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As a dentist, your most valuable assets are your patients. And it's not simply a matter of new dental patients that your practice brings. It is important to understand the value of every patient for your practice before you launch a dental marketing campaign. 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. Perhaps these countries add more value to their dental patients, underlying the significance of why your practice needs to re-evaluate its marketing strategies.
New Dental Patients: Value for Money
Most dental practices allocate a portion of their marketing budgets towards acquiring and locating potential new patients. The amount that should go towards attracting new patients will, of course, vary substantially from one dental clinic to another. It goes without saying that the dollars going into marketing efforts geared to attracting a new patient must not exceed that patient's lifetime value to the practice.
This makes calculating the value of a new patient a vital component in determining the most prudent way of allocating your marketing budget. Marketing experts have different estimates when it comes to the long-term value of a new customer. Some have placed the estimates at just a couple of hundred dollars, while others place it well over $10,000.
A Wealthy Dentist survey that revealed that out of the 68 dentistry survey respondents, only a quarter had ever tried estimating the value of a 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
To build meaningful dentist-patient relationships, you need to have an estimate of the lifetime value each dental patient brings. You can then structure and market your business strategically to maximize revenue and take your business to the next stage. The Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is an estimate of the total value a client brings to a company during the period of time 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. Among the factors to consider in estimating CLV for your particular clinic includes:
* Lifelong relationship: Average time spent by a patient at your dental office.
* Average Annual Value (Average annual revenue): The amount of revenue generated annually by each patient.
* Client Referral Value : The average number of patients referred by a 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
You can make more informed decisions about advertising and marketing once you have an estimate for the lifetime value of a new patient. You won't want to spend more money on acquiring new dental patients than they will bring to your practice over 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
Another method of estimating the worth of a new dental patient is by asking yourself the amount of money you would be ready to receive from another dentist were you "selling" one of your patients. Would you, for example, be willing to receive less than $400? In all probability, you would ask for more.
Often, dental patients who need emergency services tend to return to their regular dentist. When calculating the value of a patient, you should consider how to convert an emergency patient into one who is a regular. Your dental office will be more successful and valuable if you can increase the lifetime value of your patients.
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 will help you assess the profitability of marketing and promotional campaigns. It helps you decide which promotional efforts to keep or abandon. 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 way of looking at what dentists do. Can you imagine going to work with bad breath or going to a party with visible cavities in your teeth? You can see that dentists play a very important role 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 reasons why you should not underestimate the importance of dental checkups.
- Dental Checkups Can Lead To a Proper Diagnosis in Good Time
Many people don't realize the importance of dental examinations until they experience some type of gum pain. 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. Dentists can then take corrective action before pain begins. They can also fill cavities or clean your teeth. Dentists are also able to address other issues, such as halitosis, with dental checkups.
- Dental Checkups save You A Lot of Money
Dealing with dental issues and diseases once they come up is quite expensive. 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. By visiting your dentist more frequently, you can avoid similar situations. 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 to Keep Your Teeth
There are more than three hundred thousand new cases of oral cancer reported each year while millions of people have a tooth or two removed each day. You don't have to suffer the same fate. If you are at risk of developing oral cancer, you can treat it in time. You can also keep your teeth if they are in danger of falling out due to disease or decay. Regular dental checkups can help you keep your smile by identifying the problem and addressing it quickly.
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 convenient, quick and practical. Avoiding regular checkups can lead to many unnecessary inconveniences. Now that you know the importance of dental checks, you don't have to deal with any of these inconveniences. Allow a dentist help you to diagnose any problem in time and deal with this problems if it does exist. Call today and schedule your dental check-up.
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