I don’t mean talking about the hygienist’s new hair color, the office carpet, or the portion of their crown payment that wasn’t covered by insurance. I hope patients are gushing about you for all the right reasons.
How can you tell?
In last week’s workshop, I outlined “Your First 5 Moves Before You Spend Another Marketing Dollar.”
Move number one? Determine your word-of-mouth (WOM) factor. This is one of the easiest ways to tell if your patients are talking about you – find out how many of their friends they are referring to you!
Please don’t get scared by the math of it all; I promise it’s a simple equation. Divide the number of new WOM patients seen by the total patients seen in the same time period to provide you with the percentage. Calculating this baseline gives you a measurable statistic showing how much those internal marketing efforts are working or when they may need more attention from you and your team.
For example, if you saw 2,000 patients in the last 12 months and received 100 new patients from word-of-mouth: 100/2,000 = 5%
Why does it matter?
We can all agree that these WOM patients are typically the “best” patients. They show up on time, pay their bill, accept recommended treatment, and refer patients like them. These are also the most cost-effective patients to acquire. Yes, the in-house marketing strategies that affect your word-of-mouth factor require consistent effort, time, and monitoring. But a consistently executed WOM strategy in your practice will save you tens of thousands of dollars in other marketing tactics.
So, what is your word-of-mouth factor? And more importantly, could it be improved with some focused efforts from you and your team?
It’s time to get people talking.