The typical busy dental practice is a virtual hub of activity with hundreds of patient conversations taking place daily. Most of these conversations are out of earshot of the dentist. They occur at the front desk or in the hygiene room, or even in the doctor treatment room with a dental assistant when the doctor may be out of the room.

In the course of those conversations, a lot of important information is exchanged. Deaths or illnesses in a family, jobs lost or landed, kids getting into college, awards won, milestones achieved.

I suggest that we need to put this information to good use by sharing it with the doctor. One of the staff is appointed to be the chairperson of what I call the Sunshine Committee. Every employee in the practice is responsible for reporting their daily relevant conversations to the Sunshine Committee chairperson who in turn shares the information with the doctor.

The details are placed on the desk in the doctor’s private office. Every night, the doctor must write two or three handwritten personal notes to these patients. Not a term paper – just a few lines- and in your best prescription handwriting! Example: “Dear Roberta – I was so sorry to learn that your mother had passed away. I know what an influence she was in your life. Please accept my deepest sympathies at this difficult time”. Example: “Dear Jonathan – I was so excited to hear that Bobby was accepted to Yale. How proud you and Mary must be. Please send him my heartiest congratulations”. Sincerely – Dr. Sam Jones

This is a total team effort. Everyone must have their antennae tuned and listen to your patients. Thirty to thirty-five notes a month – consistently – will create a major buzz in your community. Do not overlook this fabulous opportunity to let your patients know how well you communicate and how much you care.

So often these days, dentists are inundated with advice on how to market their practice to attract more new patients. Direct mail, radio or TV spots, pay per click programs on Google and now Facebook – everyone has something to sell you. And while I have clients using all of these external marketing mediums successfully, there is no question that the costs are significant. Hopefully the return on investment for any of these strategies makes them affordable. But in this difficult economy, many dentists are nervous about obligating themselves to big on going expenses for advertising.

Let’s not overlook the value of internal marketing to our existing patient base. As long as this is done consistently, it is very effective and the costs are negligible. Probably most of your patients don’t realize – or certainly think about the fact – that you want or need more new patients. In a busy practice, many of your patients assume that you are not even taking new patients.

So over the next few weeks, I will share with you a bunch of internal marketing techniques that I recommend that tap into the power of word of mouth advertising. Do you realize what would happen to your practice if every one of your patients referred just ONE patient? It might be too much to handle – what a nice problem to have!