Are Your Patients Talking About You?

Having a patient invite their friend or relative to join your practice is a very high compliment. Maybe that's why so many practices take a rather passive approach to patient invitations; they don't want to appear to be fishing for compliments, so they don't take the lead in getting the patient to invite. They just hope that if they do the job well enough, patients will talk about the practice with people they know.

I wonder how many practices are missing out on the opportunity to serve many more friends and family of existing patients—and how many patients are missing out on great dentistry— because of this mindset.

If you want to appear confident in the value you provide, you have to be confident in asking patients for their invitations. It's simple and there are natural opportunities to do it, as I outlined in a previous article.

Explain to your patients that you look at a referral as the greatest compliment—as a sign that you have earned a patient's trust. When it's presented that you are determined to earn their trust, most patients will feel flattered that you hold their recommendation in such high regard.

There is also the psychological factor. Any time a person recommends something to a friend—whether it's a restaurant, a movie or a dentist—they are essentially re-affirming their own decision. They become more emotionally invested and their loyalty to the object of their recommendation grows stronger.

There are a number of techniques and systems you can implement to encourage, track and respond to invitations, some of which you will find in this Lunch + Learn team-centered lesson. The essential point is this: if you want patients to really internalize the message of your higher value, get them talking about it.