Ask Jan Hill

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Do you know how many patients actually leave your practice every month? While a growing practice always needs new patients, you also need to know and evaluate your retention rate. Failing to nurture the patients you have can be extremely destructive to your practice and limit your ability to attract new patients. Let’s face it; if you can’t keep the ones you have now why bother spending money on marketing to get new ones who will just leave after a visit or two? And, as in most businesses, it’s more important to keep the patients you have than it is to get new ones – less costly as well.

So today I want to spend a little bit of time talking about some of the things you can do to stop “The Revolving Door Syndrome”. There are many reasons why a patient might leave your practice, but here are the most common ones – patients:

• Felt your fees were too high
• Had unresolved issues related to fees or treatment
• Felt you were “pushing” them into treatment they didn’t want or couldn’t afford
• Left because the staff was unprofessional
• Left because your office looked like it needed an overhaul
• Felt you didn’t listen to them.
• Left because they felt you simply didn’t care…….

Any of those reasons sound familiar? Yes? Read on – help is on the way.

A patient leaving for any reason is a hard pill to swallow, and you absolutely should take it personally! The last 2 reasons on the list above make up the majority of why patients leave your dental practice – and that’s just flat-out hard to accept. When you consider the cost of getting a new patient through marketing efforts is approximately $80 – $120, it’s expensive as well as demoralizing.

Your first thought after reviewing the list is “Well that isn’t our office, we care, and we always listen to our patients.” But I want you to really think about this for a minute. What does a typical hygiene appointment look like? Your patient comes in, they have their teeth cleaned, the dentist rushes in for 2-3 minutes to confirm their next treatment appointment and quickly rushes out to the next waiting patient because they are already behind schedule. Does that sound like a typical scenario in your office?

Why are they leaving?

The first thing you need to start looking at is who is leaving and why are they leaving? When a patient decides to leave your practice, this is normally a big step for them. Most patients don’t decide to leave and seek care elsewhere without a good reason. They are unhappy – it could be something small that could be resolved by a simple phone call. Or it could be something bigger – big enough that they are considering leaving your practice. And, don’t forget – people are 7 times more likely to share ‘bad news’ than good news. That means they’ll be sure to tell people they left your practice and advise them not to go there either. That word will spread – guaranteed. You can’t afford to have that happen. Ever.

If your patient has already requested their records chances are you have already lost them and there isn’t a lot you can say or do to change their minds. Even though this may be the case, you will still want to follow through with them – knowledge is power. If you know why they are leaving, you can take steps to change it so it doesn’t happen again. And, it can engender enough good feeling that they will have something positive to say about your practice to friends, neighbors and family.

Call Them Immediately

Call them as soon as you are aware there is a problem. Having the doctor call is best, but some doctors avoid confrontation like the plague so the next best person would be the office manager. You want your patient to know that they are speaking with someone in charge, someone that can make a difference for them with the issue they have.

Here is a little script you can follow – tweak it and make it sound like something you would say.

Dr.: “May I please speak with Mary? Oh hello Mary, this is Dr. Smith, how are you today? Great! Listen the reason I was calling is Sue, my office manager just let me know that you had requested that your records be transferred to Dr. Brown and I just wanted to confirm that as I wasn’t aware that you were unhappy here in our practice.
(Be silent and let Mary respond) Unless this is proven, I might change it to: I was sorry to hear you were leaving us and I wanted to confirm – I wasn’t aware you weren’t happy here in our practice.

Depending on what Mary says there are a number of ways to respond. She could just confirm that she is leaving. In that case you could pursue the reason.

Dr.: “Mary I am so sorry to hear that. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, but could your just share with me why it is that you are leaving? “

Mary responds with her reason. Once you know why they are leaving it gives you the opportunity to apologize and possibly rectify the situation. Sometimes just this effort can convince them to give your office a second chance.

Dr.: “Mary is there anything that I can do to make this up to you? We really value you as a patient and hate to see you leave.”

If there is a chance Mary will let you know here. If not follow with:

Dr.: “Thank you so much for sharing that Mary. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me, and I also want to let you know that if are not happy with your new dentist, please know that you are always welcome back to our practice. “

This leaves the door open for them to come back. Follow up with a letter confirming that.

Evaluate your policy

Taking time to evaluate your policy and how you handle patients leaving is well worth it. Make sure you have a patient transfer form and that the patients who have requested transfers are given to the Doctor or office manager to review.

Most importantly, if a patient has an issue, make sure it is handled immediately by the office manager or doctor. Showing you care can make the difference in keeping that patient or losing them.

Questions or comments? I would love to hear what you think. Please share below and retweet this article if you liked it! If you haven’t signed up for my free report make sure you do, there is a lot of great information for you to grow your practice using cutting edge Social Media Marketing Strategies.

Make it a Great Day!

Make it a Great Day!

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