How to Grow Your Dental Practice

Modern dentistry has changed. With more competition than ever, dental professionals must maximize the potential of their team and have a marketing plan to drive growth. To grow a dental practice requires dental professionals to examine every facet of their businesses.

Wondering how to start a dental practice, or grow your existing one? Cloud 9 Software can optimize your practice management as the industry’s leading orthodontic and pediatric dentistry solution. Regardless of your dental specialty, this guide will focus on improving efficiency, minimizing costs, and bolstering the ROI of your dental marketing solutions.

How to Make a Dental Office More Efficient

Efficiency is the key to cost savings and providing a great patient experience. Double-booked appointment slots, missing appointment slots, and non-paying patients are just some of the ways an otherwise successful practice can hemorrhage money.

For fast specialty dental practice growth, change begins at home.

Estimate Procedure Times Accurately

A patient who requires a 45-minute procedure booked into a 15-minute slot means you are likely to have lots of unhappy patients and large gaps in your day.

Estimating procedure times accurately is a key dental strategy for running an efficient practice. Streamline your business by figuring out procedure times, including potential waiting times.

Software Solutions to Streamline Scheduling

Are you wondering, “What’s the best software solution to grow my dental practice?” It all starts with a practice management system, like Cloud 9 Software.

Manual scheduling procedures are the most inefficient way of scheduling your day and collaborating between hygienists, receptionists, and assistants.

Transform your business with software solutions to streamline scheduling. Cloud 9 Software provides an easy-to-use dashboard to house vital patient details and to map out the days ahead in the most efficient manner possible.

Automate Your Confirmations and Reminders

SMS reminders, email reminders, and confirmations are an important part of ensuring patients get the oral healthcare they need. They are also a great way to tap into your existing patients to ensure they continue to attend appointments.

Every missed appointment means revenue lost from that patient and any potential patients who could have filled that slot.

Sending out automated messages for confirmations and reminders is one of the best ways for how to make a dental office more efficient.

Schedule Next Appointments at Check Out

Rather than relying on trying to get in touch with patients to schedule appointments, which costs time, schedule next appointments during the checkout process.

Instructing your administrative staff in this best practice is the easiest, no-cost way of securing additional appointments and saving time.

Reduce Patient Wait Times

Waiting times are a fact of life, but reducing them can enhance the patient experience and improve the efficiency of your practice.

One of the most optimal dental practice strategies is gathering as much information about the patient as possible before attending an appointment. Solutions like Cloud 9 allow you to maintain a database of patient data that can be accessed at the click of a button.

Other dental practice growth options include:

• Separating front desk duties
• Implementing a no-show policy
• Informing patients ahead of time about waiting times

Train Front Staff in Triage

Maximize the potential of your team by training front staff in triage. This can help to take the strain off the professional dental team.

Train them in asking the right questions about the dental issues your patients are experiencing. Let them assess how serious the matter is and whether the situation requires immediate attention.

Not only does it help patients, but it also improves scheduling procedures by prioritizing the patients who need treatment the most.

Assess Patient Satisfaction

Patient satisfaction is often linked with the efficiency of a practice. Inefficiencies on the backend of your business translate to the frontend. For example, poor scheduling practices may mean longer waiting times.
Empower patients and show you care about their views by surveying how satisfied they are.

Ask your patients what they think of your practice directly. Alternatively, send out an email survey and allow them to answer anonymously.

Not only does this give you vital feedback about how you can improve efficiency within your practice, but it also demonstrates to patients that you care about what they have to say.

Dental Marketing Solutions to Grow Your Dental Practice

Efficiency and effectiveness go hand-in-hand, but while word of mouth marketing is still the best way to attract new patients, you need to be proactive.

No longer can dental practice growth rely solely on building it and hoping clients will come. An online dental strategy is a blueprint for creating a successful community dental office.

Encourage Patients to Leave Online Reviews

Regardless of how nice your website is, people trust what other people say. Online reviews are the most effective way of convincing new patients to schedule an appointment with your practice.

Figuring out how to start a dental practice, or grow the one you have is difficult, but a simple practice like asking your patients to leave you an online review can work wonders for generating future business.

You may even decide to offer discounts for patients who leave an online review.

Create a Brand

Stand out among a sea of other dentists by creating a brand. Even within the world of dentistry, branding is essential.

Consider your patient profile and brand accordingly. Social media is one way to showcase your brand, as are the basics, such as your logo and the tone you adopt in your marketing copy.

Naturally, the stance you adopt depends largely on the area in which you specialize. For example, a cosmetic dentist will brand themselves differently from a pediatric dentist.

