Forecasting for Your Practice
When the weather grows warmer, patients tend to find interesting activities besides going to the dentist! This time of year brings end of school activities, graduations and summer planning. Let’s stay in front of our patients!
- Keep an eye on your schedule: The slowdown can be spotted by a vigilant manager. Are your cancellations climbing? Are your confirmations problematic? Check in with your team to ensure this isn’t happening.
- What about those confirmations? Consider changing your confirmation message in your patient communication software so it looks different and catches their eye or add a video that they can open. Take this time to remind them to double check schedules to avoid any conflict with their dental appointments.
- End of the year and graduation: Let’s ask about sponsoring graduation parties and being a part of the ceremony’s program. Most schools have a Field Day that you can inquire about sponsoring.
Marketing means planning ahead! Meet with your team and ask if they have any great ideas. I’m sure they do! Plan out what you want to do for not only May and June but July and August. The Fall brings its own marketing plan. Turkey Trots and Halloween are events worth planning out!
Next, you’ll want to assign a team member to help with outreach to the patients. This can include setting up the newsletters or even preparing a separate mailing. Then you’ll want to review with the team any appropriate verbiage for these promotions. Will you be offering toothbrushes for sale for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day? If so, who will wrap the sample boxes and who will monitor inventory?
The final piece of this marketing plan is to report back to the team with results. By reviewing the success of any new promotions you’ll be able to double efforts next year. And finally, you’ll want to follow up with new patients who visited your practice but have not set up consultations. Reach out and let them know that your office is their new dental home. Let’s all work together to keep your schedule full!
Cheers!
Heather
