Do Your Specialists Get It? - Do you?

In a discussion recently with a group of specialists, the question came up as to why general dentists give their patients several choices instead of just recommending one specialist. Most specialists think it is for liability reasons – that the general dentist does not want to take the blame if something goes wrong. It is a convenient explanation, but totally off base.

If you are a general dentist and referred one of your patients to a specialist and the patient came back raving about the experience and then thanked you for the referral, it would get your attention. If the patients you referred to that particular specialist routinely responded in like manner, you would start thinking twice about referring them to anyone else because that particular specialist made you look good – really good! If you are specialist and want more loyalty from your referring dentists, wake up and start giving the patients something to talk about so they can’t help but talk about their experience when they return to their general dentist. It seems like a simple formula. I am not sure why most specialist don’t get it, but they seem more interested in boosting their out of control egos and arrogance than they do TREATING patients in a way that reflects positively on the person who referred them. (And I’m not talking about clinical treatment.)

Now let’s turn the tables for a moment. What are you and your team doing to really give your patients something to talk about after their appointment? Take for example a recent new patient who works for a major employer who came into an office with which we work. After his initial visit, the phone started ringing at the dental office with other employees from the same company. They called simply because this one patient was telling everyone about his experience at the dentist. Since half the people don’t go to the dentist on a regular basis, they have a level of guilt that they are trying to relieve if someone will just give them a good reason to pick up the phone. All it takes is just a little enthusiasm from someone they trust to push them over the edge.

So what did this office do to get the patient to talk? They did what they do with every patient. They treated him right, made him feel important, listened to him, met him where he was emotionally, and followed the entire ToPS system for total case acceptance. They did it right!

So, whether you are a specialist or a general dentist, if you don’t have raving word of mouth, wake up and get on your game. Word-of-mouth is only the most powerful form of marketing in dentistry if you give your patients something to talk about. Make the commitment today to be a “specialist” – a specialist in creating such a compelling experience that patients can’t help themselves. They HAVE to talk about you.