Three little letters that can change your focus and get you better results in growing your practice.
I have 3 letters that I'm going to give you today that are going to make a big difference on what you focus on and therefore the results you get out of your practice. Those letters are: R, F, and M.
The first letter R is for recency. Recency is important when it comes to your existing patients, and your goal is to shorten the time frame of when they come back in. Look at reactivation for example, if you are looking at your past due patients and you haven't seen them in 3 years, odds are they have moved on and you should, too. But if you look at patients who are only 7 or 8 months past due, you have a much more likely chance of getting them back in for re-care. You are still on their mind and they still remember you so shift your focus to them, and work towards cutting down on the time between their visits to avoid passing the 6 month mark.
The second letter F is for frequency. Frequency is just as important. Now, want you to always practice ethics when it comes to your business and never be manipulative (and actually in life too!) but I find that we're so busy and focused on our routine that things get missed sometimes. But what things can you do a build frequency with your patients that will protect not only their investment with you, but their overall oral health. Patients want to protect the investment they have already made on their oral health, so what procedures can be done to protect them from having trouble down the road?
And the last letter is M – which is for the ever-important Money. Who is spending the most money with you? I'm not talking about your trouble patients, who come in maybe once a year and aren't accepting any additional necessary care. But rather your star patients, who come in on schedule, accept care, are pleasant to be around, pay their bills on time, and refer you to friends.
Look at your most recent and frequent patients, they are where most of your referral opportunities come from. If you are seeing them on a regular, consistent basis they are most likely to tell friends and family about you. In my practice we called then our unpaid sales force because they brought in most of our 'next best patients'.
When you are thinking of getting more patients and keeping more patients in your dental practice, I want you to remind yourself of R F M: Recency, Frequency, and Money. If you keep those letters in your mind when coming up with re-care systems it will help take you a long way.