In any business, marketing is one of the most important elements. As a dental practice, it is important to get patients or those that require your dental health services to know, like, and trust you. For your practice to grow, establishing a pleasant and warm relationship with patients and the community is key. In fact, you can even extend this beyond the office walls.

However, not every dentist is able to achieve this due to their busy schedule. Nevertheless, if you can get this right, you can gain the trust of your patients and the community at large. Here are a couple of tips to help establish a relationship with patients and community beyond your office walls.

Use Social Media

Social media marketing offers an excellent way to create successful engagement and build relationships with your patients. As a dental professional, you must convince your patients that you have what it takes to deliver a comfortable and painless experience.

Use your social media platforms to help these patients feel more relaxed and comfortable before visiting your practice. Create more awareness by showcasing your track record, authority, and industry experience. All these will let both current and potential clients know that they are in safe and competent hands.

Sponsor Local Events

Another effective method to boost awareness about your practice and attract patients is to get involved in the community. Sponsoring local events, community organizations, or charity events can be an amazing strategy for your dental marketing.

Also, having the name, logo, or stand of your dental practice at a local event can help increase brand awareness. If there is an event or concert, you can send one of your staff down to distribute fliers and coupons. This will help attract new patients.

Besides that, you can host a community event, and it does not have to be dentistry-related. A good idea is to host and sponsor various children fairs, sport competitions, general hygiene events, and lots more. Organizing or sponsoring local events will be a great way to establish relationships with both your patients and the community at large.

Remove Stigma and Sell Comfort

A lot of patients are afraid of visiting the dentist due to some form of stigma, fear, or anxiety. Since you aim to create successful engagement and friendly relationship with these clients, you need to eliminate some of the stigma or fear around visiting the dentist. Make them understand that visiting the dentist is fun and they have no reason to be afraid.

Establish trust and give your practice an exciting personality. Connect with your patients. Always aim towards providing comfort, good health, and amazing experience. Remind them that you are all about their general well being and welfare, and not only their teeth. With this, their belief and confidence in you will continue to soar.

Showcase Your Leadership

Furthermore, establishing a relationship with patients and the community outside your office walls involves showcasing your leadership abilities. A good way to do this is to organize seminars, discussions, or consultations with your patients and other members of the community. You can use this opportunity to discuss with them how to take care of their teeth and gums and prevent dental issues. Showcasing your leadership through experience and professionalism can be an excellent way to build trust with these patients.

Interview Your Patients

As a dental practice, the patients expect that you provide a fast and effective solution to their dental issues. However, how you can achieve this matters a lot. To ensure that you continue providing exceptional dental services, you need to conduct some research. Sit down and interview some of your patients. A couple of questions you can ask include:

• What made you decide to visit our practice?
• What are the things we do better, compared to other dental practices?
• How do you want us to improve our services?
• What will you tell your family and friends about us?
• What does good service look like?

All these and many more will make the patients understand that you care about them and are ready to go the extra mile to offer top class services. You can also use their answers to improve your dental services.

Be Flexible

One of the true virtues that can help set your practice apart if flexibility. Try as much as possible to be quick and attentive to the complaints or problems of your patients. Remember that if they are not getting the attention or service they expect, they can patronize another dentist.

Do not waver from the old mantra “customers are always right.” Rather, set aside some strategic ways to deal with patients that are unhappy. The little thing you do to please them will help change their thought about your practice. From there, you can start creating a cordial relationship with such patients.

Communicate with Positive Body Language

When creating relationships with your patients, how you communicate with them matters a lot. This can make or break the success of your dental practice. Even if you are presenting your practice to potential clients, your communication skills will determine if the client will listen to you or not.

You need to always remember, “It is not what you say, it is how you say it.” You may be saying the right words, however, if you are using a negative body language, the patient can misinterpret your message. Hence, to create friendly relationships with patients and ensure ultimate success in your practice, it is important that you always use positive body language while communicating.

Establishing relationships with both your patients and the community is very important for the growth and success of your dental practice. While some marketing tips may be simple and easy to implement, others can be harder to carry out. However, by making use of the strategies mentioned above, you will be able to build trust with current patients and attract new ones.

Once these patients can feel confident and entrust their dental health to you, since they know you will only recommend the best procedure, treatment, or surgery for them, the relationship will flourish.  The primary objective is to get someone to testify about the excellent, compassionate services offered at your practice. These satisfied patients will help convert new patients for you in lesser time.