Dental practices are businesses, and they require careful attention in order to grow, but these common reasons why dental practices fail can be avoided! Remembering a few key themes can help you implement the right plans and help your practice grow while still enjoying patient care.
Focusing on discounts, not value propositions
It’s easy to fall for the allure of a discounted cleaning with no long-term solution. If you don’t create a stellar patient experience when a patient visits for a discounted service, they will head to another practice next cleaning.
Instead, focus on creating an experience that will keep them coming back long after that first deal. Share the value that they will get from visiting your office. It could be the welcome environment, the care for nervous patients, or specialty services. Whichever you choose to focus on, remember to emphasize it on your website, social media, and while working with patients. (It’s not always explicitly describing the benefits. This type of management is focused on actions over words.)
Ignoring New Marketing Tactics
Marketing is an ever-changing industry, and it can be difficult to adapt. If you have your own practice, though, you need to maintain up-to-date marketing practices so you can keep finding new patients on social media. This includes interacting with followers on Instagram, using YouTube to upload educational videos, and trying out new platforms like Vero.
There’s a great deal of experimenting when using social media, and the practices that continue to evolve are those that will continue to grow.
Focusing on the wrong tasks
As a dentist, your skills lie in patient care. But in the early days of your dental practice, you will need to handle many different tasks. Then, once you begin to grow, it’s time to delegate. Hire a bookkeeper to help you track expenses, an office manager to oversee staff and operations, and appoint a lead hygienist to help you lead the treatment team.
When you delegate well, you can focus on where your skills lie and how you can best help patients while also growing your practice.
Running a dental practice while also treating patients can be a lot to manage, but focusing on growth in the midst of this is essential. When dental practices fail to grow, it’s often because they aren’t innovating. When you spend time each week on improving your operations and value propositions, you can remain confident in your ability to withstand industry changes and continue helping patients.