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Naomi Cooper

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3 Communication Tips to Build Patient Relationships

by Naomi Cooper October 3, 2012

3 Communication Tips to Build Patient Relationships“Of course I floss everyday”…”I thought I called you to cancel my appointment”…”No, I don’t smoke”.

Sound familiar? These are just a few of the comments that my clients report hearing on a regular basis from their patients. I recently came across this great blog from Dental Products Report on the “13 lies your patients are telling you”. It is an entertaining read only because there is so much truth at the heart of the matter.

Patients want to present themselves to you in the best light possible; however it is quite another thing when they get in your chair and you see what is really going on. The blog got me thinking about patient communication, and how you can foster a trusting relationship with your patients to help minimize these little white lie situations. Here are a few ideas:

  • Make small talk. You might not think you have that much in common with all of your patients, but certainly you have something in common with each of them. Find that mutual interest.
  • As you are making small talk, whatever they say, write it down in the file so you have something to talk about on their next visit. It will start to seem like you always remember little things about your patients, and they’ll feel like you really care as a result. That feeling is the first step in building a trusting relationship.
  • While you are making the effort to build a relationship with your patients, be sure to keep them informed and updated on your office policies. This can be done verbally, at the front desk, as well as included in patient newsletters, emails, e-newsletters and through your practice website. When the payment policies, or the cancellation policies, are well known, it is harder for the patient to be anything less than honest with you.

What are some of the common or memorable excuses you’ve heard from your patients? Do you have any best practice tips on handling those little white lies? Please start a conversation below!

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The Insurance-Free Dental Practice

by Naomi Cooper September 19, 2012

The Insurance-Free Dental PracticeWhile consulting with dentists across the country, one obstacle to practice growth I hear consistently is how to overcome patients’ objections to treatment. Either the patient’s insurance doesn’t cover the procedure, or the patient doesn’t have insurance at all and doesn’t want to pay out of pocket…regardless of the patients’ reasons, it can be frustrating as a health care provider to not be able to administer the top-notch care you know would be in your patients’ best interests because of financial barriers.

My colleague Dr. Dan Marut, DMD encountered the same issues while operating his dental practice. He founded Quality Dental Plan to help fellow doctors overcome these financial obstacles in their own practices. Check out our article The Insurance Free Dental Practice: Is it Fantasy or Reality to learn more about Quality Dental Plan, and how it might help reduce the insurance and financial hassles of the practice, leaving you the freedom to focus on what you do best – providing quality care for your patients.

Have you heard of Quality Dental Plan? Do you believe an insurance-free dental practice would benefit you? Please share your comments below.

Blog

Adding Social Media to Your Must-Do List

by Naomi Cooper September 12, 2012

Adding Social Media to Your Must-Do ListFriending – Tweeting – YouTubing…do you know what these terms mean? Do you think 5 years ago these terms had any relevancy to you? They are, of course, referencing the social media sites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Social media is a hot topic in dental marketing these days, and it seems like everyone wants to “be on social media”.

However, it is not enough to simply have a presence. Engagement is the name of the game if you want social media to work for your dental practice. No longer is it good enough to just have a website. In fact, it is bad practice to have a Facebook page for your business if you never update it or engage. Times have changed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get on board.

Here are a few key ideas to keep in mind:

Social media is not an event – it’s not something you should do once in awhile. To really utilize social media effectively, it should be integrated into your marketing plan. Just as you have your front desk ask every new patient how they heard about your practice, you should also have a dedicated team member updating and interacting online via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites.

As with anything, developing a strong following on social media takes time and effort. We like to tell our clients social media is not a sprint – it’s a marathon. Building a Facebook page alone will not generate results. Encouraging your patients to Like your page, consistently updating your page regularly with informative and relevant status updates, and interacting with patients and colleagues online – these are the tricks of the trade that will boost your following and turn social media into a relatively easy – and fun! – marketing effort for your practice.

Here’s a great article from My Social Practice offering some questions to ask yourself as you dive into this social media world.

There are countless ways to get involved in social media. As long as you view it as another important piece of your marketing plan, and dedicate time and effort toward engaging, social media can be a fun and rewarding way to increase the awareness of your practice throughout your community.

Does your practice utilize social media? How has it worked for you? Please share your thoughts and comments with us!

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What NOT To Do in Facebook Marketing

by Naomi Cooper September 4, 2012

What NOT To Do in Facebook MarketingIt seems like everywhere you look, there are articles, research and opinions on the best practices for Facebook page marketing. However, it’s just as important to know what mistakes to avoid. Here’s our list of what NOT to do when marketing your business on Facebook.

1. Not having a Facebook page for your business

This should be a no-brainer. Millions of people log on to Facebook every day…your customers included! Creating a Facebook page for your business will help you stay connected with customers, as well as provide opportunities for potential customers to get to know your business.

2. Having an incomplete Facebook profile

Once you’ve created a business page, be sure to include important contact information such as address, phone number, website, hours of operation in the About section. Also writing a short introduction of your business and including any important “milestones” in your history are both useful ways to build your profile.