Use Social Media Effectively

Social media is the simplest, free way of marketing your dental practice. Your social media dental strategy can take many forms. Some ideas for using social media intelligently include:

• Show Your Staff – Shoot pictures of your staff in candid environments. It could be the staff night out or simply enjoying a team lunch. Don’t be timid.
• Start a Social Media Campaign – Start your own campaign, such as encouraging flossing or brushing your teeth twice per day.
• Engage with Patients – Encourage your patients to post their own pictures. Make sure you get their permission if taking and uploading pictures from patients.

Above all, show the human side of your dental practice. Many people have a lot of misconceptions about dentists. Easing patient nerves in advance could help you to attract more patients.

Invest in Local SEO

Most people begin their search for a local dentist with the search query “Dentist in [Location].” Unless you’re in the top few search results, you may as well not exist. Creating a website and hoping you’ll rank is not enough.

Local SEO is the simplest way to reach potential patients because Google actively prioritizes local search results.

Begin by claiming your Google My Business profile. Fill out as much information as possible about your practice, such as your address and your opening hours.

Then create a content marketing strategy. Post some blogs using highly targeted local keywords. Keep your site constantly updated and build a streamlined online platform.

Bonus points if you can allow patients to schedule their appointments online without calling. Upgrading your user experience is the easiest way to rank.

On a side note, don’t expect instant results. Investing in SEO is a long-term process, and it takes time to climb the rankings.

Lead Nurturing

Never allow someone who reached out to you to be ignored. Adopt a lead-nurturing campaign. Staying in touch with new, existing, and potential patients will create more business for you.

For how to grow a dental practice, setting up a newsletter is a great starting point for nurturing leads. Ask patients if they want to be added to your newsletter list and provide valuable content to your subscribers.

It could include tips on how to maintain a high level of oral health, or you may choose to offer exclusive discounts to subscribers on oral health supplies, like toothbrushes or floss.

Here are some other tips for nurturing your leads:

• Send automated campaigns.
• Analyze lead behavior and tailor your outreach accordingly.
• Offer free resources to hook leads.
• Create a defined sales funnel to prioritize hot leads.
• Reach out to them. Don’t wait for leads to contact you.

Lead-nurturing is a specialized area, and you may choose to hire a professional marketing team who can handle this part of your dental marketing strategy for you.

Professional dental marketing solutions have the potential to transform your business.

Upgrade Your Website

Is your website pulling its weight?

Patients are increasingly favoring digital communication solutions. They are less likely to pick up the phone than before. You need a website that fulfills the needs of patients.

One of the most effective strategies for how to grow your dental practice is to look at your website as a patient. Alternatively, encourage a friend or family member to review your online platform and give you feedback.

When it comes to marketing, your website plays a vital role in everything from where you rank on Google to whether patients will want to give your practice a chance.

Some of the major considerations in creating a successful website include:

• Branding Quality – Does your branding communicate the values of your practice? Have you maintained consistency when telling your brand’s story?
• Sales Copy – Marketers are not the only people who need to focus on their sales copy. Ensure that your sales copy is designed to sell. Does your copy lend itself to encouraging patients to schedule an appointment?
• The User Experience – Walkthrough the user experience from landing on your site to scheduling an appointment. It should be simple to use your website, and the navigation should be obvious.
• Great Content – Is there a reason to stay on your website? Nobody wants to read lots of self-promotional content. They want to gain value from remaining on your website.
• Standout – Visit your competitors’ websites and compare them to yours. It can be difficult to stand out as a dentist, but it’s possible. Question whether patients are likely to remember you over your competitors.

The best part of marketing from your website is that you don’t need to invest thousands of dollars on a development team. These days, someone with basic web knowledge is capable of creating a simple website that gets results.

It’s not about being flashy; it’s about being effective.

Go All-In on Video Marketing

Video marketing is the type of content that garners the most engagement. This is because it’s the fastest way to consume a message and the most convenient method of accessing content on a mobile device.

For a traditional industry like dentistry, one of the dental marketing solutions that get the most proven results is video marketing.

You don’t need any professional equipment to launch a video marketing drive. A simple camera and speaking directly to it is all you need to market yourself on YouTube and other social media platforms.

Answer the questions that patients ask the most. Give tips for preserving oral health. Put your potential patients at ease by being a visible presence.

Your most effective brand weapon is yourself.

Conclusion

Expanding your dental practice and increasing your bottom line is not something that will happen overnight. How to grow your dental practice requires a proactive, consistent approach to improving efficiency and marketing your practice.

Cloud 9 Software is a dedicated specialty dental practice management software solution for orthodontists and pediatric dentists with the primary goal of improving efficiency and maximizing the potential of your team.

For the best in dedicated specialty dental practice solutions, choose Cloud 9. To find out more about how we can transform your practice, request your free demo now.