For the ongoing series on Revenue Growth for Dubai Dental Clinics check out part 1 and 2.
A lot of clinics I’ve met over the years put a lot of focus on marketing and paid ads. These are definitely important, but I like to help my clients bring in new patients by reaching out to their current patients.
The cool thing about this referral strategy is that it works in ANY business model, and all you have to do is adjust the free “giveaway.”
Here is the process broken down into simple steps.
1. Import a list of 500 RECENT patients that came into the office within the last 90 days.
You can go back farther if needed, but the more recent ones are better. 180 days is ok as well.
Put this list onto a google sheet with their name, phone number, email and last date they visited the clinic.
I prefer using a CRM like Pipedrive.com, but a google sheet/excel doc works too if you don’t want to spend the money.
Add all 500 leads and have different stages starting with Not Called, Decision Maker, Referred, Consultation Scheduled, Consultation Complete, Said No
These stages represent: people to call, when you speak to the decision maker, the decision maker gave you 2-3 real referrals, the new referred patient scheduled their consultation, the consultation was completed or they said no.
2. Create An Irresistible Offer
The pitch I suggest to clients is to offer a “Free Whitening for any new patient you refer that completes their first consultation! Value: AED 800”
Whitening is great because it’s not expensive or time consuming to execute, and only costs about AED 150 of materials.
Plus the patient really likes the boosted confidence from a whiter, more attractive smile.
You can offer other things like a free hygiene appointment, or a credit for future services, or a discount off of orthodontics.
The script can be as simple as: “Hi George, I’m calling from ABC Dental about an exciting new offer to give you a FREE whitening worth AED 800. It’s a referral campaign for our patients. Can I tell you more?”
Then they explain the system which will involve several factors I can’t go into here, but essentially the goal is to extract 2-3 names of their friends or family AND their WA contact. We then track those new leads to see how many of them turn into new patients.
The best outcome is if the patient sends the introduction of your clinic through Whatsapp, but it also works if the clinic makes the first call and explains where the referral came from.
3. Setup a Patient Specialist (aka Remote Caller) to make 60 calls per day, 6 days a week
The Patient Specialist is that key person whose sole job is to make outbound calls to your clients following a script. When I work with clinics, I help them hire, setup and train the Patient Specialist and set them up with a custom SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)
Most Patient Specialists can make 15 calls per hour. Each call takes about 2-5 minutes when you factor in manual dialing, talking to a patient (only 15% will pickup), sending a WhatsApp (or email) followup and updating the CRM with what happened.
The goal is 60-75 calls per day (about 4 hours of calling) and this factors in other hours spent rehearsing the script, breaks, etc.
4. Expect SOME success and SOME patients just getting free services
It’s ok if a patient gets a free whitening AND the new patient gets a free whitening as well (for coming in for a consultation!). You want to incentivize all of the parties involved because of the Lifetime Value of a new patient.
The LTV (Lifetime Value) of a new patient is AED 20,000. This includes a 5-year relationship with 2 hygiene appointments per year, necessary oral health treatments, cosmetic dentistry and future referral opportunities.
Wouldn’t you spend AED 300 (two whitenings) and 2 hours to get a new patient worth AED 20,000?
The only real cost is the Patient Specialist, which is about AED 6,000-AED 8,000 per month.
5. Track The Numbers Weekly and Improve The Process
Here are the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to track weekly, monthly and quarterly for the Patient Specialist: Outbound contacts, Referrals Received, Consultations from Referrals.
You can track other stages, but I like to keep it simple.
Your patient specialist will have a clear target: 360 calls per week (6 days x 60 calls) and with a goal to speak to 15% of Decision Makers (50) and to get referrals from 10% of those (5 referring at least 2 prospects) resulting in 10 new patient leads. These then get followed up on to convert 1-2 new patients per week that actually complete their consultations. That’s a projected gain of AED 90,000 per month (1 patient per week x 4.5 (ish) weeks).
That’s also being conservative, and I could easily seeing it be double.
If you’re not hitting those numbers, something is wrong with either the script, the leads or the Patient Specialist.
A good consultant, like myself with Clinic Assist, can help all along the way to ensure you see an ROI.Do you want help to install a Patient Specialist in your Dubai dental clinic so you can grow your revenue? One of our clients increased their treatment scheduled by AED 40,000 in the first 30 days.