Solely focused on helping dentists grow their business in times of ease or difficulty, lead strategist and founder of Golden Proportions Marketing, GPM, Xana Winans has stepped up to ensure all dentists stay afloat during these times of uncertainty.

Utilizing her background in corporate marketing, Xana founded GPM over two decades ago when she realized that there were few to no full-service marketing services for dentists like her husband.

During this pandemic, Xana has begun to coach practices on staying connected with their patients through continued brand building and community outreach through virtual interfaces.

For many of us, social media may be our lifeline in staying positively connected to our patients. Work to share with your community videos and posts that capture your team implementing new safety protocols or engaging in a form of community service such as the donation of some protective gear to local hospitals. Humanizing your videos and posts with mentions of how your own family may also be struggling with these new circumstances will go a long way in creating a stronger sense of human-to-human connection.

Throughout her talk with me, Xana mentioned the value of “going the extra mile” several times. This is especially important in a time when people are so fearful of how any shortcuts or negligence could compromise their health. Before reopening, give your patients a virtual walking tour of your team doing sterilization. Going behind the scenes in this way will help patients feel safer, especially if you combine it with some new measures such as a text-based “waiting room” and online paperwork.

Xana recommends dedicating a particular morning just for vulnerable patients. Doing this after a detailed sterilization the night before will show your clientele that their health is a major priority for you. Advertising these time slots and other measures you’ve taken to decrease the spread of the virus may even open your door to new patients searching for dentists that truly care about their health.

Train your staff to be familiar with proactive responses for worried patients, and if a patient has a particularly positive experience related to the COVID-19 action steps you’ve taken, ask them for a testimonial. 

Overall, Xana emphasizes that it is important not to remain discouraged. Remember that if the worst-case scenario arrives, you still have your dental credentials and much more experience than you did when you finished dental school. You can always rebuild. If you need to, you can always take on some temporary debt and leverage it as a tool to get to you to a more successful place in the future. If you focus on maintaining the relationships you already have with your patients, they will support your business through thick and thin.

If you have a special marketing or business question, Xana is offering completely free consultations to all, no matter what agency you may already be working with. You can call her and enjoy a free hour-long consultation.

Also, you can access a master index of resources for the dental community that addresses marketing, staffing challenges, and other COVID-19 spurred issues. From her site, you can sign up for a free newsletter and receive continued COVID-19 guidance from week to week.

Learn more about:

• How to you can help your patients feel at ease about their dental appointments
• Why you need to continue to prioritize brand building
• Accessing a plethora of free resources to navigate the COVID-19 crisis

*Disclaimer* 

This post contains affiliate links, which means we receive a commission at no additional cost to you.  The funds we receive are small and go towards running this site and our podcast.  For more information about our affiliate policy, please click this link.