Emma Wilks explores ways to develop your practice’s brand and relationship within your local community and how this can boost your business…
Most dental practices exist to serve their local community and generally attract patients from a catchment radius of about 0-15 miles. As such, the practice’s relationship with the local community will have a huge impact on the long-term success or otherwise of the business.
Of course, the likelihood is, there will be other practices in the same and bordering areas, and they’ll all be vying for the same patients. So, how do you make your practice stand out and ensure that you attract more patients than your competitors?
One way is to build a strong, recognisable and respected practice brand that connects with the local community. Below are some of the ways that you can do this:
Your in-practice experience
As a dental practice, you are in a relatively unique position in that your customers come to you at regular and predictable times (what other business would give for that!). This gives you the opportunity to engage, to get to know them a little and to create a positive and consistent experience – and that starts and ends with your team.
The American poet and activist, Maya Angelou once famously said, ‘I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.’
This is no different for a great brand. Great brands, big and small, transcend the mechanics of the transaction and affect people on a deeper, emotional level – changing the way they feel about themselves.
Of course, the dentistry you deliver has the potential to massively impact on how patients feel about themselves (another big benefit), but those patients will also be affected and influenced on a wider scale by the interactions they experience when at the practice.
Talk with your team about how you want to make your patients ‘feel’ and then discuss how you can change or enhance the way you interact with your patients to bring this to life…every day. Do it until it becomes ingrained in your practice culture.
Patients who feel that they’ve had a great service delivered with passion will talk about it to their friends and relatives – and referrals will quickly follow.
Develop a great CSR policy for your practice
CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility – it’s what businesses do to affect positive change in their local communities and further afield.
Supporting local causes will engage your practice team and, at the same time, show that you are invested in the local community. Some things that you might want to consider are:
- Sponsoring local sports teams with branded kit
- Supporting local initiatives
- Helping to raise funds for local charities
- Allowing team members a day or two a year to volunteer with local charities or initiatives.
This local involvement will provide you with lots of content to post on your social media and PR opportunities to have written up in the local press.
Organise outreach activities
Sometimes it’s great to get out of the practice and into the community. Doing educational talks to schools and community groups will help you widen your network of contacts and build your practice’s reputation and, as with your CSR activities, it will provide you with content to share on your social media sites – helping to spread the word further.
In summary, taking a greater interest and involvement in your local community delivers a win/win for all parties – for your practice, for your team and for the community itself. It helps to build a strong and positive image for your practice which results in greater awareness amongst the community that quickly translates into a growing number of advocates.
