EMPLOYMENT MANUAL AND POLICY · Web viewMarketing Program. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE. Introduction 3. Why marketing programs fail 3

Marketing Program

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

Introduction 3Why marketing programs fail 3Steps to implement your marketing program 4The Marketing Coordinator (MC) 4Duties of your Marketing Coordinator 4Example of a Craigslist ads 5Monthly marketing meeting 6Marketing roadblocks 6Categorizing (ABCD) referrals 7Evaluating the strength of your marketing program 7Internal marketing 7Differentiation 8Community Participation 8What to do at dinner/lunch 9Untapped referrals 9Monthly marketing expense sheet 9Referring office questionnaire 10Referral database questionnaire 11Why general practitioners refer to our office 12Marketing Ideas, Gifts and Pricing 14Improving the relationship with your referral base 17Lists the ideas that work the best and did not work 21Gifts examples to send out 22Endo Practice Mastery®, 2001; Revised November 2016

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Endo Mastery Marketing ProgramYou must be committed! You must be consistent!

You must differentiate yourself!Remember, referring offices owe you nothing and they do have a

choice!

The key to marketing is developing personal relationships with your patients, the referring doctor and their team. A strong marketing plan is always relationship based, focuses on the present and the future, is always expanding things that differentiate them from the other offices, categorizes ABCD doctors, identifies and rewards core referrals, incorporates the entire team and is consistent and focused throughout the year. The first rule of marketing is to treat all patients referring offices the way they want to be treated.

Most marketing programs fail because their program is very inconsistent or the office does very little marketing. These offices do not have a marketing coordinator and the doctor and team spends very little on their marketing program. 2 to 3% of your revenue should be targeted toward your marketing budget. There is an old phrase in marketing that states:” those who need to market should not in those who do not need to market, should”. Before you start to expand your marketing program you need to evaluate why your referrals are not that strong.

Make sure that you have the following in place:

You are able to get the patient in that day and see them on time. An incredible front office team who provide an unbelievable patient

experience. Your front office maximizes their dental insurance and uses Care Credit. A caring, competent and gentle doctor and clinical team. A fun, safe, loving and happy office environment. You provide very efficient, painless and high quality endodontic treatment. You must have a clean and up to date facility with the latest technology.

Steps To Implement Your Marketing Program

Step 1 Appoint a Marketing Coordinator – this can be a full-time front office person who commits 12 to 18 hours per week to marketing.

Endo Practice Mastery®, 2001; Revised November 2016 2

Step 2. Identify referring doctors targeted for personal contact. List these doctors on the Personal Contact Tracking Form, commit to the contact, track the contact and report the contact to the Marketing Coordinator at the monthly meeting. Include 10 offices that are currently not referring and make regular contact with them.

Step 3. Commit to meet with the Marketing Coordinator on the first day of the month to review and discuss the previous month’s marketing efforts and results. At these meetings, always ask the question, “What can we do to ensure our referrers don’t send their patients to another Endodontic office?” Then talk about it!

The Marketing Coordinator (MC) is the key person responsible for developing strong relationships with the referring offices and the development and implementation of your marketing program. This usually requires 12 to 18 hours per week. We recommend this be a full time position with remaining time spent in front office duties. This facilitates building a stronger personal relationship between the MC and the referring offices during the day. Specific time is blocked off each week for marketing duties which will be listed below. The MC position is largely an unsupervised position, but seeks direction and approval from the office manager and doctor. Initially your coach will help you set up your system and train you in all aspects of the Endo Mastery marketing program.

Your marketing coordinator is the growth engineer of your practice and works very closely with the office manager to flood the office with patients. When searching for a MC, look first in your practice to see if anyone meets the qualification. You may also look for family or friends of you team. I would also place an ad in Craig’s list so that you get the greatest number of applicants.

The MC must be extremely outgoing, friendly, and joyful and interact and connect with others in a personal way. They must present themselves well and have great communication skills. They must have great organizational skill and be able to work and act independently. Must have an understanding of endodontics and be familiar with the workings of the front office. They must have dependable transportation, able to operate their own vehicle and be familiar with our referring offices and our delivery routes. They must be familiar with Microsoft Word and Excel.


Duties of Your Marketing Coordinator

Responsible for representing the endodontic practice to your referral base through various networking and relationship-building activities.

Implementation and management of the marketing program and strategies. Monthly ordering, pre-delivery communication and coordination of delivery

of catered lunches to your top 3 to 10 referring offices each month. Sourcing and coordinating gift deliveries and information on the practice to

referring offices. Do you have an information brochure? Meeting with doctor at the beginning of each month to discuss marketing

plan implementation and review referral numbers, including the identification of new referrers and the status of new patient numbers from existing referrers.

Development and mailing of Office Update Letters and mailing Educational Newsletters that the doctors identify as appropriate per the marketing calendar.

Develop a schedule and record of activities, time spent and contacts made. Gather information and develop a referral database that can be easily

accessed over the computer or cell phone. (see page 11) This would include the referral doctors and their team’s key information such as birthdays, family members, and their passions.

The MC sets up delivery routes and coordinates goodie deliveries. Actual delivery by the coordinator is best. Your Endo Mastery Coach will share scripting to help you know what should be said when you go into the referrals office.

Track monthly marketing statistics by filling out the Endo Mastery tracking monitor. Track information for Monthly Patient Recap letter and mail out letters at the end of each month. The referral tracking monitor is the most important document that the marketing coordinator will be working with in this program. Your Endo Mastery Coach will furnish you with the tracking forms and work very closely with the MC to show them how to use and interpret this document. It will give you the pulse of your marketing program.

Create a multi-layered marketing program that touches referring offices on a consistent basis. Develop a year-long marketing program that includes multiple marketing strategies. These selected strategies will be put on the referral tracking monitor. Your Endo mastery coach will help you through this process.


Continually connects with offices and their teams. Scheduling all one- on- one meetings with referring offices. This includes staff to staff lunches as well as doctor lunches, if they desire. They host other social activities and organize educational events.

Keep a financial record of all expenses (see page 9). Maintain a marketing calendar.

