Increasing Patients' Recommendations

Customer retention is important; however, it is worth clarifying that the retention of recommending customers is doubly important! Why? Because the contribution of customer recommendations to the practice’s success is tremendous; customers who come to the practice through recommendations usually come prepared and begin treatment immediately. They bargain less compared to those who come through advertising, and more than that, the practice does not invest a cent in getting them to come in. It is no coincidence that every practice’s dream is for its existing clients to recommend that their acquaintances receive care at the practice – and the more the better. The million-dollar question is, though, how to get the practice’s clients to recommend it to their acquaintances.

Before answering this question, it is worth noting an important issue: customers are afraid of making a recommendation. Why? Because they fear that if their acquaintance is disappointed (for example, they receive bad treatment) this may be “their fault” and therefore, a customer will make a recommendation to his or her acquaintances only when he or she is 100% sure that their acquaintances will be happy with the treatment at the practice. Therefore, in order for customers to recommend the practice, the initial condition is to provide a level of service and treatment that is as high as possible for existing customers so that they will be sure to recommend the practice to their friends.

However, it does not end there. The most important part is to encourage and nurture those who have already recommended the practice.

What actually happens in these cases? Not much. Most practices ask customers from whom they heard about the practice, etc., but this is where it ends. The practice does nothing about the recommender, and thus begins the problem. To illustrate this let us take, for example, a theoretical case from another field. Let’s say that six months ago you recommended that your acquaintance go to your car repair garage. From the moment, you made the recommendation you don’t know whether your acquaintance went to the garage, whether he or she was satisfied, and so on. Quite by chance, another acquaintance asks you, “Do you know of a good garage?” What level of motivation and confidence would you feel in recommending that garage if you’ve heard nothing from the first friend? Probably not a high one and it is doubtful that you would recommend the same garage again.

Now imagine a situation where the same day that your acquaintance goes to the garage the owner calls you and says, “Hello Mr. Smith, how are you? You sent Mr. Brown to us. We appreciate it very much. By the way, he had a simple problem and the matter was fixed within two hours. Of course we gave him a special discount, and of course you’ll get a discount the next time you visit.”

This phone call will likely encourage you to recommend them again and not just for the discount, but mainly for the feeling that you did something good by making the recommendation, both for your acquaintance and for the garage.

So what’s the problem in applying this to your dental practice starting tomorrow? Write down the names of the recommenders, call any recommender the same day their friends arrive at the practice or at the latest the following day, update them, and thank them for the recommendation. Write in their file that they made a recommendation and offer a certain discount on treatments, for example a dental hygiene treatment for 50% off. By the way, it doesn’t matter whether the customer they recommended followed up with treatment or not; you should call and thank them in any case. If possible, and especially if the client has agreed to an extensive treatment plan, it is better that the dentist call as this will show gratitude and urge customers to continue recommending the practice.

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