In my last post on practice transitions, I spoke about the strategy of using an associate to help in the absorption of the patient base from a retiring doctor’s practice. The benefit of that approach is that it allows these patients to be seen at the office location with which they are familiar, and these patients are then gradually relocated to your office. But you can also be successful using your own office for an immediate absorption of patients from the practice of a retiring doctor provided certain criteria are met.

Geography. It is of paramount importance that your existing office be located fairly close to the location of the practice that you are acquiring so that patients will not have an objection to travel and an excuse to go elsewhere.

Age. This type of acquisition works really well when the selling doctor is quite a bit older than the buyer. I have seen many doctors practice into their late 70s. They love what they do, they have an extremely loyal patient base, and most of them never gave much thought to an exit strategy. They have slowed down  and are now perhaps practicing two to three days per week. There is a ton of dentistry to be done for these patients — but as I have said before – only at the appropriate time when you have earned their trust. So these are not big practices by any means. The equipment is usually very outdated. Often there is no management software. Often no hygienist. These doctors don’t necessarily need to make a big score with selling the practice. Rather, they are truly concerned with finding someone to take over the care of their patients.

Low cost. There really is zero value for the dental equipment or the location of the  retiring doctor. Many times these doctors are actually practicing in a home office. These patients need to be seen at your office from day one. So the value is only in the Goodwill. I usually recommend a price of $200-$300 per patient chart for patients seen within the last twenty-four months.

Introductory letter. The selling doctor is able to transfer and deliver these patients by a great letter of recommendation. I have examples — available on request — that have proven effective.

Ace in the hole. I absolutely insist in these kinds of situations that the front desk person from this retiring doctor’s practice stays on in your employ for a three to six month period. This person may in fact have considered retiring along with her doctor, but I advise making it a condition of the sale that she is able to come over and work in your office. Pay her extremely well. She can work two to three hours per day appointing the patients. You must at all costs win her over because these patients will do whatever she recommends. I can’t emphasize this point enough.

Start expanding your horizons – this type of situation may very well exist in your own backyard.

Ten years ago, a sane person would never consider choosing a dentist or a physician without a direct referral. No one can deny the awesome power of word of mouth – a very personal recommendation from one friend to another – a value affirmation of a product or a service. But in this day and age, you can’t overlook the power of “word of mouse.”

I recently had sinus surgery, and I chose the doctor completely from an internet search – and then confirmed my choice by reading what others had to say about their experience. Statistics show that positive online reviews will help your business. More reviews provide a listing that stands out for the right reasons when somebody is doing a search for a dentist in your area.  And Google is the king – the number one ranked website in the world – the number one place for people to search – the most trusted resource for quality information.

Now that you know how to accumulate Google reviews, I am suggesting that you can show these reviews easily on your website. Check out what I have added to my site. On the left hand side of the magenta colored navigation bar, my webmaster installed a Google review button. This links directly to my Google Place Page and in one click, someone can read all of my reviews.

This linkage is an easy and attractive strategy – another piece of the puzzle for your overall on line approach to marketing. It has the additional benefit of helping improve website optimization and organic discovery.

In a recent post, I described what I thought was an effective strategy to obtain rave reviews from patients at the conclusion of their treatment visit. After beta testing this process in about 15 different offices– all good clients – all quality practices – I must admit that it didn’t work very effectively.

There was a lot of resistance from staff because of the time required to spend with the patient in helping them to sign in to Google, and to help with the intricacies of the computer. Logistically, in order to have any chance of success, the office needed to set up a kiosk with a separate laptop computer. A few offices tried using an iPad. Often times the patient – although perfectly willing to endorse a top flight dental experience – did not want to spend the additional time after a visit. It was also reported that patients were possibly inhibited about writing a review while in the dental office.

After much discussion and thought , I believe I can offer a much better solution to reach a realistic goal of obtaining just one Google review per day. My idea is to ask your patient to write a review based on a long history with your practice. This patient appreciates receiving post treatment telephone calls from the doctor, painless comfortable dental procedures, caring attentive staff, and over the top exquisite, consistent customer service each and every time they interact with your office. This is why they return – this is why they refer others – and this is why they love you. Here is how this works.

• Go to your Demand Force dashboard and print out the list of names and e-mails of your patient base. I imagine you could do this in Dentrix or any other management software as well.

• Narrow this list to only gmail or hotmail addresses.  This is because it is so much easier to write a Google review if you have one of these types of email addresses. You don’t have to create an account.

• Choose 15 or 20 great patients from this narrowed  list. These are good friends or patients with whom you have a fabulous relationship.

• Have a staff member call them and ask them if they would be willing to do a nice review or recommendation for you in your practice. This should not be a problem because of the close relationship.

• Once they agree you will send them the following e-mail.

Dear (patient’s name)–I would so much like to thank you for taking the time to do a review of my dental practice. This will help me maintain my first page status when patients do a search for me on Google. There are just a few steps you need to follow.

1. Click on the link below. (This will be the hyper-link to your Google Place Page).

2. Hit the red button that says WRITE A REVIEW.

3. Then sign in with your Gmail or Hotmail account.

4. Select under “your rating” the number of stars you’re giving me. Hopefully five!

5. Write the review in the box.

6. Hit the blue PUBLISH  button and you’ll be all set.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this for me. I truly appreciate it.

If you decide to make obtaining patient reviews a serious priority for your practice, you should be able to quickly accumulate 15 to 20 reviews – and that will truly separate you from the competition. I would very much appreciate your comments and feedback. Please email me at jodena@cox.net and I will be happy to share in future posts.