Monthly marketing meeting - the MC will meet with the doctor and the office manager. The MC will provide them with the referral tracking monitor sorting the past month highest to lowest referral doctor numbers. The MC will look for any trends and point out the doctors who have increased referrals as well as doctors dropping off in their referrals. The MC will look at the top referrals that month and along with the doctor will make suggestions for who will receive lunches. The MC will also talk about the upcoming marketing strategies and report on how well the last strategy was received. At this meeting certain referring doctors will be identified for lunch/dinner meetings and will be set up on the calendar with permission of the doctor. You should encourage your doctor to go to these meetings. Your Endo Mastery Coach will review the scripting the doctor should say at these meetings. Each month the MC should be open to all new ideas that will improve your marketing program.


Ad’s for Craig’s List

Marketing Coordinator (Olympia, WA) (Part-Time) Olympia endodontic office seeks a warm, caring responsible person with excellent communication skills to serve as the marketing coordinator. Duties include implementation, management and administration of our marketing program. Customer service experience, sales and Microsoft Excel skills are a plus. If you are a team oriented player and want to work in a quality office that sets the standard for excellence, please apply. Reliable transportation is required with mileage compensation provided for travel. Generous salary ++ bonuses. All inquiries kept confidential. Current employer will not be contacted without your permission. To apply, please email resume and cover letter to (email address).

•Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.•Do NOT contact us with unsolicited services or offers.

Receptionist/Marketing Coordinator -- (Olympia, WA.) (Full Time)- Progressive high quality endodontic office seeks a motivated, high energy, multitasking individual to become part of our incredible team in the business and reception area of the office. You will spend approximately 50% of your time implementing the office’s marketing program. Reliable transportation is required with mileage compensation provided for travel. Customer service experience, sales and Microsoft Excel skills are a plus. If you are interested in becoming a member of our team oriented practice, we have an excellent position for you. Generous salary ++ bonuses. All inquiries kept confidential. Current employer will not be contacted without your permission. To apply, please email resume and cover letter to (email address).

•Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.•Do NOT contact us with unsolicited services or offers.

3 Road Blocks to Implementing A Marketing Program:

1. Don’t know where to start. We recommend you target 5 to10 general practices you feel would have the potential of referring to you. Make an all-out effort for the next 90 days to improve referrals from these offices. Keep records of the people you’ve contacted and if they respond, treat them as “A” referrals. If you get no response, move on to another pracctice.

2. Doctor is afraid to ask for referrals. You must understand most general practitioners hate to do root canal treatments. They will always be more profitable doing restorative dentistry. When you meet with them one-on-one simply say: “Dr. Smith, you have a wonderful practice and I would love


to be part of your team. What would I need to do to become your endodontist of choice?”

3. Failure to address referrals that have fallen off. There may be many reasons such as the doctor is on vacation or it is slower in their office. Regardless, you need to check and make sure you haven’t done something that was unacceptable and caused the decline in referrals. Call the doctor and say: ”Jim, we were reviewing our referrals for the month of October and noticed your office has not been sending us patients. Is there something we are doing or something we should be doing differently?”

Managing Your Referral Base

Categorizing (ABCD) referrals - referral doctors are categorized by the number of patients they send on a monthly basis.

“A” referrals usually send 90% of their root canals and considered your top 10 offices. They send 50 to 130 referrals (completed cases, not evaluations) per month. This includes group practices.

“B” referrals usually send molars, retreatments and more complicated cases.

“C” referrals send very difficult cases and many times they will be non-treatment.

“D” referrals are the unknown doctor that sends only a few cases a year but upon evaluation of the cases they are fairly straightforward. These doctors should be treated as an “A”.

Evaluating the Strength of Your Marketing Program

Below is an example of eight doctors and the number of completed cases sent by their top 10 referrals. You can see doctors one through four average between 90 to 100 referrals for their 10 top doctors. Among these cases there are many routine and easy treatments. This represents a very strong marketing program. The doctors numbered 21 through 24 have not yet learned the secrets of creating a strong marketing relationship with their referring doctors. They average a total of 300 from their top 10 referrals, guaranteeing they will all be difficult cases.


Internal Marketing

Internal marketing includes everything you do in your office to create the “WOW” or ($1,500) experience to ensure the patient goes back and thanks their doctor for sending them to you. IE: Complementing your team in front of patients, seating the patient on time, painless injections and time efficient treatment delivery.

Creating Your Differentiation Differentiation is the reason a referring doctor selects you over other endodontists. It’s because they are very aware you are different than the other offices and offer what they want. Here are specific ways that you can differentiate yourself:

Most of your cases are completed in one visit (single visit endodontics). Your office philosophy is to see and treat patients today (now). You provide consistent, high quality endodontic result. You are a full service endodontic practice and are open five days a week

including some government holidays. Your have a high quality website with fillable forms and referral slips. You make endodontics affordable through creative financing and Care

Credit. You are experts in periapical surgery and some extractions (for vertical root

fractured teeth). You use nitrous oxide and do some conscious sedation.


You have the highest technology available in endodontics to include the CBT Scan that is made available at no cost to your referring doctors who refer patients to you.

You have an outstanding marketing program with constant positive and repetitive contacts with strong marketing gifts.

You provide incredible customer service. You are always gentle and painless (always get patients completely numb). Simple but impressive treatment cards (emailed to them). You have high ratings on all the search engines. You’ve created strong personal relationships with doctors and front team

members. You provide treatment for more complicated cases, retreatments and

apicos. You can do build-ups and final restorations if requested. You are a source of referrals to your referring doctors. You see patients on time and complete on time. You fix their misadventures and misdiagnosis and still make them look

good. You support and participate in organized dentistry in your community. You have a team member fluent in Spanish and one that can interpret in

sign language. You promote and support your referring doctors to their patient and support

their treatment plan. (See page 12)

Community Participation is very important in developing relationships within the community.

Membership in your local dental society and participate in it’s leadership. Make it your goal to serve as president.

Present informational material on endodontics. Become a member of any study club that has other specialists and general dentists involved.

Visit small local dental societies outside of your city. You may be the only specialist visiting and participating.

