The REAL value of a new dental patient in Dubai

One of the most important metrics to know when investing in marketing is to find out HOW MUCH a new patient is worth to your dental clinic. It's NOT the cost of a cleaning (AED 700) that they do twice a year.   It's not the value of the veneers campaign that brought them in the office (AED 30,000) It's not the cost of a few sealants or crowns. It's the Lifetime Value (or LTV) of a patient.  This is the amount of money a patient will spend throughout their relationship with a dental office.  Since dentistry is a service-based industry that is very relationship-driven, it's important to know how much a new patient is worth so you can spend marketing dollars accordingly.

How to calculate the Lifetime Value of a patient.

Generally you can look at your own patient data and take the Average patient spend per year  x Average patient retention (in years).  You also need to consider the importance of patient referral which I wrote about in another post here.  Here's an easy way to calculate your patient spend: Total Revenue from Last Year / Total patients that came to your clinic last year. I've been studying dentistry in the US and Dubai for over 2 years and I consult with a dentistry expert who has been in the industry for 19 years and I've learned that the average LIfetime Value of a New Patient is AED 20,000 - AED 40,000 This accounts for several factors:

• Bi-annual hygiene appointments
• The average patient stays with you for 7-10 years
• The average patient spends about AED 2,000 - AED 4,000 per year.
  • This could be from Oral health treatments (fillings, sealants, implants) and/or Cosmetic procedures (whitenings, veneers, orthodontics)
• Patients referring other patients to your practice (family and friends)

For general dentistry, a conservative number for a patient's LTV is AED 20,000.  For cosmetic dentistry and full-mouth reconstruction services, this number can go up a lot higher.

How This Affects Your Marketing Spend

When you're spending money to acquire a lead, think about it in terms of LTV, not just the patient coming in for a few treatments in a year. Generally, you want to invest 10% of your revenue into marketing, so you can spend AED 1,000- AED 2,000 in new leads because you KNOW the LTV is 10-20x that cost.   Here are some posts I wrote about how to improve your LTV:

1. Implement a referral program:   How to Setup A Referral Campaign To Bring in New Dental Patients
2. Follow-up on your patients:   How To Unlock Hidden Revenue In your Dubai Dental Clinic: The Unscheduled Treatment
3. Follow-up on your new patient leads:     6 Tips to Convert New Dental Patients Into Consultations

If you're a Dubai-based dental clinic looking to grow your clinic's revenue, book a consultation with me at this link It's an in-person 30-minute meeting designed to show you exact techniques I can implement into your clinic to follow-up on patients, schedule more treatment and increase your monthly revenue.  One of my clients grew their clinic by AED 40,000 in scheduled treatment in the first 30 days. Book an in-person meeting with me at your clinic here to grow your clinic