Ideas for things you can do to incorporate the holiday season into your dental practice.
I know there has been some debate lately about when the appropriate time is to decorate your home and office for the holidays. Many people have already decorated, while others prefer to wait until after Thanksgiving. I’m somewhere in the middle. I’m excited to decorate but am restraining myself until after Thanksgiving. I love the holidays! There’s always such a warm and magical feeling in the air.
No matter when you decorate, now is a great time to think about spreading some holiday cheer to your team and your patients.
Donations
The holidays are a wonderful time to collect donations to help less fortunate people. I know of several offices that are requesting Thanksgiving donations from their team members and patients to share with their local food bank. The spirit of giving makes the holiday season so special. 2021 has been a difficult year for many people. Small acts of kindness can make such a difference in their world.
Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks. It would be a nice gesture to send out a thank you card to your patients for their support over the last year. This could be done very easily and inexpensively by sending a newsletter via email using Patient Engage. Simply let your patients know that your office is thankful for them and you wish them a happy holiday season. This may also be an appropriate way to let them know your office schedule for Thanksgiving week, because many eating-related tooth problems happen this time of year!
You can give thanks to your team for their hard work over the last year. Some offices may plan to have a meal together. If finances or schedules don’t allow for that, you could write a heartfelt thank you in a card, and it would be greatly appreciated by your team.
Sharing
The holidays are a great time to increase your social media presence because there are so many things to post about! I once heard that a dental office should post on social media daily to be most relevant. The more visible your office is, the more patients you’ll attract. During the holiday season, there are so many possibilities for posting. Post pictures of your team dressed up in holiday hats. Or post pictures of your office after you’ve decorated.
Spread the Cheer
A good marketing tool is to run holiday specials for products. For example, you could sell electric toothbrushes or gift certificates for teeth whitening. These make excellent holiday gifts and increase your office revenue. Be sure to create a procedure code in Dentrix for the product, if you don’t already have one, so that you can track the production generated by the holiday special to see if it will be beneficial to do again next year.
I love the magical feeling that this time of year brings. These are just a few ideas of things you can do to incorporate the holiday season into your dental practice.
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By Charlotte Skaggs
Certified Dentrix Trainer and The Dentrix Office Manager columnist
Charlotte Skaggs is the founder of Vector Dental Consulting LLC, a practice management firm focused on taking offices to the next level. Charlotte co-owned and managed a successful dental practice with her husband for 17 years. She has a unique approach to consulting based on the perspective of a practice owner. Charlotte has been using Dentrix for over 20 years and is a certified Dentrix trainer. Contact Charlotte at vectordentalconsulting@gmail.com.
