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As a dentist, your most valuable assets are your patients. It's not just about bringing in new dental patients. To successfully start a dental marketing campaign, it is important to know the value of each patient to your practice. The total profit, delivered over time by those patients is what can break or make your dentistry business. If you want to keep a steady number of patients and grow your business, you need to know what makes them happy.
Many Irish people now choose to have their cosmetic dental treatment abroad in countries like Turkey, Spain and Portugal. Some of these countries offer their patients discounts of up to 70 percent on what Dublin can offer. These countries may offer more value to their patients, which is why your practice should re-evaluate marketing strategies.
New Dental Patients: Value for Money
The majority of dentistry practices channel a part of their overall marketing budgets to acquiring and locating new patients. The amount of money that should be spent on attracting new patients varies from one dental practice to another. It is a given that marketing dollars spent to attract a new patient should not exceed the lifetime value of that patient to the dental practice.
Calculating the value of new patients is therefore a crucial component when determining how to allocate your marketing budget. However, marketing experts, have a widely ranging estimate when it comes to a new client's long-term value. Some have placed the estimates at just a couple of hundred dollars, while others place it well over $10,000.
A Wealthy dentist survey revealed that only a quarter of the 68 respondents had ever attempted to estimate the value of a brand new dental patient. The respondents estimated the value of new dental patients in the range $200-$3,000. The average per dental patient was between $900 and $1,000.
Determining Patient Lifetime Value
You need to know the lifetime value of each dental patient in order to build meaningful relationships with them. You can then structure and market your business strategically to maximize revenue and take your business to the next stage. The concept of Customer Lifetime Value or CLV is an estimation of the total value of a customer to a business during the entire period you have an engagement.
Customer Lifetime Value is a vital marketing tool for any business. It is especially important for businesses that are relationship driven, like dentistry. Consider the following factors when estimating your clinic's CLV:
* Lifelong Relationship: Total duration that an average patient spends at your dentistry.
* Average Annual Value: Revenue made annually from each patient.
* Client Referral Value: Patients referred by your average client.
The following formula can be used to calculate the lifetime value of a patient on average:
Lifetime Patient Value = Average Annual Value x Lifelong Relationship + Client Referral Value
The importance of patient lifetime value calculation
Once you have an estimate of a new dental patient's lifetime value, it becomes possible to make decisions that are more informed in regard to advertising and marketing. You will certainly not want to spend more resources on acquiring new patients than what they bring to your dental practice in their lifetime.
You can also set a client target that you need to exceed when you know the current value of each new patient. If you invest $5000 into a patient postcard campaign and you believe the new customer will be worth $500, then you need to bring in at least 10 new patients to consider your campaign successful.
Alternative valuation method
You can also estimate the value of a new patient by asking yourself how much money you would accept from another dentist if you were to "sell" one of yours. Would you accept, for instance, less than $400 as payment? You would most likely ask for more.
Many times, dental patients seeking services during an emergency tend to go back to the dentist they see regularly. When calculating the value of a patient, you should consider how to convert an emergency patient into one who is a regular. Improve the lifetime worth of your dental patients and your dentistry office will become more valuable and successful.
Conclusion
Armed with how to calculate the value of your new dental patients and why you need to do the estimation, your dentistry practice will be in a position of making marketing decisions that are more informed leading to higher Return-On-Investment. The Customer Lifetime Value measurement methodology helps you in assessing the profitability of specific marketing and promotional efforts. It guides in highlighting which promotional efforts should be abandoned or kept. If you can increase the lifetime value of every dental patient, then your practice will see steady profits over time.
Many people do not know the importance of dental checkups. In fact, many people cringe at the mere mention of a dental check-up. This is a very negative view of what dentists do. Imagine going to the office with bad breath, or attending a party while your teeth are showing visible cavities. As you can now tell, dentists are very important in our lives. However, going for a dentist check-up when you have a problem with your teeth is not good enough. What you need to do is to see a dentist more regularly. Here are some reasons why you shouldn't underestimate the importance dental checkups.
- Dental Checkups Lead to a Correct Diagnosis In Good Time
Many people do not realize the importance of dental checkups until they feel some kind of pain in their gums. This is quite unfortunate because you can easily avoid such pain with regular dental checkups. For example, a dentist can easily tell when cavities start to develop in your teeth or when a certain gum disease begins to spread in your mouth. This means that dentists can take corrective measures before any pain sets in. They can either clean your teeth or fill your cavities among other things. Dentists are also able to address other issues, such as halitosis, with dental checkups.
Dental Checkups Save You A Lot of Cash
It is expensive to deal with dental problems and diseases after they occur. These issues and diseases can be quite inconveniencing as well. For example, can you imagine a professional singer wearing braces just because she failed to visit her dentist more regularly? This kind of dental situation can affect her career because braces will affect her singing performance. You can avoid similar situations by visiting the dentist more regularly. Do not wait until the damage is irreversible before you visit your dentist. If you wait to treat gum disease, tooth decay and cavities among other dental problems, it will cost you more than necessary.
- Dental checkups can save your life and help you keep your teeth
More than 300,000 new cases of oral carcinoma are reported every year. Meanwhile, millions of people lose a tooth each day. You do not have to suffer a similar fate. You can actually treat oral cancer in time if you are at a risk of developing it or keep all your teeth if you are in danger of losing them to disease or cavities. Regular dental checkups will help you to keep smiling by determining the problem at hand and then dealing with it promptly.
These are the main reasons why you should seriously consider going for regular checkups. They are not expensive and they do not take much time. They are quick, convenient and practical. Avoiding regular checkups can lead to many unnecessary inconveniences. You do not have to go through any of these hassles now that you understand the importance of dental checkups. Allow a dentist help you to diagnose any problem in time and deal with this problems if it does exist. Call today to schedule your dental checkup.
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