Staff Training

The First New Patient Call is Merely the "Tip of the Iceberg"!

We have been noticing the increasing power of the domino effect for many years now in the nationwide dental, medical and veterinary marketplaces. I suspect that you have as well: It is the snowballing slew of referrals that flow from a handful of positive new patient experiences.

It occurs when the initial new patient is properly appointed and positively handled over the phone. The new patient comes into your practice, enjoys exceptional service and has a great experience. She then tells family and friends who have already been reached by chrisad marketing or will be reached by chrisad marketing. A great recall system only further enhances this effect.

At chrisad, we shy away from drawing your attention toward an effect that is difficult or impossible to objectively and scientifically quantify. However, this effect is simply too prevalent and powerful to ignore. We have found that this "Domino Effect" can work in your favor, or it can destroy you.

When chrisad marketing stimulates a new patient to call, appoint, and come in for that initial appointment, the fact of this new patient being handled properly on the phone, brought in for a convenient appointment right away, and being given the best dental, medical or veterinary experience of her life will in fact cause that patient to be far more likely to accept, refer, and come back for many years.

On the other hand, if the patient is roughed up on the phone, is made to wait for a convenient appointment (The market has changed. People won't take off work; they want to be assured that they can "use their insurance" at your office.) or has a less than positive experience at the office, the dominoes can crush you. These new patients, assuming they even made it into your office, will be far less likely to refer your office to their pals or to ever come back themselves. In these environments, your chrisad marketing will appear to have a much smaller impact.

Each of chrisad's Account Representatives have extensive professional training in aligning marketing systems throughout a practice. Part of our value added service includes staff training.

First impressions are priceless! You must ask yourself what are you really telling folks by your actions. How long do they have to wait for an appointment at a time that is convenient for them? When potential new patients are seamlessly appointed during times where they don't have to take off work, are given appointments for times that they asked for and reassured as to the practice's excellence (and dedication to making the "most of their insurance") by the receptionist over the phone, they are far more likely to come back, accept, and tell others. Add to that an in-office experience that meets or exceeds the criteria set forth by chrisad research and experience, particularly in terms of personalized attention and perceived clinical excellence, and the "dominoes" will clearly fall in your favor. Your chrisad Marketing is Designed to Consciously and Subconsciously Stimulate Both the Potential New and the Existing Patient.

The chrisad marketing that re-reaches initial patients (after the first visit) will again remind them of the excellence, thereby acting as an additional stimulant for more referral. This secondary referral will only occur if the initial experience was positive! In effect, the marketing and the positive experiences go hand in hand! As your patients discuss their positive experiences with friends, those friends are more likely to act on the discussion if they have been exposed in the past, or will be exposed in the near future, to your consistent and optimal practice marketing. Whether or not the referee or referrer remembers or not, this "Domino Effect" subtly allows chrisad marketing to spark more growth! As with all aspects of chrisad marketing, we watch what they do and not what they say. These new, accepting and referring patients are unlikely to be able to recite a dissertation as to the chain of events that caused them to come in, accept or come back. You should only care about what we care about: Do you see bottom line new patient and production increases that are statistically significant? If all aspects of their initial visit were handled optimally, your "Domino Effect" numbers will rocket skyward far quicker than if handled improperly.

What Do Other Successful Businesses Do?
Think of how you recently chose a restaurant, purchased a car, chose a vacation destination, selected a department store, whatever! If you think deeply about all of the possible subconscious and subtle influences, combined with the more overt and memorable stimuli, I think that you'll realize that many of your decisions are made along the same lines. Yesterday's practice management consultants at one time rested their new patient hopes on the staff or doctor asking the patient to refer a friend. They used to give the patient discount cards for them to give to their friends!

In the real world, actions speak louder than words. If you stayed at a fine Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton hotel, would the concierge hand you a discount card and ask you to tell a friend what a great hotel it was? No! They simply did whatever it took to intuitively exceed even your highest expectations!

This is the world that exists in today's dental, medical and veterinary markets as well. Our most successful practices are "blowing away" patient expectations as to what dentistry, medical and veterinary care is all about. In fact, in the real world, there is no such thing as an "advertising customer" as distinguished from a "referral customer." Most customers are influenced by a powerful, yet subtle and subconscious synergistic combination of both factors!

Similarly, with chrisad practice marketing, the advertising subconsciously stimulates the referral and the referral is subconsciously stimulated by the advertising!

It is the subtle power of the "herd mentality" snowballing of the "Domino Effect." The sooner that you understand the true dimensions of this powerful tool, and put it into play in your practice, the better you will do!