Donate to good causes with in the community and participate in fund raising events.

Provide scholarships for the dental assisting school. Present at the dental assisting school once per year. Participate in community programs that offer free dentistry. Work with the

sponsoring general dentists closely. Provide free dentistry for all referring dentists and their family members. To

some degree, offer services to their team members.

Lunches and dinners with your referring doctors - You should look forward to going out to lunch or dinner with your referring doctor. View this as an opportunity to meet with your next best friend. The key to your ongoing success is developing personal relationships. Dress casually in warm colors to create a safe Endo Practice Mastery®, 2001; Revised November 2016

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environment. Be a good listener with good eye contact. Genuinely be interested in them and their family. Ask questions. 80 to 90% of the talking should be done by the referring doctor. After the meeting write down everything you can remember or record key details on your phone and add to your referral database. One way of developing a stronger relationship is to ask for their help ranging from who is there CPA or banker to where is a great place to fish. Make sure during the conversation you assure them you will get their patients in that day or the next. Ask them what you need to do to become their endodontist of choice. It’s important to meet doctors outside of your town as these may become your best referrals.

Untapped Referrals - Many endodontists fail to market to certain groups thinking they will not receive many referrals from them. You will find them to be lucrative if not immediately in the future. For example:

In large corporate dental practices many of the dentists are very young. If they don’t have a full-time endodontist and a patient is in pain you have a good chance of getting their referrals.

In some areas the military have programs where they will refer out their endo patients being seen at Veterans Administrations or Indian health service clinics.

In some areas you can become a PPO provider and take a small fee discount.

Some endodontists don’t bother marketing to the young dentists, but we have found that within a few years they can be very good referrals.

Large PPO practices And as mentioned above you may find some your best referrals outside a

30 mile radius from your town.

Monthly Marketing Expense Sheet - The marketing coordinator will need to keep track of all marketing expenses throughout the year. Below is an example of the tracking device which you will receive from your Endo Mastery Coach.


Referring Office Questionnaire – this document is sent out, faxed or dropped off to each referring office to find out what treatment they want you to perform and questions about how you can best serve them.

Name of Practice Best E-mail address to reach you

Name of Office manager.

Please circle the appropriate answer for the following questions.

Would your office like us to place a final filling on an anterior tooth? Yes / No / See referral slip

Would your office like us to place a final filling on posterior teeth? Yes / No / See referral slip

If the tooth is crowned would you like us to place a temporary filling or a final filling? Temp / Final / See referral slip

If the tooth requires a crown, would you like us to complete the build up? Yes / No / See referral slip

If the tooth needs to be retreated would you like us to place a final or temp filling? Temp / Final / See referral slip

If the tooth requires an extraction or an implant, who would you prefer the patient to be referred to? Doctor Phone #

Do you have any upcoming vacations scheduled? Would you like us to be on call for you? ______________________________________

Would you like us to call and schedule crown appointments prior to the patient leaving our office? Yes / No

Does your office take Care Credit? Yes/ No Would you like more information on Care Credit Yes /No

What type of FREE seminar would your office be interested in, Debt Reduction/Financial Freedom, Practice Management, Mike Abernathy, Care Credit, or a comprehensive workshop on dental insurances. ___________________________________

Do you enjoy the complimentary lunches we provide? Yes / No ______________________________________________________________

What is the most important thing you would like that we provide to your office and patients?


What can we as an office improve on? _________________________________________________________________

Referral Database Information - This document is not sent out to offices but is put together over many contacts with referring Dr. and their team.

Picture (from their web site)Doctors full name (nickname) DOB email address:Bio (from their website)Doctor’s office phone# cell phone home phone Spouse’s name Children’s names/ages Pets Home address Education /graduation yearDoctors passions and Interests (sports, hobbies)Favorite restaurantsFavorite vacation spotReligionSpecial causes Bragging informationOffice addressOffice back line fax #Office hours and daysWebsite address Email addressOffice manager Email address DOBFront DOBFront DOB Chief clinical assistant DOB Who makes out the referral slip? (focus on that person!!!)When did we last send them our office survey?What insurances are they providers for?Does their office routinely use Nitrous Oxide or conscious sedation?

Name of other Associates or partners (each doctor needs their own information file)Dr. DOBDr. DOBHow strong is our relationship with the Dr.’s? (Poor, fair, good, excellent)How strong is our relationship with the team? (Poor, fair, good, excellent)Who in their office do we connect with the best?Who in our office has the best relationship?Date practice startedDoctor preference for continuing education?


Doctor’s goals for bringing in an associate or selling the practice?Team attitude when bringing in goodies/ are there any food allergies?Team preference to where and type of lunches.Team responses to staff drawings. (Poor, average, strong)Team attendance to our parties? (Poor, average, strong)Team attendance to our continuing education programs? (Poor, average, strong)Who are the specialists they refer to? OS, Perio,,,Ortho, Implant? Do they want us to send and refer?How does the doctor like to receive correspondence? Email, phone, fax, textHow does the office manager like to receive correspondence? Email, phone, fax, textSpecial problems and concerns with this office?Rate the Dr. as A-B-C-D.Does this Dr. have the potential to become an “A” referral?

Reasons Why General Practitioners Refer to Endodontists

Below is a list of reasons from a survey of why dentists send referrals to preferred endodontists. Categories include: ability to get patients in quickly and back to their office quickly, patient care, support of their office and team, consistent high quality endodontic results and participation/support of dentistry. Here are some of the responses:

You perform most all endodontic treatment in one appointment saving time for our patients.

You consistently give us a high quality endodontic result. Our patients appreciate your office efficiency completing most routine

treatment within an hour. You are open five days a week and most holidays so we can always get our

patients in for treatment, especially when we are out of the office. You provide nitrous oxide and conscious sedation for our patients who

request sedation. You are experts at handling the most complicated endodontic cases such

as apical surgery, re-treatments, calcified canals, S shaped curves, upper and lower second molars, C shaped canals, access through crowns, severe curves and extraction of fractured teeth when requested.

