The better you understand the wants and needs of potential new patients, the more likely you are to attract those individuals to your practice. Luckily, market research and patient surveys can help reveal critical information about your prospects. And in today’s competitive market, that insight into how to attract quality new patients to your office is invaluable. So, here are 5 statistics that provide insight into patient acquisition, and subsequently, increasing your profitability and growth!
To be clear, the insights that can be drawn from the statistics below can benefit the whole of the healthcare industry. Not just the dental sector.
Thanks to Futuredontics' research (a leader in the dental marketing industry), we can glean meaningful insights into how to attract new patients in 2018.
In fact, we now know that convenience factors coupled with your online reputation are 2 driving forces behind attracting new patients in today’s economy. And that applies to any healthcare practice looking to attract new patients who are required to schedule an appointment.
If that applies to you, then check out this data!
According to the 2016 Futuredontics report, “74% of dental patients say their choice of dentist is significantly impacted by how easily and quickly they can book an appointment.”
More food for thought, their 2015 survey uncovered that, “1 in 4 patients say they would leave their current dentist if they find a practice’s location, hours or ability to schedule an appointment inconvenient.”
Think about that for a second: how convenient is your practice??
People today are busier than ever; we’re all over-scheduled and time-strapped. Because of that, convenience has become a consumer expectation. In fact, high-value dental patients demand it in exchange for their money.
So, if your practice currently lacks the “convenience factor,” here’s a simple, yet powerful solution to make your practice more convenient.
Only 40% of practices offer online appointment scheduling. Though, this number is significantly rising. The reason for that is the fact that this simple convenience plays a key role in patient acquisition and overall retention in today’s world.
Now, onward to the next statistic.
In their “What Dental Patients Want” report, Futuredontics revealed that, “86% of consumers surveyed will pay more for services with higher ratings and reviews.”
Not to mention, “Nearly one-third (29%) of patients say their choice of dentist is highly influenced by a practice’s online reputation.”
What does this data mean?
As stated in our article, “Business Know-How for a Successful Practice in 2018,” if you don’t make a concerted effort to positively influence your online reputation, you leave your credibility in the hands of your haters.
Which could spell disaster for your patient acquisition, production and profitability!
Just by asking your best patients for reviews while they’re still in the office, you can significantly impact your online reputation. Moreover, if you make that process convenient and automated with modern patient relationship management software (like Solutionreach), collecting and publishing reviews is even simpler. Either way, if you take the initiative to gain a more focused review strategy in your practice, you will boost your credibility and attract more new patients.
You can ask for video testimonials, too. When done right, a video testimonial can show prospective new patients 2 things that are essential to competing in today’s economy:
Internal marketing has been one of the most powerful forms of marketing since the beginning of the healthcare industry. Even today, though so much has changed, word-of-mouth remains the primary means for patient referrals.
To boot, Futuredontics’ national survey stated, “84% of the patients surveyed solicit personal recommendations from family, friends and co-workers when they search for a new dentist.”
Which brings rise to the question: what have you done for your internal marketing lately?
Here are several expert-backed internal marketing ideas to set your office apart!
With current technology like social media, your patients become your best advertisers! Now, more than ever, providing a rewarding patient experience can lead to exponential growth. Put forth the effort to provide a rewarding experience and your patients will remember you, refer to your practice and bring in more new patients!
Second to soliciting personal recommendations, Futuredontics discovered that online search engines are the most used source to find a new dentist.
The question to ask yourself is this: where does your practice website currently rank on Google?
As you probably know, Google is the world's most popular search engine. Where you rank on Google can dramatically affect your number of new patients! Especially, since 67.6% of search engine traffic goes to the first 5 results.
If you can’t afford to higher a third-party service to achieve a Page 1 Ranking on Google, you can improve your ranking yourself by following these 6 steps.
The latest Futuredontics Survey found that convenience factors are especially important to a key new dental patient demographic; individuals between the ages of 35 and 44 with household incomes of $50K to $100K a year.
When looking for a new dentist, this special group of new patients has a lot of the same convenience requirements:
Simply put, if you’re not paying attention to your online reputation and what patients want from a modern practice, then you may likely attract and retain less and less patients.
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