Patient Retention Strategies for Growing Your Dental Practice

You're putting in so much effort to attract new patients. Are you also exerting time and attention on your existing patients?

Growing your dental practice doesn’t only revolve around winning new patients. Retaining patients is as vital to making your dental office thrive as attracting new ones.

Getting new patients won’t make sense if you keep losing your old ones. When patients leave, you also miss valuable growth opportunities. Talk to a dental marketing expert for a retention strategy planning session.

Why is Patient Retention Essential?

To answer this, let’s start with the numbers:

• Increasing the patient retention rate by 5% can boost your profits by 25% to 95%.
• 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers.
• Acquisition is 5 to 25 times more expensive than retention.

Retaining patients is healthy for your brand image. Consumers these days would check client reviews before deciding to come for a visit.

Positive word of mouth is a driving force for new sign-ups. It’s a testament to the quality of care you’re providing, straight from your recipients. It’s honest, transparent, and powerful.

Satisfied patients are likely to become active promoters of your dental practice. You earn loyal advocates without spending. And selling services is much more convincing when done by actual clients than by the service providers themselves.

While your goal is to provide healing, some patients will need routine care. In dental practices, this could mean procedures such as dental hygiene cleanings and oral examinations. Patients that rebook regularly are worth just as much, and even more, than new patients. Keeping them happy should be your team’s priority.

Fostering long-term relationships with loyal patients can have a domino effect. If the head of the family is happy with your dental care services, chances are they’ll bring their family members, friends, and colleagues to your practice too.

Keep Patients Coming Back with These Retention Strategies

Successful patient retention management increases your dental office's ROI. But it’s important to recognize that it requires teamwork.

Understand how losing existing patients can affect your business and how much loyal patients mean to your survival. It will help you stay focused on the goal of delighting patients.

Here are strategies to increase patient retention in your dental practice.

• Know your patients. It feels good that patients feel secure when sharing personal stories. When clients talk about important milestones, be it a birthday celebration or a first day in school, stay in the present and listen with enthusiasm. During their next visit, ask them about occasions they shared. It would mean a lot to them that you remember and are paying attention.
• Make bookings quick and easy. Digitize your scheduling system so patients can request appointments online. Some patients find it hard to squeeze in a call during practice hours. Making it easy for them to schedule visits will help your practice attract more repeat patients.
• Increase operational efficiency. Right after an appointment, check with your client to see when they would like to come back for their follow-up check. Send reminders whether they’ve already decided on a date or are still thinking about it. Make messaging available in different ways: via email, social media, phone calls, or text messages.
• Keep the atmosphere safe and supportive. You’ll want to keep this in mind, especially for anxious patients. Encourage them to share their concerns and give them your undivided attention. Reassure them that the information they share is safe with you, and communicate with empathy. Negative interactions could compromise patient trust and reduce the chances of them returning.
• Train staff. How your team makes patients feel contributes to the latter’s overall experience. Even the way phone calls are handled can make a difference in your retention rates. Make each patient feel like a VIP. Invest in customer service training for everyone on the team, not just the front office staff. Get everyone involved and make people accountable. This will make goals easier to track and meet.
• Request feedback. Ask for feedback from your patients and share little tokens with those who take the time to do so. You won’t be able to stop the negative comments. But you can handle them professionally so they won’t affect your retention rate and instead draw in more patients. Handle the different types of dental practice reviews with these pointers in mind.
• Conduct surveys. Find out why patients leave and what services are most valuable to them. Identifying areas where you can improve will help you plan and implement solid strategies. See which factors are out of your hands and those you can control, and focus on them. You cannot stop a family from moving to another location and working with a new dentist. But you can make their exit a pleasant experience so they’ll continue to speak highly of your practice even after they go.
• Stay in touch. Be the first to reach out. Let patients know you’re thinking of them. Send a message to ask how they're doing after a procedure. Notify them of ways they can reach you should they have urgent concerns. Your communication doesn’t always have to be about upcoming procedures or new products and services. You can also share educational content.

Make patients feel special with simple gestures. Send them a birthday message, offer discounts, or make their bookings a priority during urgent situations. Check out this blog for more tips on showing patient appreciation.

Avoid making patients wait or feel like they’re not a priority. Discuss ways you can accommodate patients who came in early for their appointment and not have them stay outside before you’re ready.

Creating Positive Experiences for Dental Patients is an Ongoing Process

Keeping patients takes a lot more than acquiring professional skills. Make each interaction with patients work to your advantage.

That doesn’t mean selling at every chance you get. Instead, it's about delivering oral health services from a patient’s point of view and making each visit as personal as possible.

Look at patient retention management as an ongoing process—one that is likely to cement your reputation as a trusted dental care provider, boost office revenue, and keep you ahead of your competitors.

For professional help with staff training, customer service training, process automation, or social media marketing, connect with us at Dental Growth Strategies. Request your one-on-one free consultation on patient retention today.