Statistics 2 – Source of New Patients

Let’s talk more about statistics. What else do we follow? Well if you’re marketing directly to the public you have got to know whether those marketing dollars are being spent well and being spent correctly. So the next statistic that I am thinking about right now, and they may not be in your order, but this is my order – I want to know where my new patients are coming from.  Those of us who have been in traditional practices for years and years and years track it by doctor.  Who is sending new patients and who is not and it should be tracked by doctor, but in these days we are going direct to patient and need to look at that even further. So what are some of the categories that we have. We have internet and we have divided internet into a number of different categories. It could be internet Google reviews, it could be internet website, it could be internet Google AdWords, and sometimes patients can’t be specific, but that’s okay. We get as much data as we can. We use the magazine so that’s another one. We do dental implant lectures so that’s another category. It could be our sign, TV appearances, radio appearances.  Whatever you are doing that seems to generate patients, those categories need to be defined. So when your staff member is asking the question, “How did you hear about us?” then that is noted down. At the end of the week all of those statistics are compiled and Eleanor does that so we have it on a nice grid and we can understand it. So your next assignment is let’s keep track of referral sources, where they are coming from, and then have somebody compile those statistics at the end of the week.

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