Patient referrals have always been the best source of new patients and they probably always will be. Therefore it’s important to do everything possible to encourage patients to refer their friends and family. Amazingly you can find that there may be many patients who “didn’t think you were taking new patients” or it just never occurred to them to mention the positive experiences they have had with your office to others.

Here are some fundamental steps to help get started with a successful referral program for your practice:

1. Have 1000 referral cards printed for your business, done in “two color”, with some sort of a discount or free service offered on them for the new patient. (Complimentary exam with x-rays is a good offer for new patients.)
2. Once the cards are printed, call a staff meeting to go over the details of how the referral program will be run in the office.
3. Make a list of all the patients you know that have commented about how pleased they were with the results of their dental treatment.
4. On each of those patients’ charts attach one of the referral cards so as to remember to give it to them when they arrive for their next appointment.
5. In the progress of each work day when a patient comments on how pleased they are with their treatment, thank them for their compliment and say something like: “We enjoy having special patients like yourself and in fact we would like to reach many more people like you who may not have a dentist and are in need of the type of care we provide here. Do you know of anyone who may be in need of a dentist?”
6. Find out from the patient (if anyone) who he or she may know on this then inform the patient that there are many people that do not see a dentist on a regular basis, and in fact the ADA estimates abouot 50% of the population do not see a dentist on a regular basis, which results in many people having serious problems that can cost a lot of money in the long run not to mention cause tooth loss and gum disease.
7. Hand the patient the referral card (make sure that they are initialed by the person giving it out) and mention the discount or free service on the card and mention also that there is no obligation for any further treatment after the first visit, so the new patient really would not have anything to lose. However, the patient needs to make an appointment within two weeks after receiving the card and the card should be brought in to the office to receive the discount or free service.
8. If the referring patient requests more cards, make sure that he or she receives them to give out.
9. On the patient’s chart write down how many referral cards were given with a note on who that person plans to give the cards to so that the information can be tracked.
10. At any time that a new patient arrives with the referral card in hand the staff member who initialed the card should be given a $20.00 bonus.
11. Do something special for the patient who gave the card to the new patient, such as sending flowers for women, a personalized coffee mug for men, complimentary movie tickets, etc.

In order to run a successful referral marketing program for a dental (or other health care) practice, there are other steps and details involved but these tips should help along the way for an expanding practice.

Dental Marketing Tips by Tonya Brisnehan