Staff Referrals

Every staff member in your office can be a sales rep for your practice. As I have mentioned many times, even for your own staff, you and your image play a major role in the way people perceive your clinical skill; your staff is no exception

For this reason, make sure your staff can see how devoted you are to your patients and how much you care about the quality of care you provide. No matter how you train them for everyday office work, they must maintain a positive image of your skills and dedication. Only then will they put their reputation on the line and refer patients to you.

Another thing you can do to help market your practice is to order business cards for everybody in the office, even those who work for you short -term. We spend a lot of money and resources on advertising, and this is probably one of the most cost -effective methods. On average you pay around $30 for 500 cards, so it may cost a total of $200 to $300 to get cards for everyone in the office. If they refer one single patient to you because of the cards, the whole thing is paid for! Besides, they feel good having a business card.

There are various scenarios that your staff members face their daily lives thus exposing them to a vast pool of potential patients. Having a business card handy makes the referral professional, makes your staff members feel good about themselves, and provides a familiar face in for the new patient to come to, when they initially visit your office.

You need to talk to your staff about their role in marketing your practice. You should teach them to mention everywhere they can that they work for a great dentist, and they should get into the habit of giving their business cards away.

It is also important to never underestimate the business your staff and their family can bring you. As I previously mentioned, always market your practice keeping in mind the rule of "attracting one patient at a time". Never dismiss a patient as "not the type we want", or other stereotypes we come up with! Every patient can be a potential production for your office  or can refer others who are. 

Let me give you an example of the effects of image control on the staff: one of my main referral sources is my staff. The perceived image is so good that last month I had a fired staff member coming back to our office for her own dental work! This happened to be while she was working in another dental office with three general dentists and specialists offering to take care of her dental treatment free of charge! Nevertheless she decided that she wanted to come back to us for her treatment. She has also referred an average of two patients a month to us since she was fired!

This is the power of image control. When your staff sees nothing but a positive attitude, dedication to patients, attention to detail and successful management, they may come back to you for their dental needs, even though you have fired them! Also, see firing techniques in Staff Hiring/Firing.