Do you know about Buzz Files?

If you were to ask every new patient how they heard about your practice, you'd find that a significant number will have come from one of their friend's recommendations. Referred patients are always your best patients. They already have some trust and so all you need to do is to not mess up.

Compare that cohort to people who saw an ad that offered something for free. Those people just know one thing about you: that you're looking for more patients and that you're paying to get them.

With the right strategy, you can double, triple, quadruple your referred patients.

I built 5 large practices, all via Internal Marketing. No ads. It wasn't just a by-product of being a good clinician or of just being a nice guy. It didn't happen by accident. It was an effective strategy that cost nothing.

It had occurred to me that if we wanted patients to refer more patients, we needed to give them something interesting to talk about. We needed to create a BUZZ. We needed to arm each patient with note-worthy information. If that information was interesting, chances are, they'd tell their friends.

I also knew that as a clinician, I had no time to pass on all this information to the patient. I really needed the team to deliver my messages. But now I needed to find a way of training the team on what to say. So, as a team we discussed it and decided that we needed to have regular trainings on all the hot dental topics that patients would find interesting.

We had a 2-hour weekly training. We chose a topic. For example: "why amalgam fillings are replaced".

We broke each topic down into 4 components. We created what we called a Buzz File for each topic.

The 1st step is to check out the science regarding the treatments you provide.

For example: Science tells us precisely why ceramic is superior to amalgam. Regarding the range of Linear Thermal Coefficient of Expansion of Dental Materials in the Temperature Range of 20° to 50°C. Human teeth = 8-15. Dental Amalgam = 22-28.

I made sure that everyone in the team understood the evidence around why we try and guide patients towards ceramic restorations.

But all the patient needs to know is that amalgam expanded twice as much as teeth. That's why they fail.

The next step was to think of a metaphor or some sort of visual example to allow the patient to really understand the problem.

In many parts of the world where it's very cold, before metal was discovered, people were able to break up rocks by chipping out little holes in a straight line and putting water into the holes. When the water froze at night and expanded, the rocks subsequently cracked.

That's what happens with teeth. When we have a hot drink, the amalgam expands more that the tooth. As this is repeated, the teeth crack. It's a simple concept.

We took lots of clinical photos and started saving interesting photos. So, for amalgam, there was no shortage of great shots. Patients were quickly convinced that amalgams are a poor treatment choice.

Finally, we made it a habit of relating all the interesting stories that we came across every day. As we came across patient stories that were noteworthy, we shared them with the team and we recorded them in our Buzz files.

Each topic had a Buzz File.

Over the years we collected fabulous Buzz Files. We had metaphors for all sorts of treatments and conditions.

The result - a professional team of inspired and inspiring people. They liked to chat with patients because they had something worth chatting about.

Patients made better choices for their own treatments.

They also left armed with new, interesting tit-bits of shareable information that led to more referrals.

Inspiration is infectious. It's viral.