No dentists are going to be okay seeing their patients leave. Once they realized that they are losing patients, they should immediately think of a dental patient marketing strategy that will re-attract patients to their practice. Losing patients to another practice could be the lowest point of your professional life. However, it’s far too normal for dentists and doctors to see their patients seeking treatment from someone else’s clinic.
How can you prevent this? The fortunate thing is that there are lots of ways to prevent your patients from going to another dentist. Here are some of the things you must do:
Ask for Feedback
When patients call your clinic to ask for their medical records, this is a good indication that they have lost trust in you and now want someone else to look into their dental problems. While you cannot hold back their medical records, you can ask them why they want to leave your practice. Maybe a receptionist was rude to them or maybe they were annoyed by the long wait in your appointment calendar. Whatever the reasons are, you can use this feedback to improve your services.
If they don’t want to say why they want to leave your practice, you can send them a survey via snail mail or email. There are various programs on the internet that will allow you to make a professional-looking survey. By asking the right questions, their answers will give you an idea of why they don’t want to go to your clinic anymore.
Make the Necessary Changes
Once you know the reason why your patients are leaving, you can make the appropriate changes to your practice. If they are finding it hard to schedule an appointment with you, perhaps you should integrate an online appointment system on your website. if they are annoyed with the lack of parking space, you can rent a space near your clinic or offer a valet service. While there is no way you can address all issues at once, you can prioritize the important projects that will convince your patients to stay.
Notify Patients of Changes
If you made changes in your practice based on the feedback from your customers, make sure they know about it. Send them an email to notify them about such changes. To further convince them to revisit your clinic, offer a discount coupon or a free consultation.
These dental patient marketing strategies should help convince your customers to stay and hopefully, persuade lost ones to try your services again.