When working with dental implant patients, it’s important to start with the end goal in mind. While some practices think the end goal is to treat patients and then part ways, the best practices think another step beyond.
You don’t just want a patient to have a good experience with your practice. You also want them to go and tell their friends and family about the transformation you provide.
In other words, you want them to become an advocate for your practice.
To turn your patients into advocates, you have to make every step of their journey count. This way, the patient will love the care they received and have no trouble promoting you to the people they know. Here are the simple steps you can take to start turning patients into brand advocates for your practice.
Determine your ideal patient.
If somebody is going to be advocating for your dental implant practice, you should make sure they match the persona of your ideal patient. This is important because, when a patient begins telling others about your practice, they tend to attract similar people.
So, what kind of person do you want to attract to your practice? If you haven’t already, take some time to identify your ideal patient and adjust accordingly. It may take some time and effort, but that pays off when you hit the target.
One step to identifying your ideal patient is to ask yourself this: “What kind of person do I want to promote my practice to their friends and family?”
Tell stories instead of selling facts.
Stories sell better than facts. Humans are wired to make decisions based more on emotion than factual information. Nothing packs more emotion into a small package than a good story, like a movie that stays with the audience long after they leave the theater.
Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective patients. When you’re considering a treatment plan, would you rather hear facts and figures, or stories of incredible life change?
Take advantage of this principle by collecting the best stories about your practice and displaying them for prospective customers to see. Advocates have an awesome story of their time with you and share it with other people. This motivates their audience to check your practice out. Here’s how to gain more advocates in your implant practice.
Over-deliver at every step of the journey.
As mentioned before, patients embark on a buyer’s journey when they first begin considering dental implants. The ideal buyer’s journey is a story of a patient’s transformation at the hands of your implant practice.
The steps include the catalytic moment they decide to start searching for practices, the period where they consider your treatment plan, and the moment they commit. However, there’s a step at the end that not every dental practice thinks about.
At the very end of the journey, the patient will decide whether or not they would recommend you to others. The best way to earn their recommendation is to over-deliver at every single step of their journey.
A consistent and quality experience from start to finish will ensure more advocates.
Always collect feedback.
At the end of treatment, don’t make any assumptions about the patient’s experience. Instead, ask every one of them for their feedback.
Consistently collecting feedback serves two main purposes:
For one, you get to know how you’re doing. You learn how the customer feels during every step of the process. This serves as valuable information for improving your practice in general, and should never be overlooked.
For two, it makes the patient think critically about their time with you. If they had a good experience, the door is opened to ask them if they would like to share their story. When an ideal patient comes through and has a fantastic experience with you, ask them if you can write down their story, or film a testimonial video.
Sometimes, implant practices lose out on opportunities to gain advocates simply because they fail to ask. But, if you have real rapport with a patient, and they’re in love with the transformation they just received, then there is nothing to fear in asking if they would be willing to share their story.
Are you consistently gaining advocates?
Take a minute to think about how often your patients turn around and promote your practice to others. If you want more advocates, take some time to work these tips into your dental implant experience. Soon, you will attract more and more of your ideal patient.
To learn more about attracting the best implant patients for you, book a free strategy call with us today.