You can do our buildups when requested. You maintain a great website where our patients can fill out their forms and

get referral slips. Your ladies at the front understand dental insurance and are able to

maximize our patient’s benefits and help them make endodontics affordable.

Your office provides our office and our patient’s incredible customer service.


Our patients tell us you are very gentle and compassionate and are always able to get them numb.

You always see our patients on time. You offer simple and concise treatment cards that you can email us upon

request. We appreciate your years of experience especially in difficult diagnostic

cases. Our patients love your high tech office and equipment. Because I am doing implants I appreciate you providing free CBT Scan for

our patients. Your office always shows their appreciation for our referrals through

goodies and team lunches. You have a great office team who connect very strongly with our team. You are very generous with our patients who are in need. You share great ideas to support our success such as fee schedules and

debt reduction seminars. You eliminate stress in our office and keep our schedule running smoothly

by immediately seeing our pain patients. By treating the more complicated, stressful and unpredictable endodontic

cases you have allowed me to focus on the areas of dentistry that I am more profitable doing, resulting in a higher net profit.

Since I have been referring out almost all my endodontic cases I no longer worry about endodontic flare ups, misadventures, wrong diagnosis, root canal teeth that are always sore and all other post endodontic problems.

You always support and promote us to our patients and encourage them to return to our office as soon as possible to complete our treatment plan.

You always make the most difficult patients feel good about themselves and the treatment they have received.

You always build up the doctor and our office with the new patient emergencies we send you.

You are extremely good at alleviating our patient’s fear of dentistry. You are always positive about our patient’s dentistry and never speak

negatively about other dentists’ work. You are always positive about all dentists including your fellow

endodontists. You are very helpful to our front team by accessing our patient’s benefits. You always get our patients approved for a higher Care Credit limit to cover

their crown. You give us a monthly recap letter for all our patients that you see each

month to ensure we get them in for their final restoration. You cover our emergencies when we are on vacation. You provide full day courses with CE credits for me and my team. When we are doing endodontic treatment and run into difficulty you are

always there for support and always speak positively about the care our patients have received from us.


It’s great to have you available to handle our most difficult patients such as those who are hard to numb, gaggers, tight access and some dental phobic.

You always follow up with our patients with a “well “call either that evening or the next morning.

When our patients look you up on the Internet you always have the highest ratings on the search engines.

We like who you are on a personal and professional level. I know I can call you any time and you will see my patients immediately. You support our dental society by presenting lectures and continuing

education. You support the community and the needy by working with various

charitable organizations both in time and contributions. You support our local dental assisting program by serving on the board,

teaching in the classroom, and providing scholarship money for students. You provide free endodontic care for all referring doctors and their

immediate family and a discounted fee for all dental team. You will stay late to take care of my patients in pain. You will call me to keep me informed if there is a change in the treatment

plan of my patients.

Marketing Ideas, Gifts and Pricing

Below are responses from the Mastery Circle members who asked their referring offices what was the most important thing they did to a change their referral pattern.

Ace -Same day appointments, patients talk highly about our office, doctors having dinner and lunches with referring doctors. -Check out the AAE continuing education site for the past few years for marketing lectures.-For patients who have had a great experience give them a clipboard and a $10 gift card to fill out their comments in the office. Send their comments typed out in a link that goes to the web rating sites such as YELP and asked them to put in their comments. Always ask for the five stars. Continue to update these testimonials on your website.-Put the CR code for your website on your referral pads and business cards.-Set up fishing trips.-Meet with my better doctors for dinner.- Complete the contact list.-Use time shares to give them week vacations.-Do a survey of your referring doctors and their front staff.-Update your website. Have links to Internet review sites. Also have testimonials on your website.-The team needs to have scripting to build up the Dr. both at the chair or the front desk.- Provide free CT scans for your referring doctors.


- Develop a relationship with the best oral surgeon and the best periodontist in the community and put on a two-hour CE course plus a free meal for your dentist in the outlying dental communities.- Bring new dentist to your community to their first dental society meeting. Check with your societies Executive Director for new names.- Produce and sponsor a directory for your dental society with pictures, phone numbers to include home, cell, and work. Also have their website and their email address. - Stand by the bar at the dental society meeting and buy drinks for your referrals or possible referrals.- Do a course in your office for two or three dentists titled “Endo Simplicity” to show them endodontic tricks. Talk to Willis Gable about specifics.- Develop a patient testimonial book for your front office to include possible pictures and specific testimonials. This can be done through Shutter Fly or Apple.-Learn the spouses and children’s first name of doctor and front staff.-Call more often with questions – find out who likes to be called.-Go to lunch more often with doctors who respond to lunches.-Send doctor articles i.e. Embezzlement, raising fees, fee summary and practice building.-Set up Outlook to send articles by first names.- Market our new equipment/technology.- Have frequent meetings for doctors and team members on such things as collections, care credit, web design.-Share articles, cases or other ideas with the study club members to get an endless supply of things to send out to your referring doctors.- Send them to different sites such as Roger Levin’s, Abernathy’s, Dental Town and specific videos or articles that would help them. An example is Roger Levin’s video on internal marketing.http://www.levingroup.com/endo/index.php/resources/videos

- Dental town has a lot of great free videos.

JS-I like you because we both do sedation. Now that I have gotten to know you all the pts seem to like you and I send you more. -You came to visit me when I was new to the area and have kept in contact with me, via phone, pt communication and marketing drop offs. (A young African American female)- Ice cream truck to all the offices, continued drops monthly, doctor to doctor lunches

AV - Call up the referring Doctors that at one time referred you very few patients who now are one of your best referrers. Ask them “What was the most important thing that you did to change their referral pattern?” See emergency patients quickly. Have flexible financing (care credit)-They love that we can see their patients within a day or two; they love to send over patients in severe pain; they love when patients report a pleasant visit at our office; they like that we call them same day after treatment complete; they like one visit endo; they appreciate the diagnostic and prognostic value of CBCT imaging.

