Archive for the ‘practice management’ Category

PostHeaderIcon Dental Practice Management : Aim High, Achieve More

 

In dental practice management, you should aim high to achieve more in your dental practice. By aiming high, this means delivering your service as best as you could to your dental patients. As you aim high, you will achieve more success in your dental practice. As a dental practice consultant, I will give you certain ways on how to do good in the management of in your practice. Dental practice management demands patience and hard work on your part as well. Here are some ways on how to manage your dental practice.

 

Sub-Niche Your Dental Practice:

 

In dental practice management, sub-niche your practice to your dental patients. By sub-niching this means that you promote other dental services to your patients. Offer a service for a specific dental patient concern. How do you do this. In my practice, I offer Invisalign solution to my patients who would like to have whiter, stronger teeth. I ask them what their ultimate goals are, and we have Invisalign as a solution for the patients to help them get the kind of teeth and smile that they want. If they want to get the solution immediately, we can present the whole treatment plan right then and there to them. So sub-niche your practice, go after your patients with problems and offer them various solutions in your dental practice.

 

Increase The Lifetime Value Of Each New Patient:

 

Aiming high in dental practice management means that you increase the lifetime value of each new patient. Develop ways that will help you maximize the lifetime value of each dental patient. E-mail your patient within 24 hours, thank them, make sure they call with any questions, etc, etc. Always remember that the real competition in the practice lies within the attention span of the prospective patient. So, it is important that every patient gets your attention and will come to your door and become your own patient. Remember that in dental practice your patients are getting marketed as well. Build some sort of “iron cage” for your patients, present your treatments to them very well, satisfy them with the services that you offer, etc. The point here is that you make sure that your patients will stay with you all the way in your practice.

 

Advertise Your Practice:

 

Advertising your dental services can be very helpful as well in dental practice management. By advertising, you can help people identify you as a good dentist by overwhelming them with “before and afters” proof. Educate them through DVD’s, powerpoints, and through the Internet. This is the future of dentistry and how it’s going to be sold. You have the options of educating your patients through seminars, local workshops, and you can educate them online as well.

 

Impress Your Patients Through Your Services:

 

This is perhaps the most important thing that you need to do in your dental practice management. Always make it a point that you impress your patients through your services. As they will be satisfied thoroughly with what you offer to them, the big possibility is that they will refer you to their family and friends. And through this, there will be a significant increase in the patients that will come to you in your practice. And this is a very good factor in your dental practice.

 

So, in dental practice management, always remember these strategies. Keep them in mind, and these will aid you well in your practice. Remember, aim high, and achieve more. Time to go for success!

PostHeaderIcon Ophthalmology Practice Management – Producing an Effective Practice E-Newsletter

If you’ve decided to adopt an e-newsletter service as part of your marketing plan, you’ve made the right decision. E-newsletters serve several important functions in ophthalmology practice management. They enable you to connect with your patients on a regular basis, updating them on changes in your practice; they are a valuable educational tool that can provide tremendous benefit to your patients; they become a record of your practice itself; and they serve a key purpose when it comes to marketing your practice. E-newsletters, done well, inspire trust and help you retain and attract patients.

As part of your ophthalmology practice management, a good electronic newsletter can showcase your care for your patients, but what should you include to achieve this goal? How should you organize it? What do your patients want to read? Read on for answers to these questions -and more.

Setting Up Your Newsletter

When you set up your newsletter, you can include the entire newsletter in the body of an email, or you can send an email with a link to the newsletter on your website. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. A newsletter in the body of an email can work well, since information comes directly to the patient’s inbox; however, patients who use text-only email will miss out on images and visual elements that you include. On the other hand, sending just a short message with a link to your site may mean that not as many people look at your newsletter. It’s really a question of what’s effective for your practice. You may find that a link to your site, accompanied by a tantalizing sentence or two, is the best compromise. Intrigue your patients with a well-thought-out headline (”3 Eye Problems You Can Avoid with an Annual Exam”) and they’ll want to hear more.

Your Email List

Be sure that patients opt to receive the e-newsletter from you; otherwise, you risk alienating people who may already be overloaded with emails in their inboxes.

Keep it Simple

Keep your newsletter user-friendly and easy for patients to scan. This applies to electronic communications in general, since our eyes move differently on the screen than they do on the page. Moreover, some of your patients have impaired vision that demands particular attention to usability principles.

Engage and Educate

Each newsletter should include basic information -a quick link for setting up appointments and any significant changes to your ophthalmology practice management team, for instance. You’ll also want to include educational information that will benefit your patients. Think of questions that your patients often ask you, and use those questions to decide what information to include. You can profile specific eye conditions, or eye problems associated with other diseases; you can include information about certain treatments or surgical options; you can discuss current ophthalmological research in laymen’s terms; or include any other content that your patients would find useful.

PostHeaderIcon Ophthalmology Practice Management – 5 Ways to Build Your Email Database

Building an email database for marketing purposes can be an area of great challenge in ophthalmology practice management. Using email to communicate with patients and potential patients is a powerful marketing tool, but how do you build your initial list, and how can you make it – and your practice – grow?

Start With Your Patients

Begin by using email as part of your day-to-day routine. Let patients contact you via email for non-urgent questions. Use it to schedule and confirm appointments. Many (though not all) people find email more convenient than using the telephone for this purpose, as long as communications are timely. Consider including a real-time electronic scheduling system integrated into your website that allows your patients to schedule visits any time of day or night. Patients will need to provide you with their email addresses in order to take advantage of this.

Word-of-Mouth

If patients love your practice, they’ll let others know about it. Make it easy by sending them educational information that they will want to forward to other people in the community -friends, families, and neighbors. People want to provide useful information to people they care about, and this is a way to facilitate that.

Your Website

Your website will showcase your practice -your experience, philosophy, and style of interacting with patients. Your website is also a good tool for building your email database. Include a simple opt-in form so that potential patients can sign up to get relevant eye health news and information from you. Sometimes just asking is all it takes.

Incentives

Offer an incentive for potential patients to opt to receive your emails. Incentives can take many forms. You can offer people a newsletter or other useful information that they want to receive, for instance. For those who are interested in a specific eye condition, you can offer information on current research in that area.

Marketing in Tandem

Clearly, no matter how effective it is, email won’t be everything you do to market your practice. You still have brochures, yellow pages listings (whether online or on paper), business cards, and professional partnerships that bring you patients. Be sure that your website is clearly listed on all of your other promotional materials, and you have just given potential patients an easy way to find out more about you.

Ultimately, building an email database as part of your ophthalmology practice management has the same goal that all of your marketing does: building a relationship with your patients. Marketing your practice in this way becomes a public health service rather than a sales strategy -and your patients will reap the benefit.