Starting a dental practice is exciting but also daunting. There are only 24 hours a day… What should you prioritize, and how should you spend your resources? These top 10 tips can help set your practice up for success.
Envision how you’d run your practice. Map the ideal patient journey to understand all the pieces you need to deliver the best patient experience before, during, and after a visit. The insights can guide your decision-making and resource allocation to focus on what matters instead of spending time and money on bright shiny objects that won’t contribute to your growth.
If you want to become profitable sooner, you must lower your expenses. To keep your dental practice startup costs down, make a business plan and understand the financial side of the business. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when weighing the costs and benefits of tools to invest in. Also, distinguish what you want from what you need to inform your decisions.
You must let prospects know how you can help them to attract patients to your practice. An effective sales strategy should communicate your unique value proposition and use compelling patient success stories to build credibility. Consider how you’d engage people across all patient journey stages and implement a well-designed follow-up process to keep them returning to your practice.
Cloud dental software will be your best friend in managing every aspect of your patient experience, care delivery, and operations. It gives you access to patient information from anywhere and facilitates collaboration among staff and specialists. You can also reduce IT costs because you don’t have to purchase expensive equipment upfront or hire a large IT team to maintain the system.
“What gets measured gets done” — but what metrics should you track to help you focus on the right things? Here are the most important KPIs a new dental practice should keep tabs on:
Since acquiring a new patient is more expensive than retaining an existing one, you should track your patient attrition rate and take steps to lower it. Implement tactics to improve KPIs such as patient churn rates, repeat purchase ratio, net promoter score (NPS), and patient satisfaction. Then, implement automation technologies to support patient communications and build relationships.
The other side of the patient attrition coin is patient loyalty. Building relationships helps keep people returning to your practice and telling others about it. tab32’s patient communication module integrates with our scheduling, EHR, and revenue discovery functions to help you send the most relevant messages (e.g., appointment and recare reminders) at the right time to stay top of mind.
As more consumers research service providers online, you must implement a digital marketing strategy to attract new patients. Focus on channels such as search engine optimization (SEO), website design, paid ads, social media marketing, and online reviews. Additionally, implement online scheduling software so prospects who find you online can book an appointment right away.
Your scheduling software should help you deliver a convenient and seamless patent experience. Besides online booking, it should allow you to automate confirmation and reminder emails. You can also include links for patients to fill out their medical history and insurance forms online before their visits to streamline the patient experience.
An exit strategy helps set clear goals to inform strategic planning and decision-making. You can invest your resources in what matters to optimize business outcomes and maximize your practice’s market value. Your exit strategy will also guide your long-term vision, which ties into everything discussed in this post!
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