BK - One of my best referrers greatly slowed down in referring last year because he hired a part time in-house endodontist. When he ended that relationship 1 month ago he again


started referring all his endodontic cases because we didn’t hurt his patients (I tell every patient I’m very gentle when I greet them and before I give an injection). This is the area where I get the most positive feedback; we have great customer service; the quality of our work is very high.-We schedule their patients in a timely matter. They stated that their patients continuously praise our kindness and professionalism. “You guys are the best, you are so good to our patients, and your staff is always so kind and helpful”- The best thing was to personally take a Starbucks Traveler coffee carton along with coffee cakes to the referring Drs. Office. I then spent 30 minutes talking to them.-One of my referring doctors and his associate greatly slowed down in his referral pattern. I knew both of them are avid gun enthusiasts. I called him up and told him that I’d like to go out target shooting with him sometime. They took me 10 miles out into the desert (it might even be legal) and we spent 3 hours shooting 15 various rifles and pistols. I’ve since purchased a rifle and pistol. We now go out shooting every other month and we have a terrific time. He’s now my second best referrer.

EP- See their patients in need right away; Patients come back to their office happy and thrilled with their experience; Patients say that coming to our office is like going to a spa; Endodontics is outstanding.

JH - Getting their emergency patients in right away. The kindness and understanding that our team show to their patients.

HB - We take very good care of their patients; our visibility and reputation

GH - Make their patients comfortable and give the best care; Get patients in quickly/be responsive to the referring office’s needs; Have a happy, positive environment; Doing the little extras to keep up good relations; Great, open communication.

JL - Getting the patient in right away, same day; compliments on our website; -recently on internet, health grades. us 10/10 vs others 7/10;-complements of staff; -Working their patients who are in pain into our schedule the same day the referring doctor calls.; All front desk staff appreciate gifts in the form of gift certificates or food; Pleasant front desk staff; Caring assistants.

KT - The quality of the work; how patients are treated emotionally; patient management if there is a problem because our Dr doesn’t want to deal with; have patients seen promptly; get reports back quickly.

RR - We are able to see patients within 24 hours due to having an associate; our associate went out and met a lot of our referring dentists in person and created a rapport; we make ourselves available when a GP starts an endo and can’t finish and if GP wants to pay fee we do a no charge.

RW - Accept assignment of benefits; get their patients in ASAP; month end recaps; referring offices love dealing with our team (i.e.: friendly, professional, knowledgeable


etc.); being in-network with their patient’s insurance plan; providing good treatment and patient giving very positive feedback to referring doctor; gave doctor and team a “wow” experience when we came in person to introduce ourselves with very nicely wrapped referral cards and homemade desserts.

RB - Treat patients well, they love us; do great endo; get patients in timely manner; Delta Provider and work with other insurance; our professionalism and friendliness; long standing relationships with other offices.

Mastery Circle Marketing Coordinators Comments - Strategies & Items Used to Improve Relationships With Referral Base

WG We gave large gifts in December. This year it was GO PRO cameras… a big hit. We also teach dentists how to do root canals. We deliver gifts every other month and lately every month.

CS -Annual Golf Tournament, - Extravagant Baskets- Car Detailing- Movie Tickets

BH-I hired a “Practice Liaison” to work 25-30 hours per week and be my field representative for constant presence and communication with general offices. She has weekly meetings and extremely active communication between myself and my graphics/web person via email multiple times per week. She has collected birthdays for teams and doctors and delivers cards with lottery tickets and often a small gift for the doctor. Her role is to support the practice and communicate between offices.-I have reduced my office parties down to one a year (Halloween) and it is a hit for all doctors and teams…attendance is normally 125 people. I now focus my additional monies/efforts on more personalized events. -I am trying to involve the doctors and sometimes spouses on events. I rented a deluxe boat for a two hour evening excursion cruise and took 8 couples (doctors/spouses) on a Friday eve and that was successful. - I spend down time visiting offices in person, in my scrubs (they seem to recognize me better as a professional and not a new/unknown patient). If there is a new referrer or one who rarely sends, I will hand deliver their final report/films in person. - When there is a specific doctor that I know would appreciate certain items, I will deliver them. A good example is the Time and Money book, or the Face to Face book. - I keep “visible” in the dental community by participating in the local Seattle Study Club chapter as an advisor and attend their CE courses with our local general dentists to keep a presence in front of them. I also attend a weekly group lunch that local doctors drop in on twice a month.


- I brought the Mike Abernathy lecture series to the general dentists. We have currently completed the first of 4 sessions with him and had approx. 25 doctors and about 80 people total on the first session, and expect closer to 100 people by the next session.- Staff to Staff lunches. We have recently acquired referrals from an office that hasn’t referred to us since 2008. After our doctor and our team took their doctor and team to lunch (doctors went to a different restaurant than the team members). Dr. H. was candid with the doctor and explained “I owe you an apology”….and told the dentist that he understood he let something slip and get in the way of our at one time good relationship, and apologized. Within a day we received a call that they would love to work with our office again and look forward to sending us their referrals.- Parties: Known for our Annual Halloween Party, since we’ve pulled out all the stops for the last few years (themed décor/transformation of our office), it generates a lot of buzz and we believe that we will continue to get a larger and larger turn-out.- Lunch/Breakfast Delivery to referring office.

EP-Getting patients in quickly- Bring them food!- Be kind to staff- Make gifts/letters/visits highly personal, make an effort to really connect- Root Canal Awareness week deliveries/gifts were very well received- Telephone calls to gp’s to update them on treatment of unusual cases- Delivering catered lunches, Thanksgiving Baskets, Valentine’s Day See’s Chocolates,- Fourth of July Smores treat bags for staff

GH-Recognize monthly our top 20 referring offices with a gift basket, flowers, lunch, etc. Also give similar gifts to ~75 offices about 3-4 times per year-Monthly Newsletter with contests, trivia, photos, etc.-Try to personally meet and greet each doctor personally-Invite Docs to events such as CE, dinner, movie night, picking cherries, etc.- Certificates for one free root canal treatment

SW -Baskets & Cookies, Calendars, Goodies, but what I have found has increased production since I started handling the marketing is the in house marketing. Such as, getting reports back to general dentists quickly and encouraging patients to schedule with their dentist for the final restoration. Getting patients in as soon as possible and making the referring office front office person feel special by addressing them by name and always talking with a smile. I tell them “of course we can work their patient into the schedule”. Lunches with front office team.

