How Dental Labs & Dentists Can Make Patients Happy

Dental laboratories and dentists have a symbiotic relationship. Without each other, neither would be able to reach their common goal of meeting dental patients’ needs. If you’re a dental lab owner who wants to keep dentists satisfied, keep reading. 

Relationships Between Dental Labs and Dentists

The relationship between dentists and labs is a notoriously delicate one. Whether you are a dentist or a dental lab owner, you surely realize that this relationship is extremely important. Without a solid dentist/lab relationship, running an efficient practice becomes difficult and is not nearly as enjoyable. A good working relationship makes the process smoother and more profitable for everyone.

Tough Times Create Tougher Competition 

In the hyper-competitive market that emerged with The Great Recession, there is increased pressure on both the dental practice and the dental lab to operate as efficiently as possible while still providing great service and a quality product. 

While an increase in dental labs and dental practices may signify an increasing need in the market for dental services, now more than ever it is difficult for both dental labs and dentists to differentiate and position themselves. This is yet another reason why dental labs and dentists need to take advantage of their symbiotic relationship and work together to provide dental patients with the dental services they so heavily rely on.

How Dental Labs & Dentists Can Keep Dental Patients Happy

In order for dental labs and dentists to keep patients satisfied, they need to keep dental patients’ needs at the forefront of everything they do. So how can dental labs work with dentists to keep dental patients happy? Make communication easy, honest and enjoyable.

Easy communication means not only making it easy for your dentists to contact your dental lab, but by taking the lead to ask important questions and actively listen to what your dentists say. Be upfront about which dental services your dental laboratory can and cannot provide, and within what time frame, otherwise your risk ruining your dentist’s relationship with their patient. Finally, keep communication enjoyable by checking in with your dentist about the quality of service received. Bonus: opening your dental laboratory to honest feedback will enable you to improve and continue satisfying your clients.

Metrics Can Help Your Dental Lab Close More Dentist

By David H. Khalili, Founder of DentalLabSupport.com

Ultimately, the goal of any Dental Lab is to attract and retain dentists. Closing sales is a crucial part of that; if you get members of your target audience into your sales pipeline, but they never end up becoming customers, your efforts will be wasted. Marketing software can help your Dental Lab close more sales, but only if you know just what metrics matter in measuring your success. Here are 4 metrics to pay attention to as you optimize your sales process.

1) Lead Origin

Do you know where your leads come from? How did they learn about you, and where did they first made contact? If you gather this information, you can gain a better understanding of which leads are most likely to convert to customers.

For example, you may find that leads originated from your website are actually more likely to become customers than those who contacted you directly. Now, you can increase your focus on the former to maximize your success and close a higher percentage of sales.

2) Lead Engagement

Your LabCell Marketing Software can help you measure just how engaged your contacts are with your content after they sign up to become a lead. As you can probably imagine, leads who continue to open and click through your emails, or read conversion pages on your website, will be more likely to become customers than those who sign up initially, but never follow up.

Measuring lead engagement comprehensively allows you to categorize them into a number of groups, which your sales team can then use to prioritize its effort. Time is limited, and pitching your company only to leads who have shown continued interest in your product or service can be a valuable tool to improve your closure rate.

3) Average Lead to Customer Time

You may also want to consider measuring the amount of time it takes for a lead to turn into a customer. How many days, weeks, or months do they need in your system before they're ready for a sale? How many emails do they receive on average before indicating their readiness to buy?

Answering these questions helps you establish an average time line for your lead. If they don't become sales-ready until at least a month into the process, making the sales call a week after they enter your database will be of little value. Timing your sales-based communication means increasing your chances of reaching them at a time when they are most likely to make a buying decision.

4) Internal and Industry Conversion Rates

On average, how many of your leads turn into customers? Knowing that number, and how it compares with figures common for your industries, can go a long way toward helping you determine the effectiveness and success of both your lead nurturing and your sales efforts.

If you lag significantly behind industry averages, you may want to investigate just why that is, and how you can rectify the situation. Of course, simply running ahead of the average also deserves further investigation: you want to understand why, so you can replicate the process for future leads. Either way, knowing both your internal and industry conversion rates can help you close more sales in the future.

Of course, none of the above is possible without Marketing Software that tracks your interactions with your leads, and provides you with reports that help better understand the buying journey your leads take on their way to becoming customers. They can help your business close more sales, but only with the help of software that makes tracking them easily.

For information on LabCell Dental Lab Marketing Software please visit DentalLabSupport.com.