Some dental practices can find that they get quieter over Christmas. A simple reason for this really, patients are prioritising presents for their loved ones over their oral health. In fact, patients don’t really prioritise their health as much over the Christmas period as they do throughout the rest of the year; but can you really blame them for that one? So how does a Dental Practice stay busy and profitable over the season when naturally, patients don’t want to spend much more money on their teeth.
Well, you just need to be a bit more proactive with your marketing. Here’s a couple of examples:
If you’ve read 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (and if you’re a business owner I strongly suggest you do) then you’ll learn that holding sales can be detrimental to your long-term business success. Why? If you hold monthly sales, then your patients will hold off paying full-whack waiting for your next sale. So how can we leverage this?
Well, you either take the DFS route and hold a sale each month on a different treatment – very risky though, wouldn’t recommend it. Or, you hold a sale similar to a Black Friday offer, just remember to do this rarely. It can be an offer that only lasts for December, or you could even put a festive twist on it and do the ’12 Days of Christmas’ but with a different offer each day (and only for that day). This tactic will be most effective when you have an engaged mailing list. Remember to use these incentives for treatments to be conducted in December; otherwise, you might find you’re turning down business in January by postponing your December appointments at a reduced rate. Leading you to effectively be operating your next year a month in arrears with a reduced net profit by the % drop carried out in your December sale; providing that all your other months follow the previous year’s trend.
To summarise that; create urgency for your patients to take out treatment in December.
B2C businesses love Christmas, it causes a huge spike in their sales. Now if you’re there thinking “I’m a Dentist, why would I love Christmas when it gets quieter for me?” then you’re not tackling Christmas the right way. One year, I asked Santa for a Philips Sonicare AirFloss and new Electric Toothbrush; something my dentist supplied both of, and I believe my Mum brought both for me from my Dentist. In addition to this, this year, I’d be pretty happy if someone brought me a Teeth Whitening Voucher (my email address is [email protected] if any clients are feeling generous). The point is, I’m sure I’m not the only one, and this is a great opportunity for Dental Practice’s to push ‘Gifts’ in the form of treatments to customers.