JH-Team lunches-Dr. to Dr. lunches-Football tickets


-Pens

HB-Treating their patients like “gold”.- Being available to take emergencies- CE opportunities - make us the expert or provide experts for educational purposes - Newsletters/Lunch-Dinner with Dr’s/Evening of Dentistry/Lunches/Calendars/- Hockey Night/Cooking Night/Gifts to Staff/Christmas Basket

HM-We rented an ice cream truck. By far the most popular event we have. Offices call in June to ask when we are coming. I think this has become our “signature event”. - Some of our evening lectures have been very successful. We have done several Dr. only and a few with staff included.- We also run a yearly “winter blues” contest where we send out a contest question, usually something about Dr. Maguire (what is his favorite sports team) with three multiple choice answers and invite both Dr.’s and staff to answer. I find this works well because it reaches a large volume of offices. We also send out a winner announcement. This year, we also sent a “best Dressed Christmas office” award and sent out notices announcing the winner. (I found one office that was really beautiful when I was doing Christmas deliveries. I think we will continue this every year)

JS-The relationship with the top referrers -Continual drop offs until expected.- From website, preprinted postcards… with list of services.- Internet, online forms (great verbal skills). Young doctors refer this way.- Hiring the right people and firing the wrong ones.

JL-Occasional catered lunches to the top 5 monthly referrals- Television giveaway- Paid vacations for 2 top referrals- Pies during the fall- Back to school gift certificates ($50) for employees of 2 top referrals- Christmas gift certificates ($100) for employees of 2 top referrals- Country Club Plaza gift cards ranging from $500 - $1,000 for top 10 referrals

KT-We have had good results and feedback from CE seminars with 4-6 dentists in our office on CBCT and diagnosis.- We give a large Fall Fiesta in the park in September to referring doctors, teams and new doctors in the area. There is good food, live music, raffle prizes and a nice time spent socializing with everyone.- We have Shari’s Berries strawberries delivered on Valentine’s Day- We deliver Sheryl’s spring cookies


- The large wall calendars are always in demand- Join Seattle Study Club- Maintain positive relationships with referring doctors and their staff.- Take excellent care of their patients.-We have a website that allows doctors to refer their patients and access their patient reports.- We delivered an assortment of dipped apples.- We delivered cutting boards with food items from We Olive. - We deliver catered lunches to referring doctors and their teams. - We deliver packets with referral slips and marketing items along with a food item or gift.

RR-Christmas wine- Baskets of candy and mixed nuts- Our front staff took referring office front staff dinners- Cupcakes to offices- Desk Rescue” kits for staff (tissue/lotion/sanitizer/mirror etc.)

RW-Staff and doctors come to our office for a nice lunch made by Dr. -Hand delivery of post-tx reports with homemade desert tray

RS-Deliver monthly lunches to top 2-3 offices, quarterly gifts to teams of A and B’s,- Thanksgiving baskets, coffee deliveries

FG -Dr. and front desk bringing lunch to the referring office.- Consistent branding of materials- Delivering Pumpkin Chiffon pies at Thanksgiving

RB-Yearly calendar to referrers- Giving significant discounts to dental staff from other offices- Taking DDS’s to lunch, especially new ones to area- Sending lunch to referrers staff/office

AV-A member of the staff calls the referring office when their patient’s treatment is complete- We send the monthly recap letter.- We tell our A offices to “send them on over” if they are referring a patient in pain.- We send “10 reasons to refer to our office” letter.

Regarding our marketing program:We have used some of the items on the NW Endodontics referral questionnaire template. We are aware of our referring office preferences etc.


I make a personal call to our top referrals, at least quarterly. This phone call has proven to be one of the most valuable pieces of marketing we do. The 2 questions from your template that have helped our office in creating a marketing strategy are “what is the most important thing you would like from us” and “ What can we as an office improve on?”There are 3 things we have discovered:

Our referring offices appreciate our treatment report They depend on the fact that we can see their emergency cases same day, They remark on our consistency both in patient care and personal service to their office.

New referring offices receive a call from office manager; introducing myself, thanking them for their referral and answering their questions etc., as well as finding out what is important to them as a referring office. I then send a thank you letter packet containing business cards, referral slips or referral pads according to their preference and our ‘10 Reasons’ letter.Our outside marketing is fairly limited; however, I find as I contact the offices they are pleased with what we do for them and perceive that we are very attentive. This year we added a spring outreach, creating a “Fiesta” basket of chips and salsa. In the fall we send fruit baskets, then Holiday cards in December. Dr. Vaughn co-hosts a golf tournament, participates in a study club and contributes door prizes. He is a guest speaker and is involved in teaching on a monthly basis at the dental school UT Health Science Center as well as being a participating member of the San Antonio District Dental Society. These are all great ways to network and market in our community.It is apparent to me that we must keep ‘taking the temperature’ so to speak of our referring community, in order to know what works for them. The offices referring to us appreciate knowing that when I call or come by, I won’t be taking too much of their time and that we are sincere in our efforts to serve them in a positive and caring way. I would like to see us stepping up a bit more in the outside marketing area, because there is improvement with just the few things we do. I can only imagine what would happen when we take it to the next level.

Mastery Circle Feedback On Marketing That Did and Did Not Work

BH - Not sure if our dental community really appreciated the 4 session educational course we provided with speaker Michael Abernathy. We didn’t see much of any ROI in the way of referrals. This was quite costly with the rental of the facility, catered breakfast, travel expenses for speaker, and loss of production hours (office closed for a day.)

MF - Tried to put together a CE event (evening) for our Massapequa referring DDS. Difficult to find venue and get DDS commitment even though event was no charge.

HB -Open house event the specialists in our building sponsored – would have rather held our own and invited a couple of offices per evening. Endo Practice Mastery®, 2001; Revised November 2016

22

KT - We received complaints from some referring offices when we made a new style of referral slip. It was a brochure with one section being the referral slip and the offices that complained said the paper was too slick to write on, not enough room to write comments, and no longer a carbon copy to keep in the patients’ chart. Some offices would fax a copy of the referral to us and it would come to us black because of the background picture.

