Hello... ...and welcome to a different kind of brochure. You may know us as the leading provider of practice-branded patient membership plans, but we actually strive to do much, much more. We aim to help you make your practice a more profitable and sustainable business by providing all the business support you need… in one place.
That said, why is this a different kind of brochure? The sure way to succeed in business is to make your service different to what is being offered by every other practice in the land. So, we’ve created this short, thought-provoking brochure to get you thinking differently about how you run your business.
By presenting you with some
‘things that make you go hmmm…’ we hope to get you tapping into your creative side (yes, you do have one!) and looking at your practice from new and different perspectives - finding fresh and inspirational ways to interact with your customers and tackle the business issues you face. Who knows, you may even find some solutions in here! So grab a coffee, sit back and flick through the following business-focused nuggets. We hope they help you challenge, pause, rewind and even fast-forward how you think.
The Practice Plan Team
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Think about it, how many times have you been dissatisfied with a meal in a restaurant and then, when the waiter has asked if everything is OK – you’ve said: ‘Yes it’s fine’ Most people shy away from any kind of conflict and instead, go away without saying a word and then tell all their friends to avoid the restaurant.
So, how well do you know your patients and what they are thinking or saying about your practice? Getting honest and critical feedback is essential in helping you to develop and improve your customer service. Which is why, giving your patients the ability to feedback anonymously via an online patient survey is such a powerful tool to have in your practice.
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Patient Surveys
Events
Resource Library
The Dental Practice
THE Dental Practice
D ental The
practice
Take a look at the three practice logos opposite. Can you decide which one is the boutique dentist, which is the family-focused dental practice and which is the fashionable city centre surgery? Most businesses have a poor understanding of the importance of ‘design’ and the impact it can have. Yet, you’ve just evidenced to yourself the power of design in guiding people’s perceptions of your practice at a very basic level. A simple change of typeface can take a potential patient’s perception of your practice in many different directions (and that’s without any consideration of colour, imagery or language – which all have a similar effect).
So, ask yourself… what messages am I sending out from my practice? Is your corporate ‘identity’ something that is well thought through and arrived at ‘by design’ – or is it ‘whatever it happens to be’ and out of sync with what you really want people to know and understand about your practice?
Food for thought? Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Design Shop
Practice Websites
Events
Resource Library
40%
of online appointment bookings are made outside of practice hours
Love it or hate it – we all live in a
24/7 ‘now’ society The growth of internet and smartphone technology means that consumers now have an expectation of being able to shop, book and pay for services and goods at a time that suits them, not the provider. ‘Normal office hours’ is rapidly becoming a defunct phrase – yet it’s something that many dental practices stubbornly adhere to.
Of course, no-one would expect your practice to be open 24/7 – but you could be ‘virtually’ open if you were to take advantage of the technology that is available to you. Introducing an online booking service helps to attract new patients, satisfy the ones you already have and ensure that your chair utilisation is operating at its maximum potential.
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Online Booking
Practice Websites
Resource Library
Most businesses that fail, do so not because they have a lack of work, but because they have a lack of cashflow.
In the land of the small business
IS KING Talk to any insolvency lawyer and they’ll tell you that many of the businesses they represent are, at their roots, solid, profitable businesses. What takes them down is often not a lack of business, but their inability to get what’s owed to them in, combined with a failure to plan for the peaks and troughs that inevitably come along. That’s why having a successful patient membership plan in your practice can be worth its weight in gold. Not only does it tie patients into your practice, but it also smooths out those peaks and troughs and guarantees you a regular income, even when you’re closed over Christmas, off on your summer hols or experiencing a temporary quiet period.
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk Join pla our tod n ay!
£12
pe mon r th
Patient Plans
Patient Finance
Resource Library
There are many big purchases that we make in our lives which, if they were based on cost alone, would not be made. Ask yourself this question – if you’ve ever bought a house, what was the more important criteria in your decision to buy – the cost of the house or the affordability of the monthly mortgage payments? Most people would say it’s the latter, and so it is for dental treatment. Many patients, when presented with a treatment plan that adds up to a large sum of money, can be put off by the size of the final amount and the treatment is often not carried out. Making the treatment ‘affordable’ by providing finance options and the ability for the patient to spread the cost over monthly payments is proven to significantly increase treatment uptake. What’s more, it’s simple to set up and introduce into your practice.
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Patient Finance
Events
Resource Library
Consultants
Why would a patient membership plan make your practice more valuable? Most people know that having a membership plan in your practice increases patient loyalty and also smooths out the peaks and troughs in turnover that many businesses suffer from. But when it comes to the time to sell your practice, a strong, well maintained patient base on a membership plan can significantly increase the value of your practice in the eyes of a buyer.
Why? It’s simple…because it represents predictable and maintainable income that can be measured and, as such, attributed a value. What’s more, a sustainable and profitable income, based on consistent patient numbers, is measured as goodwill and physically appears on your balance sheet. It’s also something lenders will borrow against and buyers will pay for.
How much value are you building into your practice? Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk Join pla our tod n ay!
£12
pe mon r th
Patient Plans
Events
Resource Library
Consultants
People don’t buy what you sell.
Now, that’s a bit of a counter-intuitive thing to get your head around
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But, ask yourself this question. What are the key factors that potential new patients will base their decision on as to whether they choose your practice or that of your competitor down the road? Surely, it’s the quality of your dentistry that’s the most important factor...
...or is it? Patients can only experience your dentistry skills once they’ve made the decision to go with you. So, before they do this, they base their decision, not on the quality of the core service you offer (dentistry), but on a combination of factors that surround that core – how friendly and helpful your front desk team are when answering the phone, the vibe they get from your website, how easy it is to park, whether they can get an early or late appointment, etc.
Which is why, the quality of your customer journey is so important. Because before your patients invest in your dentistry they first have to buy-in to you and your practice.
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Patient Surveys
Consultants
Events
Resource Library
BROCHURES •
CA R
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The term ‘Dentist in [my town]’ is googled on average 1600 times a month. That’s a whopping 19200 times a year. What’s more, the vast majority of people looking for a new dentist will check out their website before making direct contact. Which means if you have no website presence you might as well be in no-man’s land! So, it may come as a surprise that, in research we carried out, over one third of dental practices don’t actually have a website and a further third have websites so poor that, frankly, they would be more beneficial if they didn't exist at all. After referrals, your website is probably the biggest and most important strategic element of your marketing plan. It either puts you ahead of the game or out of the race altogether within seconds of a prospective patient landing on it.
Is it time you got yours sorted?
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Practice Websites
Events
Resource Library
a rising tide raises all boats
So, you’ve passed the CQC inspection, you’ve trained the front desk team, your website’s up and running and your facebook page is purring along. Great! The only problem is, all of your competitors are doing the same and are at exactly the same level. Which means, that despite the fact that you’ve made some great improvements over the previous months, being the best means constantly striving to do things, not just better, but...
Different and Better. Being different is what will mark you out from the crowd – and that takes creativity, time, commitment and a little bit of bottle.
Access tools and ideas to help with this! Visit www.practiceplan.co.uk
Events
Resource Library
Patient Surveys
HR howler answer So where did it all go wrong? When the practice manager started to monitor Tanya’s arrival times by just noting Tanya’s and no other team members’ time she singled her out for discrimination. It’s amazing how something simple can be so costly.
Practice Plan Limited Cambrian Works, Gobowen Road, Oswestry, Shropshire SY11 1HS T: 01691 684120 F: 01691 684129 E: info@practiceplan.co.uk