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Posts Tagged ‘Livvie Matthews’

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

Social Media Examiner is an excellent source of information for using all the social platforms.  This article written by Cindy King is another good example. 

In her article, 5 Simple Steps to Getting On Twitter,Cindy says: “Twitter is one of the social media tools most businesses want to learn about” and  walks you through, step by step, to setting up your Twitter account.  Read and enjoy Cindy’s article.

Have you created your online presence for your business? Twitter is just one of several social platforms for increasing online visibility, establishing trust, and building profitable relationhsip that ultimately leads to increased sales of your products and services.

Technorati Tags: Livvie Matthews, Setting up Twitter, social media marketing, Social Media using Twitter, Steps for setting up Twitter

There is a new, rapidly expanding revolution sweeping businesses worldwide.  New technology and the economy is forcing major changes in marketing strategies.  As a result, businesses are racing to shift gears from their strategies of days gone by, to today’s more competitive strategy of “word of mouth marketing”, also known as relationship marketing.

So what does this have to do with the dental profession?  Or maybe you’re thinking, “How does this apply to my practice. We aren’t into “mass marketing”.  You might even be saying, “We’re not even a ‘business’.” 

Whenever there has been a change in the business world it has always affected the professional world, since both worlds have the same base….people (customers/patients). Without people….there is no business or profession and with today’s economy and accelerating challenges facing doctors and staff members  daily, the dental profession has definitely become a “business”….a BIG business.

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, Dynamics of Social Media, Livvie Matthews, Social media and Internet marketing

Social Media has certainly become a factor for practices today.  Engaging online on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and even your practice blog presents tremendous opportunities for your practice, however how you participate, inside as well as outside your practice, presents tremendous accountability.

An example would be the recent firing of a waitress here in Charlotte, NC for her posting, off work, relating to a situation that happened at work  in the restaurant while she was working.  Fortunately for the restaurant, they had their social media policy in place for this situation.

In his post Social Media in the Workplace, Michael J. Lotito says:  

The best way to protect your company is to make sure you have a clearly outlined policy.

Whether or not your practice participates in social media, you can’t afford to ignore or downplay it’s role in todays workplace. By being proactive, your employees will be clear about what is acceptable in your practice and what isn’t when you have your social media policies in place.

Technorati Tags: engaging social media, Livvie Matthews, social media platforms, social media policies

Recently I was asked a great question: What were the top couple of mistakes made when using social media.  In my response, I only mentioned a couple, but it led me to think about several other mistakes to avoid with social media.

1) Trying to use social media for making sales.   This is the #1 mistake.  Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are all about making contacts, opening doors, gaining trust and credibility, and building those all important relationships. 

Once you’ve gained your viewers trust and you have a relationship with them, you will be the one they turn to when they are ready to do business.  Wouldn’t you rather do business with someone you have grown to know and trust? Relationships first…business second.

 2) Going into social media without clear objectives.  What are you wanting to accomplish?  So many times, businesses will just jump in without knowing what their objectives are for using social media. 

Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention?  Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or your website?  Enhance our practice’s patient services?  Maybe you want to grow your practice’s email list…what’s your objective?  Know what it is you are trying to accomplish.   

3) Not knowing how to listen and engage effectively.  To attract and engage targeted followers effectively, you need to have several elements in place.  Here are a few of them:

• Be clear on your target market and be familiar with the social networks they prefer to use the most.  Let me put that into perspective.  If you work out of 3 operatories and your patient is seated in OP 3 and you’re seated in Op 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished.  You’re not where your patient is. So if you are on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance?  Go where the “eyeballs” are…Know and be seen where your target market is!
• You must have a strategy and a plan for implementing your strategy in place..FIRST. 
• You will want to have a Practice Social Media policy in place.  In other words, how will you and your employees handle social media in your practice?

Are you noticing how all of these are building on one another?

4) Becoming distracted.  Social media is a powerful marketing tool, but if not careful can be time consuming and become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect…invitations to events…join this group…attend this meeting…It’s no wonder after awhile many pages just sit there gathering “virtural dust”.  You MUST learn to stay focused.  Remember your goals and your objectives.  Stick to your game plan!

5) Spreading yourself too thin.  Knowledge of the difference social platforms, the different tools like plugins, applications, widgets, etc and the time involved.  Time is a BIG factor!

When first entering the arena, you might want to join one of the social platforms…maybe Twitter or Facebook.  Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on the next.   Either way, there are some short cuts you can use to help when you are pressed for time. 

One of the biggest helps, is pre-scheduling your tweets using social platforms like HootSuite.com or SocialOomph.com.  Both allow you to schedule your tweets into the future. Hourly, daily, monthly…whenever.  It’s a great way to deligate some of the time involved.

Another is to link up content to RSS Feeds.  You can also set up and create Autoresponder messages.  These are messages you create  to go out at specific dates and times.  Sort of like having your business on Auto-pilot.

Well, we’ve made a list…hope you’re checking it twice.  What about you?  What mistake can you add to this list  to avoid when using social media?

Technorati Tags: Building Business, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing