Acquiring a consistent stream of quality new patients is an absolute necessity–and a key ingredient–for the continued growth and success of a dental practice. My hope would be that at least half of your new patients come from referrals from within your existing patient base. There is no greater validation of your entire customer service experience than when a satisfied patient recommends a friend, business associate, or family member to your office. And, of course, we know exactly how that new patient found your practice. There is no mystery.

The rest of your new patients find you from offline or online marketing campaigns. Offline marketing refers to TV commercials, radio ads, billboards, and mailers. Online marketing refers to organic search on Google/Yahoo/Bing, paid advertising on Google (Adwords), and of course all forms of social media like Facebook or YouTube. In contrast to internal marketing initiatives that produce referrals from your existing patient base, these external marketing programs can cost significant amounts of money. The challenge as marketers is to be able to measure the effectiveness of any of these programs in order to see where you get the best bang for the buck.

I have a strong bias for online initiatives. Online search is very specific. Someone has decided to look for a dentist or a dental procedure. Your goal is to be there and show up so they can find you easily. Offline programs require you to constantly put a message out there– 24/7 – spending lots of money and hoping and praying that someone will be motivated to call because you have stimulated their interest. Very different.

Call tracking has been around for many years. A unique telephone number is attached to the marketing or advertising message. When someone calls that number, it is call forwarded to your office telephone number. You can track the volume of calls to measure the effectiveness of the program. The calls can also be recorded to analyze your staff’s ability to convert the calls to actual patient visits.

I like the concept of using call tracking for online marketing. The call tracking platform works by inserting a small piece of code into the backend of your website. The code recognizes where the call is coming from–from anywhere online. In other words, the telephone number that shows up on your website is dynamic,  and it changes to reflect the referral source. You can have as many unique telephone numbers as you wish – each assigned to a particular online marketing program – and the number on the website changes based on where the call is initiated. The recorded calls will then provide you with useful marketing intelligence:

• What search terms did they type in to reach your website?

• How did they find your site? Was it an organic search, or from another marketing campaign like    Adwords or a Facebook ad or even  a Facebook post?

• What page of your site were they on when they made the call?

Basic Google analytics can measure how many visits occur on your website. But adding call tracking greatly enhances your ability to refine this data, and measure how successful you are in converting visits into an actual telephone call. That then leads to the ultimate analysis of how many calls are converted into an actual new patient appointment.

Call tracking is relatively inexpensive. Your webmaster can add this for about $100 a month. I think you should give it a try.

Remote deposit capture is a technology that was first introduced about 10 years ago, but only in the last few years has become much more available to dental offices. RDC is a service which allows users to scan checks and transmit the scanned images to a bank for posting and clearing. Requirements for users are a PC, an Internet connection, and a check scanner provided by your bank. Practically all banks now offer this service.

The bank’s software is downloaded into the office computer. Training is quick and easy. Basically, if you can read, you can do this! The checks that you receive at the practice are scanned and a digital deposit is created. The digital deposit is then transmitted over an encrypted Internet connection to your bank. The bank accepts the deposit, posts the deposit to your account, with next day availability of the funds. Four advantages come to mind.

1. Efficiency–it takes less than 5 seconds to scan a check, and when you have finished scanning all of the checks, a virtual deposit slip has been instantly created. Without this technology, someone has to manually record the dollar amount of each check on a deposit slip. This process typically includes counting the number of checks and adding the value of the checks–at least twice–to be sure that the deposit is accurate and balanced.

2. Convenience–the doctor or a staff member is no longer required to physically leave the office and go to the bank branch to make the deposit.

3. Reliability– RDC stores up to 60 days worth of check images. This will usually eliminate having to pay your bank “research fees” for problems associated with the deposit of any check.

4. Functionality – The RDC software interacts seamlessly with all of the major accounting software programs.

In my opinion, however, one of the biggest advantages of this technology is that it gives a dentist multiple options for finding better or more competitive banking relationships. Without this technology, you are pretty much limited to using a bank with a branch office in your neighborhood so that you don’t have to travel very far in order to make a deposit. Now you can potentially use any bank.

Let’s say that you want to take advantage of current low interest rates and refinance an existing loan. Maybe you need a new loan for expansion of your facility, or for the purchase of major technology, or to acquire another dental practice. XYZ Bank–located two states away–may have a fantastic low interest rate and generous amortization terms. That bank, however, will only offer that great rate to you if you give them your depository relationship. That’s how banks make money. With remote deposit capture, you are now able to expand your options and most likely save significant amounts of money. Go for it!