For “Root Canal Awareness Week” cupcakes, coffee, and marketing packets were delivered to referring offices, but the response was mild.Send the referring Doctor a gift card of their favorite restaurant for their birthday.Send our top 3 monthly referring offices lunch.

SE - Timely reports, correspondence w/ doctor, monthly office visits, seeing pts when needed.

EP - Going to dinner at a GP’s house and bringing a bottle of wine…. he and his wife did not drink!

Gifts that Mastery Circle clients have used for marketing. List includes the item, item number, unit cost, vendor and e-mail address. Items are rated, 5 being excellent, 1 being poor.

Minuteman Press – 1-360-491-8195 www.olympia.minutemanpress.com Contact - Renae - 80 Wall Calendars – 19 x 27 Laminated - $1,493.92 ($18.68 per calendar)Elliot Sales- Geiger – (800) 576-3945 / (253) 383-3883 Ext. 215 - Computer Calendars with logo and practice information – 1000 - $660 (0.66 each)Proforma Trader Graphix / Dennis Manzardo 224-715-4357 Cell / [email protected]

AV

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number Ratingpens Bp7184a 1 Discountmugs.com 800-569-1980 1Referral pads 10 my.minutemanpress.com (210) 690-5585 1

Lexicomp books DIHFD 65 www.lexi.com 866-397-3433 3Pears PE1 28 Pittmandavis.com 800-289-7829 3Smoked sausages 48 Nbsmokehouse.com 800-537-6932 2Spurs Tickets 150 1Chips and salsa 8 Local market 5lunches 75 Subway lunches 2cupcakes 40 Local baker 2

AVEndo Practice Mastery®, 2001; Revised November 2016

23

http://www.lexi.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.olympia.minutemanpress.com/

Item Item # Cost/unit Vendor email and phone numberRating Fiesta Bag $7 5 Potted Plant $4 5 Cupcakes $7 5 Pens .08 per ea 4Imprint .com 877-446-7746 3 Fruit Basket $23 per ea Pitman and Davis 2 Poinsettias $18 Boy Scout fund Raiser 5 Lunches varies Christmas Cards

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number RatingLogo water bottle 26740 $1.44 ea. inkhead.com (800)554-0127 51 doz. assrt. cookies 8.10 Paradisebakery.com (623)414-4879 4Chili’s chips & salsa 3.09 Chilistogo.com (623)535-4222 4See’s candy 322 16.90 Sees.com (623)772-7256 4Bagels & cream cheese

10.00 Einsteinbros.com (623)536-3155 4

Starbucks TravelerCoffee

20.00 Starbucks.com (623)536-3256 5

Cinco de Mayodinner

$18 perPerson

Hamptoninn.com (623)536-1313 4

BHItem Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number Rating“Goodie Bag” 0.62 Golden Proportions Marketing 4Magnet 0.62 RAMP 3Chapstick 0.89 Patterson Dental 5Candy Bar 0.40 Costco 5Toothbrush 0.50 Crest 5Advil/Tylenol 1.02 Patterson Dental 5Pens w/logo 1.49 Amsterdam 5Letter Opener 0.78 Proforma 4Keychain 0.98 Proforma 2Mousepad 2.92 Proforma 1

EPItem Item # Cost/unit Vendor email and phone numberRating

Brochure .38 PBHS - 800-840-5383 Post Cards 1.59 PBHS - 800-840-5383 Invitations 2.15 PBHS - 800-840-5383


Valentine Choc. 60343196 26.00 See's Candies 800-347-7337 5 Mugs NS105 26.00 CCG Marketing 413-732-7300 5 Calendars 112846 2.14 4Imprints.com 5 Post its MH64JP174 .28 Vistaprints.com 5 Light/Stylus PenP238 4.26 CCG Marketing 413-732-7300 5 Halloween Chocolates 7638 11.45 Lindt.com 5 Iphone speaker1815C 1.42 Silkletter 888-745-5538 5Fabulous Baskets 75.00 Table and Vine 413-736-4694 10

Item Item # Cost/Unit

Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number

Rating

Maroon (Mont Blanc Style) Pen

55036 00.86 Bolduc’s413.786.9960

4

Letter Openers DP730 00.54 Advertising Prod413.786.6364

4

Post-It Pads4” x 5 7/8”

SN16-050 00.78 Advertising Prod413.786.6364

3

Pt Post Care Bag ZGS1 1.36 Advertising Prod413.786.6364

4

Gourmet Food and Wine Basket

87.38 Table and VineKathleen Banas413.504.6091

5

2 lb See’s Nuts and Chews Chocolates

335 26.20 See’s Candies800.609.7337

5

Desk Top Calendar 112846 1.65 4Imprint877.446.7746

4

Lindt Pumpkin and Ghost Halloween Chocolates

7638 16.00 Lindt877.695.4638

5

Stainless Travel Mug

NS105 21.50 Advantages in MarketingChristine Carpenter413.732.7300

5

Panera Bagel Pack 13 Bagels2 Tubs Cream Cheese

13.99 Panera Locations 5

Clear Craft Bag 268-08041037.00/250.14

Bags and Bows800.225.8155

4

Touch Screen Pen P238 3.59 Advantages in Marketing 5


Christine Carpenter413.732.7300

GH

Item Item # Cost/unit Vendor email and phone numberRating

Notepad & pen 1.03 National pen 1-866-388-9850 4 First Aid Kit 0.84 National pen 1-866-388-9850 5 Hand sanitizer BSR-20A 1.30 National pen 1-866-388-9850 4 Gas Card $25 Local gas cards for pt over 30 miles5 RCT Cert. Ourselves to Dr. & Staff one 5 Movie Tickets 7.00 Local Theaters 5 Car wash 5.00 Contest certs 5 Coffee certs 5.00 Dutch Bros 5 Easter Baskets 20.00 Self 5 30 min massage 12.00 Elements massage 4 Umbrellas 4.00 4 Imprint 4 Water bottles 4.00case Target (we did the labels) 5 Mugs 1.00 4Imprint 5 Sweatshirts 15.00 Atomic local 5 T-Shirst 6.00 Atomic printing 5

