15

11 New Patient Source #3 - Website We have a site that is consistently ranked one or two on the organic section of Google. Patients can give us their and we will send them the information they request. The website is full of information about braces, our offices, Invisalign, and all topics related to Orthodontics. We have before and after photos of patents we treated and testimonials from our patients and their parents. We also have a BLOG that we update with photos, video and current events about what is happening at Cater Galante Orthodontics. We have Facebook and MySpace accounts set up and have many new friends and fans joining everyday. Two staff members are in charge of making sure that s are answered, Facebook and MySpace requests fulfilled and they post videos on Facebook and YouTube. Having a website is a must for every business along with Social Media sites. Depending on the demographics of your customers, clients and patients, your website and associated internet driven media, could actually be the number one source of new clients, customers and patients. It is important to make sure you have your site properly done, the search engine optimization (SEO) is done properly and that you have a way to capture s from the people who visit your site. Those s can then be put into a database for future s about our offices and what we are doing. Page 11 of 15

12 New Patient Source #4 - Networking The fourth source of referrals is Community Events, Expos, Chamber of Commerce Lunches and Breakfasts, Networking and Door to Door visiting local businesses. Most businesses do not spend the time utilizing their Chamber of Commerce memberships fully. The importance of face-to-face contact via Chamber Luncheons, Community Expos or Networking Events cannot be underestimated. The main objective from these types of events is to get contact information so you can plug them into your campaign and send them your printed newsletter each month. My Marketing Director at least one time a month will spend a day or two visiting local businesses, bringing them information about our office and our Orthodontic Services along with a gift and a coupon with an offer of xxxx amount of dollars towards braces or Invisalign. We also try to get a verbal agreement from some of the business owners who have a clientele similar to our demographic base to place brochures, coupons and business cards at their place of business. We offer to reciprocate and have their brochures and business cards available at our offices. This is very inexpensive marketing, but pays big dividends for both parties involved. This special report has given several of our most successful strategies. As I stated earlier in the report, we do ALL THESE STRATEGIES together and consistently. Page 12 of 15

13 I hope you can think of ways to utilize these strategies in your marketing. As a business owner, no matter whether you sell cars, food or braces, you need to remember that you are in the business of marketing. Without new customers, clients and patients, you would not have a growing and thriving business. Therefore your number one job as a business owner is to be the CHIEF of marketing. You have the vision, strategies, goals and timelines in place and then direct your staff to handle the details. Remember to measure and track your results. I recommend giving any strategy a full 6 MONTHS before you decide the success or failure of the campaign. Anything under 6 months will not give you a realistic result and you will be tempted to drop what you are doing just as success is around the corner. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to me at drgalante@gmail.com or at www. drdonnagalante.com Dr. Donna Galante Page 13 of 15

14 About the author: Dr. Donna Galante grew up in Philadelphia, the oldest of four siblings from an Italian American family. She decided in college to go to dental school and attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, where she graduated in At graduation, she received the Henry Goldman Award for Excellence in Clinical Dentistry. She then was accepted into the graduate program of Orthodontics at the University of Pennsylvania for a two-year Specialty Certification in Orthodontics. She graduated in 1986 and was hired as a part-time clinical instructor in the Department of Orthodontics at the University of Pennsylvania. While teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, she was twice voted Instructor of the Year by the orthodontic residents. In 1992 she became a diplomate of the American Board of Orthodontics, which is achieved by less than 25 percent of all orthodontists in the United States. In 1993, Donna sold her practice and moved to California to set up practice with her husband, Dr. Paul Cater. From 1993 until 2001, they owned an orthodontic practice in Salinas, California. In 1997, they moved to the Sacramento area and began to open several offices over the next few years. She and her husband were recently chosen as America's Premier Experts in Orthodontics and Invisalign. Together, she and her husband have been interviewed by USA Today. Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal for their expertise in growing their Orthodontic practice to one of the top 1% in revenue in the United States. Page 14 of 15

15 Recently, FOX News 40 in Sacramento did a morning segment about their cutting edge office and their contemporary approach to Orthodontics. She recently became a best-selling author in July 2009 with a book she coauthored called Big Ideas for Your Business. Donna found her passion and talent was helping other women dentists to realize success while achieving a balance in life. She is highly regarded as a coach, advisor, author and speaker. The Galante Approach for Successful Women in Dentistry has become a model for people who want to have a practical, hands-on approach for achieving professional success as well as having time for themselves, family and friends. Besides her professional activities, Donna has a fulfilling family life with her husband and two children. A key part of each week includes hanging out with them at home, on the gold course, or at sporting events. The family enjoys world travel and have been to Peru, Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Canada, and the British and American Virgin Islands together. Donna is an avid reader and enjoys running, swimming, cooking, theater arts, and entertaining. She achieved her longtime goal of completing a marathon before her 50th birthday For more information or if you have any questions about your practice, e- mail Donna at: drgalante@gmail.com Learn more about the creating and exceptional practice and life at: Page 15 of 15