The following is a guest post by James Kuester of Kuster Dental. This post should not be viewed as an endorsement by Dental Heroes. It is for informational purposes only. If you are interested in guest posting for Dental Heroes, please sign up here.

When people are headed off to see their dentist the trip is often filled with anxiety, whether from anticipated pain or merely the unknown of what is actually the cause of their malady. In order to attract new patients and retain one’s current ones, dentists need to make sure that the physical office environment works in tandem with the overall branding and marketing to convey a soothing and comforting message. Of course, the message and interior also need to project competence so as to instill patients and prospects with confidence.

Strive for Consistent Branding Strategy

This is no easy task. So often dentists hire one firm to design a website for them, another to create a logo, a third to assist with print advertising, and yet another to design their office interior – none of which are ever introduced to one another or encouraged to work together as a team. Successful entrepreneurs however, realize that all of these players need to work together in concert, with a single branding message and mission in mind if they are going to achieve a positive return on investment. The goals of attracting new patients, reducing patient turnover, and increasing referrals will only be achieved if the experience patients have when visiting the website is repeated when calling to make an appointment and reinforced when stepping through the front door for the actual exam. If at any time along this path the experience changes or fails to live up to expectations, the confidence level falls, and the anxiety level rises increasing the risk for a cancelled appointment or a failure to return for future service.

Keep Brand Shapers Involved

Now, this doesn’t mean that one necessarily has to hire a redesign of the website, office, logo, and other advertising materials at the same time. While that might be the ideal scenario, as small business owners we all know that budgets rarely allow for all of these projects to happen at once. What it does mean is that once a branding message has been establishing for the practice, all future players working on aspects of the marketing for the business should be introduced to and expected to collaborate with the marketing team that developed the branding message so that the new pieces will be designed to fit seamlessly into the overall strategy and work to reinforce that which has come before.

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