Dental Patient Retention

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Increasing Dental Patient Retention
The key to running a successful dental practice involves a number of strategies, among them retaining your existing base of patients to ensure a promising future. However, this is never easy because studies have shown that it costs 6 times more to get new patients compared to retaining existing patients. Keeping loyal patients is also important because many of them are unlikely to switch to another provider. In fact a large majority will return back and tell friends and family about your practice. Below is a list of 5 strategies that will help your dental practice retain patients:

1. Every encounter is important: Every encounter that takes place at the dental clinic is crucial in developing a lasting relationship between the service provider and patient. You can make all your encounters count by sharpening your communication skills and being skilled at what you do. Communication includes taking advantage of the social media to communicate with your patients.

2. Cultivate loyalty: Patient loyalty is highly critical, if you want to maintain a vibrant dental practice. Because loyal patients are more likely to respond quickly to reminders such as check-ups, teeth cleaning and other services.
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Some of the strategies that can help overturn a patient slump and turn it into growth over a short span of time include; ensuring patient convenience, sending out newsletters and training the front desk. To prioritize the needs of your patient to ensure treatment convenience, make sure your appointments do not greatly interfere with your patients jobs. Some of the best times to consider under such circumstances include weekends, early morning and after work hours. Lastly, first impressions can make or break a practice. For this reason, it is important to train the team at your front desk team on issues like telephone