our patients are teariffic

Dental Practice Tips and Ideas for January 2020
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Dental Practice Tips and Ideas for January 2020

Hello Friends,

Now is a great time to find and create opportunities for growth in the New Year.

“What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.” ~ Vern McLellan

So, what will you be bringing? Rather than bringing the same headaches and stresses, you may have experienced this year due to not successfully reaching your practice goals… why not, instead, bring a clear vision of what you want to see in the new year. (Makes sense seeing that it is 2020 😉)

Create your action plan for any wanted and needed improvements to your office including setting your production, collection, patient retention, treatment, continuing education, and new patient goals for the new year. Do include your team in this plan, ask them what their ideas are to make 2020 a more productive and happier year for all!  Remember, people are more likely to support that which they help to create.

Don’t let another year slip by without you successfully reaching or exceeding your goals. It’s time to bring it! Bring your vision and action plan to 2020.

To help you bring it I am sharing some dental office leadership, management, and marketing tips and ideas for January…

Betty Hayden Consulting Winter Dental Office Ideas and Marketing

Leadership Tips and Ideas ~

Improve Communication with Team Meetings:  Schedule monthly team meetings – to be clear, I am not talking about boring and unproductive waste of time meetings just for the sake of having a meeting. Not at all, I am talking about meetings that keep the team all on the same page as to your daily goals, enabling them to live your vision for the practice day in and day out while holding each other accountable to the same high-performance standards.

Boost Team Morale Fun Idea: National Cheesy Socks Day: Jan. 21st ~ Give your employees a gift of cheesy/silly socks to wear on the 21st.  Be sure to take a picture to post on Facebook and Instagram

Practice Management Tips and Reminders ~

Hygiene Continuing Care & Incomplete Treatment:

Insurance Renewals: Many of your patients’ dental insurance maximums renew on January 1. Phone your patients with a friendly reminder of their renewed benefits and make a reservation for them to come in for their hygiene visit or incomplete treatment with the doctor. Include reminders on your social media platforms.

Hygiene Patients: Are you pre-appointing hygiene visits? If not, January is a good time to make this a goal for the office. While you have the hygiene patient in the office, schedule their next 3, 4, or 6-month visit. Avoid saying “would you like to schedule your next appointment?” Some will say no. So instead, say this: “Let’s go ahead and schedule your next visit.” Assume they want to schedule their next visit. By the way, your entire team needs to be on board with pre-appointing your patients. It can be done!

If you’re struggling to have a productive and effective hygiene department – I can help you with this.

Office Appearance:

National Clean Off Your Desk Day: Jan. 13th  ~ Clutter represents indecision. Make the decision to get rid of the clutter! That includes any sticky notes attached to computer monitors, coats/sweaters hanging on the backs of chairs, and fast-food drink containers sitting out on the counters. While you’re at it, go ahead and attack the cabinets & closets. Say goodbye to the clutter! Here are a few office cleaning ideas: Are you past due for your office cleaning?

Marketing Tips and Ideas ~

Exceed Patients’ Expectations – Give Away/Gift Idea:

January is National Hot Tea Month. Give away packets of tea that have a label on them saying “Our Patients are TEA-riffic!”

our patients are teariffic betty hayden consulting dental coach

winter dental marketing ideas betty hayden consulting

 

Trust me, even if this sounds silly to you – your patients love these free gifts. It’s an inexpensive and simple way to make their day!

Reminder: Make sure that all your patient give-away/gifts have labels/packaging that include your office name.

Educational Opportunity ~

Sugar Awareness Week: Jan. 20-24 – This week share website and social media platform posts /videos all about sugar and dental health. Excellent educational opportunity.

Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement during the month of January ~

National Soup Month

Drinking Straw Day: 3rd

Cigarettes Are Hazardous To Your Health Day: 11th

Dress Up Your Pet Day: 14th  (People LOVE to share pictures of their pets!)

National Cheese Lovers Day: 20th

Dental Drill Appreciation Day: 26th

There you have it, dental leadership, practice management, and marketing tips and ideas for January. I hope that you find them helpful! Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK.

What are your practice goals for 2020? I would love the opportunity to work along with you and your team to help you set and exceed your practice goals. If you would like to schedule a complimentary telephone consultation to learn how our coaching program works, please email me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

Are you receiving my free Dental Leadership, Practice Management, and Marketing Ideas in your email inbox each month? If not, please follow today or send me (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea. 

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

P.S. Please stop by and say hello to me on  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest

Gift Ideas For Your Dental Patients
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Gift Ideas For Your Dental Patients

Hello Friends,

Are you looking for a fun way to thank your patients for their referrals and encourage your patients to tell their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers about your office? A great and inexpensive way to do this is to present them with an unexpected gift at their appointment. A while back I shared many of these ideas with you but I made some revisions and added some pictures of real life examples that I thought you all would appreciate.

Here are a few ideas for you…

GIFTS in WINTER:

* Tea *

Attach your business card or a special offer to green tea packets as a special give-away for your patients. Even if they don’t drink tea they can give it to a family member, friend, co-worker or a neighbor. Easy and inexpensive way to advertise your office and exceed your patients expectations. The label/tag may say:

“Our Patients are TEA-riffic!”

* Candle *

Mini candle jars make a nice gift. Attach a tag or label with your office info and one of these sayings:

“Our Patients Are Scentsational”

“Your Referrals Warm Our Hearts”

* Lotion *

Pass out little bottles of lotion. If they are not imprinted with your office name add a tag to the bottle with your office name and website with this saying…

“Hands Down We Have The Best Patients In Town!”

