By Daniel A. Bobrow, MBA (University of Chicago) & MBA (K.U.L. Belgium)
Below we present the first of three Issues concerned with Communicating With Patients of Record.
Synopsis
Effective patient communication requires a simple-to-use content management system and automated means for delivering messages. Equally important are the chosen messages and interval of the communications. The final success component is effective response tracking and monitoring, without which one cannot determine the relative effectiveness of various communication components and strategies. The benefit is a more loyal and valuable patient base, and a more valuable patient means a higher ROI from strategies that generate new patients.
By The Numbers
If you’re investing, say, $1,000 in a new patient acquisition strategy, and you’re averaging 5 new patients for every $1,000 invested, your cost per patient is $200. Now, if the average annual value of a patient to your practice (AAVP) is $1500, your return on investment (ROI) is easily calculated to be 650% (($7500-$1000)/$1000). Not bad. But what if you could increase AAVP to, say $3,000? That’s right. Your dentistry marketing ROI more than doubles to 1400% (($15000-$1000)/$1000). For the same investment in external marketing, you just shot your ROI into the stratosphere. Clearly, this won’t happen by itself or overnight. But you may be pleasantly surprised to learn it’s not nearly as challenging as you might imagine. The reason is that most dental practices are nowhere near maximizing their average patient value.
Spread The Word
One of the simplest, most cost-effective ways to increase average dental patient value is by doing a better job of communicating (and considering adding to) the wonderful benefits your practice already offers its patients. There is a lot about you and your practice that your patients may forget, or not even know, about.
Make The Connection
The first step in cost-effectively communicating with your patients of record is to implement a policy of collecting valid email addresses from your patients. There are a number of tactics to help with this. For new patients, it’s simply a matter of incorporating the request into your patient enrollment form (or, preferably, having one of your team do it for your patient while they are in the office. Online appointment scheduling services automatically collect email addresses. If you do not have an email address for a current patient, your Team Member should be proficient at explaining to the patient how the office will (and will not) use their email address, how it simplifies communications between practice and patient, and how it is ecologically responsible (no need for paper). Of course, if the patient prefers that he/she not receive communications via email, you want to respect and honor their preference.
To collect email addresses of your current patients as they present for treatment or hygiene, the Team should take a few moments to update their contact and health information, and simply request their “preferred email.” If the practice chooses to adopt paperless forms and online appointment requests, a mailing may be sent to, or a telephone call placed with, the patient advising them of these valuable new services that eliminate the need for paper forms and which simplify the appointment scheduling process for the patient.
Keep In Touch
Now that you’re well on your way to capturing patient email information, it’s time to decide what you’d like to share with your patients. Most email services provide the means to perform what are called Campaigns and Broadcasts. A Campaign is a schedule of predetermined communications that are delivered according to a schedule (that can be changed ‘on the fly’) starting from the date the patient is entered into the system. For instance, if I join your practice today, you might arrange for me to immediately receive an online patient satisfaction survey. Three weeks later, you might introduce me to laser-assisted dentistry. One month after that, you could let me know more about mini dental implants. And so on. Broadcast communications are sent to everyone (or a selected sub-grouping) on your contact list at the same time. For instance, you can send ‘Spring Cleaning,’ Back To School, Insurance “Use it or lose it”, Dental Health Month, or other date-dependent messages. Once the system is in place, you are in control!
Track It
The final success component involves measuring response to your Program in general, and specific communications in particular. The response may be further broken down into Open Rate, Click Through, and Conversion. Open Rate is the number and percent of total recipients who actually opened your email. Click Through refers to the number and percent of total recipients who clicked on one or more links embedded in your message. To ensure delivery past spam filters and to keep messages short, it is a good idea to ask recipients to click on a link to learn more, redeem an offer, etc. You should also use a unique telephone tracking number on your email communications so you are able to determine how many, and what type, of calls are generated as a result of your email campaign. Conversion is the number and percent of total recipients who actually took the requested action e.g. scheduled an end-of-year appointment to maximize benefits, came in for their ‘spring cleaning,’ scheduled their Back to School appointment, etc. (Click through are often considered to be conversions because it represents some form of action taken by the patient. In our view, this is merely an intermediate step toward the ultimate objective, the former being a ‘suspect’, the latter a ‘prospect’).
Our next Issue will be the second of three concerned with Communicating With Dental Patients of Record.
Sincerely,
AIM DENTAL MARKETING
Daniel A. ‘Danny’ Bobrow,
President