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Do you know what your patients are saying about you? How about past employees- what are they saying about you, your practice, or other team members?  Are you aware what your competitors are saying? Do you have someone actively “listening” to what’s being said about your practice? 

 A concern often voiced when discussing creating online communities or social media marketing is “What if someone makes a negative comment” or Aren’t we opening ourselves to criticism?”  Their concern is if someone makes negative comments it will harm their business and their reputation. 

Like building your practice, building relationships and a good reputation through credibility and trust takes work, commitment, and time.  As we know, this brings in more new patients and opportunities (through referrals), more treatment acceptance, and ultimately more revenue. 

News, especially bad news, has always traveled fast.  Add to that the Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, and texting and news is now traveling at the speed of light and the news is, geographically, all over the place. 

First, we have to remember, there’s a good possibility negative comments have already been made at one time or another.  In the community, to a neighbor, to a friend or family member, or even a call back to the office after a procedure.  But unless it was a call back to the office, you usually weren’t even aware anything negative had even been said and never had the opportunity to address the issue.  

Negative comments not addressed can grow and can lead to damaging the practice’s reputation, lost opportunities, and less revenue. 

A simple way to initiate and monitor your Online Reputation Management:

• Set up Google and Yahoo alerts for your brand – your name, your practice name, and the names of key employees 
• You can also set up alerts for your competitors
• Use Technorati for tracking your brand in case the post was in someone’s blog 

Note:  The above items mentioned are for simple monitoring for practices without a major or ongoing problem with negative comments and issues. There are companies that specifically monitor businesses brands and go much deeper into Online Reputation Management.  

For the most part, people give very good reviews.  Of course there are always the exceptions to the rule.  Often times complaints can show a practice an area that needs to be improved resulting in better patient services and better patient relations. 

Online Reputation Management allows you to watch your brand, follow what’s being said about you, and allows you to address any negative as it happens.  

This is not to be confrontational, argumentative, or offensive, but rather seen as an opportunity to resolve a negative situation in a positive manner.  It’s not really a question of “What if there’s a negative comment”, but rather the real question is “How will we address negative comments and issues”.

Social media platforms allow you the unique opportunity to address the negative and turn the negative around into a positive.  Even if you aren’t able to resolve the situation (and sometimes you can’t) your online viewers will see you didn’t try to avoid the situation.  Instead the viewers will see you value your patients experience in your office and the positive manner in which you tried to resolve the situation.  Oh, and don’t be surprised if your viewers also come to your defense! 

Online Reputation Management, when used correctly, is just another positive element of social media.

Have you had any negative comments that you were made aware of with social media?  What steps did you take to resolve the situation?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, engaging social media, Google alerts, Livvie Matthews, managing your reputation online, monitoring online reputation, Online Reputation Management, Patient Relations

Today, 85% of consumers are looking online for who they are going to do business with.  They aren’t flipping pages in a telephone book, looking in a magazine, or scanning direct mailers, there’re  on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google viewing what others are saying . 

 But what does that have to do with transparency and authenticity?  In these economic times, people are looking behind the brand to the person and watching closely what’s being said and what’s being done, therefore, whatever is done must be done with quality! 

Through social marketing platforms, consumers have the opportunity to see, really see, who they are doing business with.  They do this by viewing what others are saying about your business, about how you are viewed by your customers, and even by having an actual conversation with you or your representative on one of the social platforms.  

Are you a business that stands behind your products?  Do you support your customers?  Do you go the extra mile?  Do you make solving your customers problem a number one priority?   

Transparency and authenticity allows viewers to see through to the core of how you do business. All of this and more is available to consumers through the social platforms.  

You want to be specific, be informative, be approachable, and very importantly…always be genuine.  You must be transparent and authentic to be real. 

The old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” does not apply in social marketing.  In social marketing it’s all about “who KNOWS (really knows) you!”  

What do you think, what does transparency and authenticity in social marketing mean to you?

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social marketing, social marketing platforms, transparency and authenticity in social marketing

Do you find yourself being Reactive to whatever comes along?  Never quite knowing what to expect or what your response would be when something out of the ordinary happens?  Or are you Proactive and have tried to anticipate what’s needed BEFORE it’s needed?

Proactive -vs- Reactive  makes all the difference when it comes to your practice and as an added benefit, it greatly reduces frustrations!

Being PROACTIVE involves nine specific areas:

P     PERSISTENCE

Persistence is the key to success in your practice and in social media networking! Sticking with it almost to the point of being stubborn. You keep at it. If it doesn’t work the first time, you don’t quit, you try it again and again. It may need to be rearranged, tried a different way, “tweaked” a little or revised, but the point is….you keep trying, you keep working it. Be persistent!

R   RELATIONSHIPS

Trust is the basis for any lasting relationship. Get to know who your patients are. Listen and understand their perceived needs and wants. Use their names often, pick up conversations where they left off at their last visit. Use social media to interact with your patients and build relationships. Your patient may not be able to explain the in-’s and out’s of the procedure or how you did it, but, your patient knows how he/she was treated and what type of experience they had while visiting your office, your social networking site, or purchasing your product. Build relationships!

O   OPPORTUNITIES

New services, options and availability can create tremendous opportunities for revenue and profit from existing (as well as new) patients. Seek to provide so many services and benefits that your patients choose to keep returning, even if their insurance changes or they move and the drive is a little further away. Every patient is an opportunity looking for a place to happen. Look for opportunities!