* Soup *

Here is a delicious gift idea for Winter: “Warm-Up Wednesday’s” Set up a slow cooker with soup or chili every Wednesday for your patients to enjoy. (Have recipe cards ready to share) Your patients will love the free food!

or this idea…

soup gift idea for your dental patients

Dr. Bruyere and team are always coming up with thoughtful gifts for their patients!

* Apples *
This one is especially for the offices that are opposed to sharing sugary treats with their patients…

Basket of fresh Apples with a sign or stickers on the apples that say:

“Our Patients Are Awesome to The Core”

“You’re the Apple of our Eyes”

See my Apple themed Dental Marketing Ideas for more apple ideas.

* FREE Food – Gift Certificates *

When in doubt, food is a great way to your patients hearts…especially, free food. This is also an opportunity to do some cross marketing with local businesses. Ask them to donate gift cards for free food/drink. Or you can purchase gift certificates to give away to your patients on special days. Check out these ideas: 

patient referral thank you dental ideas

GIFTS for SPRING: (For awesome Spring gift ideas visit my Pinterest page HERE

* Flower/Herb/Veggie Seed Packets *

Flower Seed Packets w/a label and business card attached. Flower seed packets can be purchased at most Dollar Stores for around .20 a packet. Great deal! The labels you attach to the flower seed packets could say:

“Your referrals help grow our practice, Thank you!“

“Our Office Blooms Because of you!“

“Please enjoy these flowers growing as much as we enjoy your referrals growing our practice.”

* Honey *

Give your patients gifts of little jars of honey. Attach a tag saying:

“Thank You For BEE-ing Our Patient”

Check out what Dr. Bruyere’s office did…

thank you for being our patient

GIFTS for SUMMER:

* Mini Sunscreen *

Give away mini bottles of sunscreen. If you don’t have them imprinted with your office name, simply add a tag to the bottles.

* Free Ice Cream Cone Certificates *

Team up with local ice cream shop for donations of free ice cream cones

* Zucchini *

Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Night. (I’m serious, it’s a real day in August!) While you probably don’t want to visit your patient’s homes during the night you can easily have a basket of zucchini at the office for your patient’s to take. Wrap some ribbon and a business card with a zucchini recipe on it for your patients to sneak onto their neighbors porch during the night.

 

patient appreciation gift idea zucchini

Dr. Bruyere & Team celebrating “Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Night “

GIFTS for FALL:

* Apple Cider *

Warm or cold cider is a nice fall treat. You don’t need to give every patient their own jug of cider a small cup of cider will be well received and appreciated. Include a sign near the cider that says:

“You’re the Apple of Our Eye”

* S’mores Kit *

Pinterest has some really neat ideas for inexpensive and fun s’more kits.

“We Need S’More Patients Like You!”

we need smore patients like you

Just a few of the creative ways you can exceed your patients expectations with this sweet treat… Thank you for sharing 🙂

Anytime Gifts 🙂

* Pens *

Purchase imprinted pens and add a tag to the pens that say:

“Take Note We Think You’re Awesome”

“Our Patients are just Write”

Tip: promostuff4u.com has a wonderful selection of pens and they offer exceptional customer service.

* Cookies *

Individually wrapped purchased or homemade cookies are a sweet treat. Add this label:

“Thankful for Sweet Patients Like You”

* Flowers *
Fresh single stem flowers or Small potted flowers (ex: inexpensive gift would be a marigold in a small pot, you can get mini pots from the dollar store 4/$1.00)

“Your referrals help grow our practice, Thank you!“

“Our Office Blooms Because of you!“

* Xylitol Products *

Offer Xylitol samples of Gum, Mints, and Suckers

Tip: Also have these items available for purchase

* Donuts *

Who doesn’t enjoy a yummy donut every once in a while? Display a platter of donuts at the front desk or at your patient beverage station with a sign that says:

“Donut Know What We Would Do Without Wonderful Patients Like You!”

* Bath Salts/Sugar Scrubs *

Consider making bath salts or sugar scrubs as a team building activity. Give away as gifts to your patients.

Tip: Pinterest is loaded with recipes and super cute packaging ideas.

* Lip Balm *

Order imprinted lip balm and attach cute tags to the packaging with this saying…

“Our Patients are the Balm!”

Tip: www.lipbalmexpress.com is a great company to order imprinted, all natural, inexpensive lip balm. See also Pinterest for fun packaging ideas for your lip balm.

* Gift of Health Certificates *

Instead of just asking your patients to refer their friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to your office, give them a gift of health certificate to share with their friends, family, neighbors & co-workers.

Here is a scripting idea:

 Gift Of Health Certificate

To: ______________________________________

From: ___________________________________

 Your oral health affects your overall health!

 This is your invitation to receive $25 toward dental treatment and a complimentary oral cancer screening from —(office name)——.

 Please RSVP at –(office phone number)—–

We’ll give you a reason to smile!

Add here: Office address & website/social media sites

Note: You can do some seasonal gift of health certificates by changing the paper and envelope according to the current season.

These are just a few patient appreciation gift ideas. I’m sure you can come up with even more fun gift ideas. I would LOVE to hear all about what you come up with! Please share your stories and pictures with me here, on my Facebook page or via email. Thank you to all of you that have sent me messages and pictures of your gift ideas!!

Plan ahead to make each month special for your patients with unexpected gifts of appreciation. Important Reminder: Whatever you decide to give away to your patients, include your office name and website on/with the gift whenever possible!!

Did you enjoy these tips and ideas?   I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK

Don’t miss out on any of the ideas that I share each month! Are you receiving my complimentary Practice Management and Marketing Ideas in your email inbox each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog. Feel free to tell your dental friends all about us so they can start benefiting from these dental ideas too. 

Yours for Greater Success,
~Betty

P.S. Please stop by and say hello to me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest