In today’s episode, we are talking about one of the number one requests I get from doctors & office managers: how to increase the # of referrals they receive on a regular basis.
Discover how to engineer a process in order to generate a greater number of referrals on a more consistent basis.
And I’ll share with you a number of different examples of how doctors are doing this in their practices as well as examples from outside the industry that you can copy and paste in your business.
Join us on the Dental Marketing Secrets podcast!
Full Transcript
What do you get when you combine simplified practice marketing, proven ROI strategy, and Vans skate shoes?You get Mark Thackeray, of course! So lace up, grab your green smoothie, and get ready because this is Dental Marketing Secrets and this is Mark.
Hello and welcome my friends to episode number six of the Dental Marketing Secrets podcast where we provide actionable tips and tricks that you can apply immediately to grow your practice, to serve more patients and leave a greater impact.
That is what it’s all about. My friends, my name is Mark Thackeray and as always I am honored to be here with you in this very moment, wherever and however you may be listening. Thank you for spending your time on Dental Marketing Secrets. I promise you it will be time well spent.
I’m sitting in here on the couch in my little studio. It’s Halloween and so I’m dressed in a a German garb. I’ve got the leader Hosan, I’ve got the knee high socks. I’ve got the shirt that has the open front. You can see my chest. It’s anyway, not the greatest picture, but I just wanted to share that with you so you can have that visual as we get through and get into this episode.
But in today’s episode we’re talking about one of the number one things that I get asked about all the time from doctors, from office managers is how to increase the number of referrals I receive on a regular basis. That question is one that I receive all the time and we’re going to take a deep dive into how you go about engineering a process in order to generate a greater number of referrals on a more consistent basis. And I’m going to share with you a number of different examples on how doctors are doing this currently in their practices as well as examples from outside the industry that you can copy and paste in your business.
Okay. So as I mentioned before this question, how do I get more referrals is one of the most commonly asked questions I get from everyone. Okay. And for good reason. Referrals are a literal gold mine because they are much more likely to convert into new patients. They negotiate less, they have a greater amount of trust in you and your abilities. They tend to accept treatment more easily and more often. They also tend to refer more people to you and your practice and cost less to acquire than non referred patients and they typically remain patients longer. So if that list doesn’t make your mouth start to water and really ramp up your desire to generate more referrals, then I don’t know what to tell you. You need a good smack upside the head because referrals can be one of the easiest and most profitable ways to grow your practice.
And all you have to do is create a formalized system that makes it easier for patients to refer. Okay. That is really the crux of it, is creating a structured strategic system that is constantly running all the time. If you look at your practice, your best patients are already referring their family, their friends, their colleagues at work to you from time to time. And those people that they refer are probably very similar to you. You know, they’re probably, excuse me, they’re probably very similar to your best patients. Okay. We tend to refer people that are just like us, you know, that have similar interests and similar desires. They’re often in a similar stage of life and that sort of thing.
And it’s important to note that your patients refer people they know because they value the benefit that you bring into their lives. It’s so key to remember this, that they want people that they know and care about to receive the same benefits that you’ve delivered to them.
But for most practices, their referral system, the extent of their referral system at least is that they passively wait in the background hoping for patients to bring in referrals for you. Okay. That’s, that’s their referral system is they, they try and do deliver excellent patient care and treatment and then just hope and pray that their refer their patients will send referrals their way.
But the reality is that you need to actively solicit those referrals through a structured process. That’s the reality of today. In an ideal world, people would, you know, you deliver awesome care, which I know most of you already do and people would go out of their way to speak volumes about the and just drive people to you. But we are so busy, we are constantly bombarded with so many different messages. They say over 4,000 different advertising messages every single day and that’s not to mention all the other tasks and obligations that we have in our family life and our social life. How are they supposed to, you know, how are patients supposed to remember to refer us? You know, it’s our responsibility to help remind them of the benefit that we’re delivering to them and how we can, how we can deliver that benefit to their family and friends.
Now think about how many referrals you’re receiving currently. I want you to think about, look at your practice and say to yourself, identify roughly how many patients, how many referrals you’re getting on a on a month to month basis. Okay. Now imagine for a second, five to 10 times that amount, five to 10 times the amount that you’re currently getting. That’s really the leverage potential of a formalized strategic, very active referral system. That’s what we’re talking about. That’s the transformation that can occur in your practice by by flushing this out and really implementing a referral system.
And the best part about this is you don’t have to wait very long. This system like this will bring you immediate results, your patients and your profits will begin to grow as soon as you put this system into place.
Now let’s talk about some of the obstacles. Why aren’t people, if referrals are so freaking amazing, which they are, why aren’t more people focused on putting together a system like that? Well, the reality is most people are extremely timid when it comes to asking for referrals. We have this societal perception that we need to be self sufficient, that we need to be able to do it on our own. And if I’m asking for a referral that might suggest that I am incapable of generating those patients on my own.
But that is flawed thinking, you guys, there is absolutely no reason to be embarrassed or afraid of asking help from your patients to spread the good word about you and what you do and direct other people’s to your practice. In fact, I would argue that it is your obligation. It is your moral obligation to do that. So let me explain what I mean by that.
Once you recognize the full impact, the implications, the improvements that your services can provide to your patients every single day, month after month, once you realize that once you have that picture clearly burned into your brain, then you’ll start to realize the responsibility that you have in encouraging and educating all of your patients and their family and friends of those amazing benefits that they will receive by coming to see you. Okay? It is absolutely imperative to remember the tremendous value that you’re bringing into their lives through your care.
We’ve all seen the transformation that can occur in someone’s life. When they finally feel comfortable and confident about their smile, their lives are literally turned around. Once you see that and can share the pathway to achieve that kind of personal transformation, it is then up to you. It is your personal responsibility, your moral obligation like I mentioned, to do whatever you can to help your patients and their family and friends realize that end result.
They are looking to you as the authority figure as the expert and when you understand the impact that you can deliver to their lives, then that is your responsibility to do whatever you can to get them to accept that treatment and remember, most of us got into this line of work because we want to help people. That’s really what it’s all about in the end is helping patients to see and understand the life altering benefits that come with a great and healthy smile.
There was a doctor who sadly and unfortunately did not fully understand all this and was therefore not helping his patients to see those benefits one day. In fact, he learned of a longtime patient. This was actually one of his favorite patients that had gone to another dentist and received care that she needed. And when he found this out, he saw her and he asked her, “why didn’t you come to me?” And this is what she said: “you knew that I struggled with my self esteem because of how my teeth looked for the past 12 years. I’ve looked into the mirror every day and I’ve questioned at times whether or not I should even go out in public all this time you the ability to change that for me and you didn’t. Why didn’t you help me see this? Why didn’t you help me understand? I wouldn’t have had to waste these past 12 years of my life.”
Wow. How many patients, family and friends of patients have gone through this exact same scenario? How many patients could have had their lives changed exponentially for the better? If only we would stop worrying about inconveniencing people by asking for a referral and instead focusing on how radically different and better their lives would be if they did come in for treatment. How many patients could we have effected?
Do you see the difference when you start operating with this type of mindset, it’s much, much easier to make the constant generation of referrals and essential responsibility and a commitment to your patients and their family and friends, everyone that they know and to help your patients see the connection. You really need to set up a deliberate referral system. These systems have to be so automatic, so continual, so authoritative and so revered that they work continuously and automatically four-pole sites for your office as well as the patient.
So that said, okay, let’s get into how you actually structure a strategic referral system for your practice. Okay, let’s dive into that for a second. There is truly, and I’m going to say this upfront, is truly an endless amount of ways to structure this system to create a referral system and to be totally frank, it is only limited by your imagination. We’re going to share some different examples and you’re going to see, you can be as creative as you want, but one of the things I will ask you to remember is that the most effective referral systems have certain key elements in common.
For example, the first thing you need to do is to set the stage. You need to do a little romancing as my friend Jay Abraham says, when we’re talking about referrals, you need to really paint the picture. And he offers these four tips. He says, first you tell your patients that you enjoy doing business with them more than any other patient you work with and that you realize that they probably know and associate with other awesome people just like themselves. And as I mentioned before, they associate people with other people that are just like them, you know, that have those similar qualities that are in that same stage of life. That that would probably accept the same type of treatment or look for the same type of treatment.
Second, tell them that you are looking for more people just like them and that you’d like to extend the opportunity of referring their friends, their family and associates to you and explain to them that you would prefer their referrals to any other source of patients out there. That ideally you would just work with them and the people that they know because you working with them so much. That would be the ideal.
Third, help the patient and this is where he really dives into painting the picture, right? Help the patient see clearly who in their lives could benefit most effectively and naturally from becoming a patient at your office. You know, really describe what in great detail the situation that those people might find themselves in. Okay, so they might be experiencing these type of challenges in their daily life. And here’s some of the benefits of things that might happen in their life if they came to see us, if they became our patients, this is how their lives would transform. Show them what those benefits look like, thanks to your care and treatment.
And more importantly thanks to them, your existing patients for referring, it all comes back to them for making that connection. You see and that’s one of the reasons why really why people refer is is that they want that satisfaction, that fulfillment that comes from being a connector. Okay. Is having to say, Oh I know a guy. You know what I’m saying? So you really want to spend time in and painting that picture and helping them see that, see all those benefits both for their friends and family both for the existing patient.
Fourth and last extent, a totally risk-free zero obligation offer. Okay. You are going to be very open and willing to confer, to consult, to see, to evaluate anyone that’s important to that patient as a total service to that patient. Okay. In other words, offering to evaluate their referral without any expectation of treatment so your patient sees you as a valuable expert that they are happy to connect to their family and friends. Okay. They don’t want to, they are much more resistant to referring family and friends over to you. If you’re all you’re going to do is, is go high pressure on them and try and convert them into treatment that they don’t need.
But when you shift that mindset, when you shift that approach and instead offer this, a zero obligation offer, I’m just gonna, I’m just here to consult and provide feedback for them. That makes a huge, huge difference.
And if you were to follow, so if you were to follow this procedure every day for every patient that you talk to, every patient that you write to or every patient that you visit with for five days straight, and you also got your team members to buy into this and follow this, you could not help but get dozens of new patients. In fact, practices have literally doubled or tripled their patient base in six to 12 months through this process alone.
Think about that. Doubling your patients base in six to 12 months through one formalized strategic referral system. That is the power of putting this all together. And like I said, the actual look and feel of it can, can vary tremendously.
So I wanted to share a couple of different for you to start thinking about. Okay. Just to really get the juices flowing. So one dentist offers a $20 gift card to new patients that are referred by existing patients. And so it’s really cool. It’s a win, win win scenario where the new patient receives a comprehensive evaluation, no cost to them. So that gives them a chance to come in for again, a zero risk zero obligation offer to just take a test drive, make sure they’re comfortable with the practice. It results in a win for the existing patient because not only are they able to offer something of value to their family and friends, again being a connector, but they also receive a $20 gift card. Super cool. And it’s a win for the practice because you are essentially acquiring a new patient for the hard cost of 20 bucks instead of, you know, the $96 that it typically comes that it typically costs when you get it through an advertising medium. Really cool.
So an orthodontist office just does things a little bit differently. So they have a monthly giveaway set up for where they give away a popular item. You know, things like two tickets to a local theme park, or let’s say an Apple watch, or it could be an a hundred dollars gift card to a local restaurant. Okay. And the only way to be entered to win is to refer someone that comes in for a free consultation. So again, it’s this win, win, win scenario and where everyone walks away a winner. Okay. And the office, it’s so cool because the office regularly receives a dozen or two new patients every single month, thanks to this giveaway, all for a hard cost of, you know, a few hundred bucks. And that’s super cool.
Another office, and this one’s a cosmetic dentist offers and they, you know, they obviously are going to focus more on the high end. So they’ve gone all out with their, with their system and they offer to really luxury rewards for their patients that refer people that need high end treatment. OK. So in his case, it looks like this. He offers the existing patient and overnight hotel stay for two, at a top tier hotel (think Ritz Carlton, st Regis, something like that). He offers them a hotel hotel stay for two for any person that they refer that comes in for a smile makeover. Okay.
But he doesn’t stop there. He also thinks of the new patient and that new patient receives a hundred dollar gift card to a renowned restaurant nearby somewhere in the city. So offering them a basically an awesome night on the town for coming in and being a new patient, essentially.