A   ACCOUNTABILITY

Any contact with a patient~ office visit, e-mail, social network site, web site,  or ezine ~reflects on your practice.  Each staff member should “own” the patient and be held accountable by their interactions for patient satisfaction. It’s all about service! Your “absolutely outstanding service”! Be accountable!

C   CONSISTENCY

You must be consistent with patients at each contact. Relationships are building with patients or possible new patients each time contact is made. The worst impression you can make is to meet your patients needs and expectations on one visit and then fall short during subsequent visits. Patients need to know what they can expect. Be consistent!

T   TENACITY   

Along with persistence and consistency comes tenacity. Holding firm and strong. Stay focused. Create a daily, weekly and monthly schedule and stick to it. Set your goals and stick to them. Develop your policies and procedures and stick to them. Be tenacious!

I  IDENTIFY

20% of your patients are providing 80% of your profits! Identify your patients who are in this 20% category to find the “core” of your business. What can be done for the other 80%? Identify your patients!

V   VALUE

Your services must be perceived with value by your patients. Value = Quality and the patient defines “Quality”. The “quality” appearance of your office or social site. “Quality” of patient interaction. “Quality” of your service. Market the value of your service!

E   ENTHUSIASM

Enthusiasm is exciting and contagious! Patients can distinguish your enthusiasm, or the lack of it, over the telephone, in your e-mail, or in person… within seconds. It is crucial the atmosphere of the practice, whether over the telephone, e-mail, ezine, online or offline be one of enthusiasm:  A love or passion about what you are doing!! Be enthusiastic!

Remember: Every patient-viewer is an Opportunity looking for a place to happen! By being PROACTIVE you will be ready for those Opportunities because you can leverage the….Dynamics Of A PROACTIVE Practice!

Technorati Tags: caring dentists, Dental Marketing, Draw patients, Livvie Matthews, Patient Relations, Proactive practice

Twitter and Facebook and Blogs..oh my!  YouTube and LinkedIn and Amplify…oh my!  Are you wondering how to fit all the pieces of the social media puzzle together? Are you feeling overwhelmed before you even get started?

Social media doesn’t have to be overwhelming, you can keep it simple…yes, simple.   There’s all the talk about social network sites, all the technical programs available, all the tools, all the applications, and there’s video…it goes on and on.  Where do you start and where does it all go?  How does it all fit together?

Putting jigsaw puzzles together is a great past time and if you’ve ever put one together you know you start out with putting your outside pieces, your frame, together first.  This becomes your “template” and your guide for where the rest of the pieces fit in the puzzle.

When starting with social media think of it as your jigsaw puzzle.  You’ll need to define your objectives, define your target market, and create your strategy.  In other words, define what it is you want to accomplish by using social media (your objectives), who do you want to reach (your target market), and how you are going to accomplish those objectives (your strategy).

Do you want to become the “go to” dentist in your area?  Are you wanting to grow your “family” dental practice?  Maybe you want to become “The” cosmetic dentist in your area or want to grow your practice’s email list.  Just what is it you want to accomplish?

Your objectives, target market, and strategy become your plan of action and your plan of action becomes your frame…your puzzle template. 

Once these pieces are together you’re ready to start filling in the rest of your puzzle…choosing your social networks.  To do this, you’ll need to be clear on your target market and familiar with which social networks they prefer to use the most. 

Let’s put this in perspective:  If you work out of 3 treatment rooms in your practice and your patient is seated in TR 3 and you’re seated in TR 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to accomplish anything…you’re not where your patient is.  In other words, if you are on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance?  You want to go where the “eyeballs” are…be known and be seen where your target market is.

Just like your regular puzzle, you add one or two pieces at a time.  When choosing your social networks, start slow with one, possibly two, of the network pieces.  Many like to start with Facebook or Twitter and a blog.  As you get comfortable with these pieces, you have the option to add more pieces to your social network.  But the key is finding and working within your comfort level.

Whether you’re putting together a 500 piece puzzle (a couple of networks) or a 2000 piece puzzle (most of the networks) keep working and soon your social media puzzle will all be together in one good fit!

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, overwhelming social media, social media plan of action, social media puzzle, social media puzzle pieces, social media strategies

Working in a dental office presents many challenges…daily, you could even say…hourly!  One of the biggest challenges is making certain your patients know you care because they don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care!

We had a dad bring in his young daughter today for several procedures.  As it turned out we needed to refer her to Pediatric.  Due to the procedures needed, their front desk person said they would have to work up a time frame and they would call the dad. 

The dad had to come back to our office later for the  band and loop to take to the pedo office and when he came in we could tell he was upset.  The pedo office had called him, the phone call had not been a good experience at all (first impression), and to make matters worse it was going to be August before she could be seen for a consultation!  

His daughter was upset this morning, he was upset because his daughter was upset, and to make matters worse, he had a bad experience on the phone with the pedo office regarding his daughter.  What do you think his impression was of that office?  And more importantly ~ what was his impression of our office for referring his daughter to them?

If you work in the front office you know what came next.  I got on the phone with the pedo office, spoke with their office manager, relayed the circumstances,  asked her to ”smooth” their first impression,  and worked out an appointment for the daughter to be seen this Tuesday.  Now what do you think the dad thinks of our office? 

In just a few short minutes we positioned ourselves as caring in several ways: 

• We let him know it matters and we care about his daughter and her well being
• We let him know it matters and we care about his inconvenience and his feelings
• We let him know it matters and we care about his experience in our office AND his experience in offices we refer to

In short, he now knows…we care.

What are some things you do in your practice to let your patients know…you care?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, caring dentists, Livvie Matthews, Patient Relations