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5 Strategies for Maximizing New-Patient Referrals by Jay Geier

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No plateau is a good plateau.
Whether it's losing unwanted belly fat, learning a new language, or increasing monthly production, most people will agree that there is always room for significant growth and improvement in any given area. But what about areas over which you may feel you have limited control, such as stagnating patient referrals?

Not one dentist has ever increased referrals through willpower alone. But if you understand that increasing referrals is a game of strategy, requiring a little time, effort, energy, and money, your intentional investments will reap enormous rewards.

Every time patients walk into your office, you should visualize a line of people standing behind them—all of their friends, families, coworkers, Bible-study members, etc. Usually it will be a pretty long line! And your patient has a varying degree of influence with all of these people. Keep in mind that if referred, the people standing in these lines are destined to be the best possible kind of patient, requiring the least persuasion and often arriving already confident in you and the quality of your practice.

In fact, more often than not, these patients will reveal their exact expectations to you and your staff through conversations, which takes the guesswork out of making them happy—an ideal situation. If you are delivering consistently exceptional value to your "line-leaders"—your loyal patients—then each patient should be sending three to four referrals to your practice. So why isn't it happening?

The truth is that many dentists simply aren't intentional about actively increasing their referrals. What exactly does that mean for you? It means that if you become more intentional about building up your referrals, you'll have a step up on your competition, allowing you to influence the pool of new patients in your city.

Before you take the leap
The first step is to "unlearn" any misconceptions you might have about referrals. These are the top three:

1. Only long-time patients refer.
When it comes to asking for referrals, earlier is better 95 percent of the time. The initial excitement created by an incredible in-office experience and a new, positive relationship is the most common spark behind a referral. Unfortunately, this excitement often fades over time. Don't wait a year and then expect a flood of referrals. It doesn't work that way! Start asking for referrals immediately—as early as one week after a patient's first appointment.

2. Patients refer only after they've seen tremendous results.
You need to understand that referrals often happen before the patient has experienced any results whatsoever. In many cases, the mere thought of a result is more exciting than the actual result itself.

3. If a patient has already referred once, he or she won't refer again.
This is the misconception that baffles me the most. The truth is, as long as you keep your patients happy, they'll continue to refer. Drop the ball, and you risk losing them—and their potential referrals. One great way to encourage multiple referrals from each patient is to create a rewards program if your state allows it.

How to get started
Now that we've uncovered the misconceptions, let's delve into the specifics of creating a great referral program and expanding on the loyalty of your patients. A much more extensive list of detailed referral tips is free to download at www.schedulinginstitute.com/Dentaltown, but for the sake of time and space, I'll give an overview of my top five strategies.

1. Start by setting a clear referral goal for your office.
It might help to pull your last six- to 12-month referral numbers and come up with an average monthly statistic. Consider creating a goal of a 10 percent increase in referrals over the next six months. The key is to create a goal that is attainable and manageable, but also big enough to get your whole office excited.

2. Make your office referable.
This is deceptively simple, but it's absolutely crucial to meeting your goal. Start with the physical appearance of your practice. The parking lot should be clean and well maintained. The exterior of the building needs to be in good shape with visible, eye-catching, up-to-date signage. Pretend you are a new patient and walk through your practice's front doors—what would your first impression be? This first impression significantly influences the likelihood that your patients will refer you. Is there someone at the front to greet new patients as they walk in the door (not behind a sliding glass window)? Are your patients offered a variety of refreshments? Does the reception area appear tidy and modern? If the décor of your office hasn't been updated in 10 years, it's probably not a referable office. You should update your office—even minimally—every three to five years.

3. Communicate that you want referrals.
Don't assume that your patients know. Many doctors are doing all the right things—they have a referable office and their service is supreme, but they're not letting their patients know that they actually want referrals. And asking is much simpler than it sounds. Just remember to be sincere and direct, and to always make your request face to face. For example, as you leave the room or are walking the patient to the front desk, say, "Mrs. Jones, we look forward to working with you as a patient. We would love more patients just like you. Would you reach out and tell two or three of your friends or family members about your experience with us?" As long as you've provided excellent service that day, your patients will be more than happy to reciprocate with a favor.

4. If you're not already sending out a patient newsletter, start immediately.
A newsletter allows you to spread your reach. When you routinely mail out a newsletter with pictures of you and your office on it to a thousand people, you'll be showing up in front of a thousand people that day—without them ever entering your office. Every single newsletter you send out should include several requests for referrals, and have one section promoting your referral program. Ask your patients to share their newsletter with a friend for a special bonus offer. Give your patients an extra copy of the newsletter when they visit you, and ask them to share it with a neighbor. The referral possibilities of a well-produced print newsletter are endless!

5. Hold a staff contest.
The most successful referral programs happen in practices where the staff has taken ownership of driving referrals—and what better way to motivate ownership than with a results-backed contest or incentive? The key to motivating your staff on referrals is to set a goal. This goal should be higher than the number of referrals they were getting before the contest. If you set it up like this, you shouldn't have any hesitation about paying out the incentive or giving away the prize when they hit the number. These referrals bring enormous value to your practice, so consider staff incentives an investment with a huge return. And don't forget to promote and market the contest to your team—if they aren't excited about it (or the prize), you'll have an uphill battle ahead.

Keeping the change
Once you've implemented these strategies in your practice, be sure to check that your staff is carefully tracking your referrals. If your referrals increase, keep doing exactly what worked. If you've tried every referral-boosting trick in the book and your new-patient numbers just aren't rising, you might have a different problem entirely. Referrals could be calling your practice and never getting scheduled.

After analyzing thousands of practices, my team and I found that an astonishing 98 percent of all practices are losing thousands of dollars in new patients every week—simply because their teams have never been trained in how to effectively handle new-patient phone calls. If you think you're doing everything right but the results aren't adding up, this could be happening to you.

You work hard investing in your patient relationships. Don't let your practice plateau—eliminate your misconceptions, reward your staff and you can turn your practice into one your patients will be proud to refer to their friends.



Jay Geier is the founder and president of the Scheduling Institute and creator of the world-renowned Five Star New Patient Generation Training Program that has revolutionized the way dentists attract new patients to their practices. He is revealing his secret for record-setting results (600+ new patients in ONE week) in a FREE CD available now at www.SchedulingInstistute.com/dentaltown.


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