Whenever I share this one, it’s inevitable that some people are like, Whoa, that is way too much money. I’m not going to be forking out this much money just for a new patient. But that is such a short sided approach. Okay. That is just flawed thinking. Instead, you need to look at it like this doctor is investing. Operative word being invest $400 to $600 towards existing patients when and only if they bring in another patient who accepts, you know, a 15 to $25,000 worth of treatment. Now wouldn’t you be okay trading $600 for $20,000 in treatment? Yeah, I certainly would all day every day that I do that all day, every day for sure.
I’m going to share a few more examples because I want to, I want you to walk away. Ultimately I want you to walk away thinking that the sky’s the limit when it comes to creating these systems and ideally you would, we wouldn’t stop with just one system you’d put in and operate more than one all the time because you can really maximize your return when you’re, when you’re, when you’re doing more than just one. But first off, I just want you to get started with one and I’m giving you these examples so that you can see and start to get the juices flowing and see which one seems most natural for you to do
. But one of the keys to remember when you’re doing this is to Revere the patient and to Revere the benefits that you provide. That is absolutely essential. Your entire mission is to help patients see, help patients understand, to help patients ultimately experience the life changing benefits that a beautiful, healthy, gorgeous smile can bring. Okay. That is your mission. You are on a mission to transform people’s lives through proper dental care and that you need their help to do that. That is essential for you to articulate that.
Not only that, but when patients refer more people, more people to your office, that allows you to invest more time, more of your money into a better patient experience through better, more qualified staffing, through more advanced technology and tools that make it more comfortable, make it less intrusive for the patient. Things like that. Help them understand the benefit that comes to them from referring. Not just, you know, the initial short term incentive of a gift card or a hotel stay or something like that, but help them understand you’ve changed your process to make it a better experience for everyone, for existing patients, for new patients. Okay. And that referrals generating referrals helps you, helps you accomplish that.
Okay. Another few examples. So there’s a dentist in Australia, I love this one, but he’s actually made referrals a condition of doing business with him. No joke. He States upfront when he’s with prospective patients that in order to provide the type of quality service and experience to each one of his patients, he requires that each of them provide at least two referrals a year. Otherwise they get charged a service fee.
And his explanation is really simple. He, he says, well, I can either invest lots of money into marketing and advertising order to bring in new patients, which is extremely expensive. Or he can take that money and invest it back into creating the best possible experience for his patients and then ask his patients to refer their family and friends.
Now, some of you might be wondering if this approach actually works right? You know, we’ve talked about how we are naturally very hesitant to ask for help ask for referrals. So does this work? Well let me tell you, if this doctor, he works two days a week and is making more than he ever has, he’s working less than ever and bringing home more than he ever has. It’s all about how you position yourself. Okay.
And I would again emphasize that it’s, it’s so important to help them understand why you’re asking for these referrals that you’re taking the money that you’d normally spend in advertising or marketing, things like that and you’re reinvesting it back into a better patient experience. Help them see that. And a lot of people will be more eager to refer their family and friends.
So let me share a few examples from outside the industry because it’s, that can be extremely helpful too. Some of them are going to resonate with you more than the ones inside the industry. And I don’t want you to ever feel like you can only do what’s being done inside the dental industry. This is actually a huge business tip is to swipe and deploy or copy and paste what other industries are doing and put them into inside your own niche, right?
So here’s an optometrist and his is very, very simple, very basic. Some of you might be doing this already, but this is a great thing to do is he takes very simple generic blank, you know, thank you notes and he hand writes a thank you to them, to all the patients who have sent him a referral. And the power behind this is that if you, you know, if you have a doctor in front of your name, most people aren’t really used to being acknowledged, much less thanked by a doctor for doing anything for them, right? And so when you do it, it creates a huge impression on people. And you couple that process with an incentive, I bet you generate even more, better, greater results. That’s a simple thing.
Here’s a life insurance example. There’s an agent who has meetings with her clients for their birthdays, you know, she’ll take them out for breakfast or lunch. And during those meetings she likes to ask them a lot of questions. You know, she likes to really, she’s very interested in who they are and they’re their own personal stories. So she’ll sit down with him and ask them, Hey, how did you get started in your business now? What makes your business different? What makes you different? Things like that. You know, what makes it great, what she’s just very focused on them, right?
And then she’d turn the table, turn the conversation a little bit, turn the tables on her and say, and ask these questions. You know, tell me one or two things that I could do to really improve my business. And she’d asked them, what would you, or who would you call on if you were in my position? Do you know two, five, ten, 100 people? And then these, you know, her clients start listing people and she’ll ask questions about those clients. She’ll be really interested in what they’re doing and, and what’s going on in their life.