3. Choosing an ineffective cover photo

The cover photo was introduced earlier this year when Facebook converted to Timeline. The cover photo is the large image displayed across the page. It needs to be 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall in order to display correctly. The cover photo can be any unique image you believe best conveys your business – a storefront photo, a picture of your staff or popular products. Likewise, your profile photo is the smaller photo but it’s very important to use the “right” image in your profile since this is the image that will appear any time you interact throughout Facebook – commenting, liking, sharing, etc. The company logo or a professional photo of the solo-practitioner are great ideas for profile photos.

4. Using too much text

According to Facebook statistics, updates with 100-250 characters (or 1-2 lines of text) get 60% more likes than longer ones, so keep your posts short, sweet and to the point.

5. Leaving the link URL in the text field

Along the lines of keeping your updates short and sweet, if you are linking to another site (your latest blog post, for instance), first enter your link URL to the outside site into the status update text box. Once the title and thumbnail appear, delete the actual URL from the text box. Your post will look streamlined and easier to read.

6. Posting irrelevant content

Keep in mind that with a Facebook business page (as opposed to a personal page), it’s all about your brand. Keep your postings consistent with your business brand and only post useful and interesting content geared toward the interests of your customers.

7. Posting too often

Quality over quantity – a good rule of thumb to use when posting on Facebook. A few meaningful posts a week will generate more positive engagement with customers than posting multiple times a day, every single day.

8. Focusing too much on getting more Likes

Yes it is important to generate Likes for your Facebook page. However it is also important to increase the number of shares and comments on your posts. Comments and shares indicate your page is reaching the right audience, and is eliciting positive engagement. Keep building your likes, but don’t forget to focus on engagement.

9. Becoming predictable

Luckily Facebook isn’t just about status updates anymore. Take advantage of the various types of posts available: Photos, Videos, Contests, and Polls. Keep your fans coming back for more by varying your content.

10. Ignoring Insights

For pages with more than 30 likes, Facebook offers “Insights” – a tool for page admins to evaluate the effectiveness and reach of their posts. Information such as what posts generate the most activity, and the number of friends (and friends of friends) who see each post can help to determine what types of posts work best for your business.

These are just a few points to keep in mind when building and maintaining your Facebook page. Facebook is a medium with an unmatched ability to reach more people than ever before. Does your business use social media? What have you discovered works best on your page and for your audience? Please share your experiences below.

Blog

Postcard Mailings: What Success Means in Direct Mail

by Naomi Cooper August 30, 2012

Postcard Mailings: What Success Means in Direct MailIf you are a subscriber of our blog, you will know that we often talk about social media marketing. Social media is one of the biggest buzzwords to hit the marketing world in decades. However, it does not mean that traditional methods are no longer effective, or that they should be forgone. In fact, a strategic marketing plan should include both elements of traditional and new marketing.

Direct mail, also called postcard mailing, is one of those traditional tactics that can still be effective, when done correctly. However, we have many clients who say they’ve sent mailings out before but haven’t felt the effort was successful enough to integrate into their ongoing marketing plans. When we question them further as to what their definition of success is, what their expectations are, it becomes clear that they are focused on the wrong elements of the direct mail, leading them to believe that what they believed to be a waste was actually, in fact, a successful marketing event. And it all comes down to calculating the true ROI (return on investment).

Let’s say, as an example:

  • You want to mail a postcard to 1,000 homes in your community. This mailing is going to cost you $800.
  • Your average sale is $400.
  • A week after sending out the postcards, you’ve received 20 new customer leads.

This is where many business owners start thinking “20 calls from 1,000 postcards…that’s only a 2% response rate“. True, it is a 2% response rate, but if just 2 of those new calls convert into new patients, then the mailing has already paid for itself.

By simply calculating your ROI and determining what you need to achieve in order to deem a mailing “successful”, you will have a much truer idea of what marketing efforts are paying off for your business.

Have you tried postcard mailings for your small business? What did success mean to you?

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Facebook’s Promoted Posts: Useful Tool or Just Another Gimmick?

by Naomi Cooper August 20, 2012

Facebook’s Promoted Posts: Useful Tool or Just Another Gimmick?Having a Facebook page for your business is becoming increasingly important. However, simply setting up a page isn’t enough. It takes time and effort to create a page that is engaging for your audience, not to mention building the number of Likes for your page.

Many users may not be aware of the fact that Facebook has an algorithm for who sees your posts based upon engagement, and so it is not guaranteed that all of your friends will always see 100% of all of your posts.

The organic way to maximize the reach of your Facebook posts is to continuously post meaningful, relevant and interesting content which causes your audience to Like, Share and Comment on. The more people engage with each post, the better the chance of more people seeing the post in their news feed.

Rolled out in May, Facebook now offers Promoted Posts. For a small fee, you can pay to have your posts appear in more of your fans’ news feeds.

There has been controversy over these new Promoted Posts.

  • Some feel that it is a great tool for small businesses to utilize when promoting special offers and discounts.
  • Others feel that Facebook is forcing users to pay in order to reach their fan base.
  • Facebook views these Promoted Posts as “small doses of advertising”. It is their way of getting small businesses to engage in advertising on their site.

What do you think? Would you pay to have your posts seen by more people? Please share your thoughts and opinions below.

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