Get Better Referrals: Tell Your Story Better!

If you are telling your story effectively, you are getting referrals that enhance your image, more fully utilize your expertise and continually increase revenue. Unfortunately, few practices are able to succeed at "telling their story" because of all the changes in the communication environment and in dentistry.

In a simpler time comments such as "They are so nice and friendly" had the ability to bring in the patients you wanted.

Today, with all the distractions, high-tech changes and competitor comparisons available, it is difficult for your best patients to deliver the type of revenue-producing referrals they once could. If your services are focused above and beyond one-tooth-at-a-time dentistry, then your patients have an even more complex communication task ahead of them.

Right now too many referrals are set up to fail. For example: "My dentist is nice and friendly, and will expect you to spend $25,000 over your insurance rebate. Now, let me explain why...." Are your patients ready to explain this concept? If they are, have you given them the best opportunity to do it effectively or regularly?

Even the patient with a fully restored smile will be challenged because their emotional relationship with the practice will produce some doubt. The new smile patient is a perfect billboard, but the shine on the smile as a selling tool can deteriorate without other logical referral evidence.

To keep these powerful billboards from eliciting only a superficial reaction from passerby, your client must have specific, prepared and tactile backup references to prove the value of your brand. The tactile backup references, materials your referrer can hand out, are helpful because they give the referrer the ability to effectively "close" the conversation.

The prospect, whether convinced or not, also requires a method or suggestion on how to act next. Without a specific method to act, they are likely to wither on the vine trying to make up their mind on what to do after their interaction with your referral agent.

To avoid this void in communication that can mean fewer calls or actual requests for service, you need to arm your referral agents with hard facts about your value. Without this "ready Rolodex" of facts, your competitors, competing services, the hyperactive communication environment and general doubts about value will almost completely distract potential referral prospects.

Your referral agents need three specific facts. Two is not enough; four is too many. Three facts can achieve distinctiveness without overwhelming the referrer's memory.

Here are seven common concepts to consider, pick three that fit you best (or three of your own), then choose the best enhancement(s) and reinforce it or them with your specific background and strengths:

• Comfortable/Gentle: sedation, painless injections, careful attention, amenities, etc.
• Friendly/Caring: personalized service, testimonials, team traits, etc.
• Expertise: teacher, author, speaker, CE, etc.
• Quality: treatment style, treatment planning, materials, laboratory, etc.
• Cosmetic (Beauty): before/after photos, smile awards, beautiful logo/Web/materials
• High-tech: Web site/materials' design should reflect this; pick three technologies that unite this part of your brand
• Health: can be part of your tagline, underscored by your CE, other expertise and your overall philosophy

By limiting your choices to three, it is much easier to communicate your brand. If you say you do everything (or sound like you do), you will seem like everyone else. Define your brand in most communications so clients stay focused. If you have to explain everything you are, do it on your Web site.

Regularly communicate these three facts. Place them in every patient correspondence by utilizing a Web referral card, Web magnet, or envelope insert, or mention them in postcards or newsletters. Hammer these three facts home in your advertisements and direct mail. This public presentation helps build a stronger rapport with referral prospects before they interact with your referral agents.

Each of your "new smile" clients should have at least a dozen Web referral cards to hand out to friends, family and colleagues. The card can highlight your three facts. After their treatment, explain to them--one-on-one--in more detail why these three facts are important. Emphasize that the Web site can help those they refer with all of their questions.

Special Event Idea: Once a year, invite those with a restored smile to a "new smile" gathering. After thanking them for their attendance and support, reintroduce them to, and update them on, your three facts. Then tell them, "Once you tell friends and family about your new smile (and show them), give them a Web referral card and say, 'If my new smile does not convince you, this Web site will.'"

Without the three facts intertwined in their communication, the risk of a referral event without a "closing" is significantly increased. No matter how much you believe in life-enhancing dentistry that will not change the fact that spending $25,000 because of a friend's suggestion is still a rare event. Take these steps and watch your empowered referral agents completely solidify your referral network.

Marketing Commentary by Dick Chwalek - Niche Agency, Director
NicheAgency.com -- BetterReferrals@NicheAgency.com