And what happens at the end of all this is that she has this list of real potential referrals that now she can go call on and she has information about them too. So it’s not just a blind list, but she actually knows a little bit about their business and and what makes them tick and what makes them special. That’s a great, a really creative way to generate referrals.
Here’s another one from a wedding photographer and they actually put in put have two referral systems in place. So their first one was, you know, when a bride would come into their studio, they would tell them, they explained to them that they can get this beautiful wall portrait that’s, you know, normally $250 and they can get that for only 20 bucks. If they send two more couples and they end up shooting their weddings. So super easy, you know, for 20 bucks and sending a few things out, they can get something worth 250 bucks to post on their wall. Beautiful, gorgeous portrait framed and everything.
Secondly, the second system they have operating is that they would, after after the wedding they had, they’d asked each of their clients, the bride and the groom to provide a list of all the names of their wedding party. So all the boys, all the girls, and they would write each of them handwritten thank you card for, for helping out, for being great to work with on that day. You know, they’d say things like, well thanks so much for putting up with us. You’re great to work with. If only all our clients were just like you sort of thing. But at the end they would also let them know that because they were so great to work with each of those guests, each of the members of the wedding party would receive a complimentary portrait of their family. And because of these two systems, this studio shot thousands of weddings, you know, resulting in millions of dollars essentially through these two referral systems. So cool. Okay.
Another one from car sales and this is a sales agent and she has built her entire business on referrals. She and what she does, this is a cool one too – so a client comes to her and they purchase a car and then afterwards, you know, week goes by and she’ll send their client a balloon package that’s delivered to their, to their work. Okay. So they’re sitting down in their office here, all of a sudden comes this big balloons, you know, the set of balloons and that there’s sets sits it on their desk, right? And everyone’s around them looking at this like, Oh, is it your birthdays? They’re asking him questions and the person like, no, actually it’s because I just bought a new car. And so they get to brag about the car and then the conversation inevitably turns to that back to this sales agent, how cool she is for doing this. Right?
Think of the exposure that you’ve just generated from all these, you know, potential referrals by doing something very simple like that. I love that one. That one’s so great. And there’s so much more you guys.
I honestly, we’re going to need to do another episode on this topic because so many other things I’d like to dive into. But to summarize and to conclude, I’d like, I would just want to say a few things. So generating more referrals, really it comes down to creating a formalized system, okay? Putting together a process that you can execute day in and day out. Included in that system is the responsibility of educating your patients on how important they are to you and how valuable your services are. So you want to Revere the patient and revere the benefits that you provide. And you need to set that stage before you ask for referrals, okay? But once you create that process, get it going, okay? I see far too many practices that love the stage of coming up with ideas and they have so many great ideas, but then they don’t do anything about it, okay? And that is worthless. It does not do anything for you.
So test it out, put something together, test it out for 30 days, make sure that you’re consistently applying it and see for yourself if it doesn’t bring you any new patients. Again, referred patients, it says where it’s at you guys, I mean they tend to accept more treatment. They have, again, a greater degree of trust in you and your services. They remain patients longer, they’re less likely to haggle on price. They typically refer more people and are generally so much easier to work with. Okay, and you can be attracting more and more of those type of patients every month through a fleshed out, standardized process.
Well, that’s it, my friends. Thank you again for joining us today on Dental Marketing Secrets. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback I’d love to hear from you, simply email me at markthack@gmail.com and if you’re having success, whether it be generating referrals or some other, some other type of marketing methods, I would love to hear from you and possibly share that on the podcast.
It’s really all about bringing ideas together of how we can each serve more people, serve more patients, and leave a greater impact. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please leave a review for this podcast. We’re just getting this going and that would be a tremendous help.
Share it with your family, your friends, your peers, your team, your neighbors, everyone. I’m asking referrals just like we talked about. The value that we can create through collaborating and bringing more ideas to the table is going to benefit everyone tremendously.
So thank you for sharing your time with me, and until next time, my friends make it a great week! Did you enjoy this episode of the Dental Marketing Secrets podcast? Head on over to iTunes to subscribe, rate, and leave a review. And for more proven marketing strategies to grow your practice, visit practice rocket.net.