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number RatingCherries in a basket ~$7 5Umbrellas with logo ~$4 www.4imprint.com 4Homemade cupcakes $7 4Movie tickets $15 Costco 4Restaurant gift cards $15-100 Various restaurants 5“Scent” Baskets $20 Bath & Body/ Scentsy 5Custom toothbrushe $1.50 Henry Schein 800-372-4346 3

JH

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone NumberRatingCookie Trays Changes$20-$35 Mrs. Fields Cookies 5Popcorn Tins By $20-$35 Popcorn Factory 5Nut Trays Season $20-$35 Trophy Nut 5


tel:1-866-388-9850

tel:1-866-388-9850

tel:1-866-388-9850

Candy Tower $20-$35 Harry & David 5Holiday Baskets $20-$50 Costco/Sam’s 5 HB

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number RatingPatient Bag 1 $ .54 Classic Packaging Corp 5Misc. Snack etc. 2 $1.80 (for the patient bag) 5Baskets 3 $60.00 Ever year is different 4Calendar 4 $10.00 InkHead 4Lunches 5 $10.00/pp Varies 4Staff Gift 6 $100/pp Varies year to year 4

HM

Item Item #Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number RatingPt home care bags various 4Surg pt. ice packs 4

Tim Hortons Donuts 6.68/dozen Tim Hortons 4Small spring planter 22.00 EA West Coast Gardens 3Mexican “fiesta”baskets25.00 Various suppliers, made baskets myself 2Valentines baking 25.00 Sinfull Hideaway bakery 3Purdys chocolates 18.00-125.00Purdys –cost depends on referrals – Christmas gift4Ice Cream 2.00-3.50 Mr Cool Ice Cream (total cost to office $1500.00)5+++ JS

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone Number RatingLetter openers 1 .75 proforma 5Pens 15 .25 proforma 5Staplers 1 proforma 3Chapstick 1 .80 proforma 4Keychains 1 proforma 5Goodie bag itself 1 proforma 4Wall calendar 1 proforma 5Oversize post card 1 PBHS web site designer 5Food, choc, pretzelsCheesecakes (thanksgiving)

5

30 $25 ea

Costco

Honey Baked Ham

5

5

JL

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone NumberRatingEndo Practice Mastery®, 2001; Revised November 2016

27

Popcorn Tins $33.75 Velvet Crème Popcorn 913-326-77424Writing Pens .59 Amsterdam 5Coffee Mugs ?Gift Cards $500-1000 Plaza Kansas City 2PiesCatered Lunches 100-125 Local 5Velvetcremepopcorn.com913-326-7742 (Call about customized lids)

Kansas City C/C/C Popcorn Tins6 ½ gallon Lid 8”w x 8”h$33.75 per tin

Item Item # Cost/UnitVendor E-Mail and Phone NumberRatingPens D68844 .55 [email protected] 5Lip balm 1.17 1-800-637-1140 5Letter openers Ltr350 1.07 1-800-378-6376 5Staple removerShari’s Berries 3000517639.97 [email protected] 5Cheryl’s cookies 86331 34.99 [email protected] 4Imprinted cd’s 1.89 [email protected] 4Wall calendars 6251 4.60 [email protected]

RR

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone NumberRatingChap Stick .49 5Pens .59 4Cupcakes 1.00 5Lunches 4.00 5 RWItem Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone NumberRatingbrownies 3Fruit pizzas 5Gooey Butter cake 4



RS

Item Item # Cost/unit Vendor email and phone numberRating

Mouse pad FFH7 $3.24 each PROforma (360)318-0414 1 Calendar 6252 $11.48 Each “ 5 Letter Opener 1252-M $1.29 each “ 4 Water Bottles TRB22F $2.10 Each “ 5 Highlighter 6060 $0.64 Each “ 3 Green Mug 2419 $4.43 “ 3 Ink-Joy Pens IJ300RT $0.43 “ 4 Gold Pens WC62545B $1.89 Myron 1.800.526.9766 4

RB

Item Item # Cost/Unit Vendor E-Mail and Phone NumberRatingLunch 10$ Star City coffee house 5Pocket calendar 109225 1.99 Myron.com 5Chap stick .59 D&M [email protected] 5.00 Starcitycoffee.com 5Edible Arrangements 50. Ediblearrangements.comLaminated calendar 1.50 Local Printer 5PharmacyLaminated reference list

.75 Local lPrinter

BH

Item Item # Cost/unit Vendor email and phone number

Rating

Patient Goodie Bag $.062/ea GPM (866)590-4476 5

-Candy Bar

-Magnet

-Chapstick

Oral B

$.40/ea

$.62/ea

$1.06/ea

Costco

RAMP (610)539-6100

Patterson Dental

5

5

5



-Calendar

-Advil (3 packs ea)

-Toothbrush

$.39/ea

$1.02

$1.16/ea

Patterson Dental

Patterson Dental

Dentalcare.com/1-800-543-2577

4

5

Molar Cupcakes $4/ea Maria’s Delicacies 5

Flowers $20-$50 Local Florists or 1-800-flowers 4

Candy Delivery $15-$30 See’s Candy / Costco 4

Gourmet Carmel Apples $6-$10

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory 5

Girl Scout Cookies $5/ea Girl Scouts 4

Bundt Cakes $16.50/dz Nothing Bundt Cakes 5

KT

Item Item # Cost/unit Vendor email and phone number

Rating

Lip balm 0195461 1.13 Patterson Dental(800-637-1140) 5

Letter Opener/staple remover

Information provided in the past 5

Coffee mug Information provided in the past 5

Pens with stylus and light



Car charger Information provided in the past 5

Large calendar that shows year at a glance 6251 4.30

The Ad Solution(240-880-3046) 5

Post it notes with logo


Mouse pads Information provided in the past 3


Documents

EMPLOYMENT MANUAL AND POLICY · Web viewMarketing Program. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE. Introduction 3. Why marketing programs fail 3