How Often Should a Dental or Chiropractic Office Update Their On-Hold Messages?

Since we specialize in dental and chiropractic on-hold recordings, I am often asked how many updates I'd recommend for these types of practices. The short answer - any medical office should get a minimum of 3 recordings per year.

Now, I understand that medical practices don't have that many changes going on, and may not run promotions or sales like other types of business do, but there are other reasons to update your on-hold recording:

Changes happen more often than you think. Even a dental office has staff changes which can be promoted, welcoming a new staff member or associate. New services are offered periodically, such as teeth whitening. For chiropractors, there's always new technology, such as decompression, which is hot right now.

The script should be updated to be more effective. Even if nothing has changed in the practice, the script should be edited and reworded so it sounds new. There's no reason to promote every aspect of the practice on one recording - use the updates to emphasize different things at different times.

Holiday recording. Everyone loves those Christmas and "Holiday" (for more PC people) on-hold messages!

Change that music. Something as simple as updating the background music can make a difference.

While 3 recording per year is a good starting point, many of our clients really utilize their on-hold recordings as a big part of their marketing - many do monthly or bi-monthly updates and have great results. Patients inquire about their services more, and they get lots of great feedback. Remember, it's way less expensive to keep a patient coming back than to get a new one, and that's where on-hold advertising can be powerful.

Do You Have a Data Loss Recovery Plan?

This week, one of our main production computers went down, causing a bit of a hiccup in our normal operations, but things went a lot smoother than the last time this happened. Some planning and regularly backing up our data helped us immensely, and we even learned some new things this time around that will make the next computer-failure event go even smoother.

It's a fact - computers go down. Hard drives crash. Data gets lost. What can you do for your business to ensure that when this happens (yes, when) you will have a seemless continuation of your operations?

Here are some tips:

Back up regularly. Back up to a CD, USB drive, external hard drive, tape, whatever. But make sure you back up!

Take a backup with you. It's common for people to back up to an external hard drive sitting right next to their computer, and just leave it there. But if there's a natural disaster, or flooding, etc. then that drive will do you no good. Take a copy home or anywhere off-site, and swap them every so often.

Consider having a duplicate computer. An old, unused computer will work well in an emergency. Load all of the applications you normally use onto it, so in the event of computer failure, you can just plug it in and be ready to go.

Here's a good article on this topic: http://blog.affinitycgi.com/2007/10/data-loss-it-will-happen.html

Social Media Sites to Increase Rankings and Exposure

One of the newer phenomena in “Web 2.0,” (the next generation of the internet) is the emergence of social media sites. These are sites where people connect virtually with one another, and the idea is that you are exposed to the networks of all the people you’re connected to – basically the “Six Degrees of Separation” brought to life.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll mention the 3 most popular social media sites, and some of the basic differences between them.

Myspace.com – This site is geared more toward the younger crowd, teenagers and early 20-somethings. A very laid-back and casual site – you’ll see a lot of crazy stuff here.

Facebook.com – This has a bit of a wider age range of users, from people in their 20’s to 40’s. Also a very casual environment, but perhaps not as much as MySpace.




LinkedIn.com – LinkedIn is a business networking site. It has a professional environment, and is a great place to network with fellow business people.

Each of these sites offers an opportunity for you to interact with your network, and also reach out to your friends’ networks – giving you access to thousands of people, and potentially tens of thousands. They also feature groups you can join, and some fun ways to get to know your friends or “network.” Try these sites out, but beware – they are addictive!

Still Using an Answering Machine for Your Business?

When someone calls your business after hours, are they greeted by an answering machine? Ever stop and think about what impression that makes? Think about it – when you call a place and get an answering machine – you can tell it’s an answering machine! The white noise…the way the message sounds…and what does that tell you? It gives off the impression that your business is either very small since you don’t have a voice-mail system, or that you are behind the times. To me, it just screams “small time!” and isn’t very professional.

If your business size doesn’t justify a full-blown auto attendant voice-mail system, fine; but why not at least get a voice-mail service from your local phone company? Your local service provider (Bellsouth, Verizon, Southwestern Bell etc.) likely offers a simple voice-mail package for under $20 a month.

You’ll simply access your voice-mail by calling into your mailbox. You can record your outgoing message, (if you don’t have a good voice, find someone who does!) and you’ll know that someone has left you a message when you pick up the phone and hear a stutter dial tone. Then you just call in and retrieve your messages. You can save them, play them back, rewind, and forward – and no more tapes or physical machine to worry about. And most importantly, it’ll sound clearer and more professional. Isn’t $200 a year worth the enhanced image it’ll give you?

How Will a Recession Affect Your Business?

Oh, no. Not the dreaded R-word! I refuse to even utter that word. Are we in one? Are we headed towards one? The economists have been arguing over this for the past few months, and will likely continue doing so. The reason I hate the R-word is not because of its effect on my business – actually, some of my best months have been during bad economic times – but because of the effect it could have on my psyche.

See, to me, the R-word seems to make people complacent. You’ve heard it before – “How’s business?” “Terrible! Sales are down…it’s the recession.” A recession (there, I’ve said it!) gives people something to blame – a reason for their slump. And it’s easy to get lazy and resign oneself to the idea that times are tough and any extra effort will likely be wasted.

So don’t give in to the R-word! Here’s what you can do to make your business immune to it:

Increase sales efforts. Hire more sales people. People are still buying, even in a down economy. It may take some more work to find them, that’s all.

Increase marketing. Become creative; it doesn’t need to cost a lot to be effective. E-mail marketing is extremely effective and inexpensive.

Increase networking. Join a chamber or local referral group. Get out there!

Find alliance partners. Seek businesses in complimentary industries that could be a good referral source for you, or vice versa. Partner with them and try to find a win-win situation, such as mutual referral-giving, or a referral fee for any referrals given that sign up as customers..

Make some more phone calls. Stay at work 10 minutes more each day and make a few more phone calls. Every little bit of effort adds up.

Do things you don’t normally do. Think outside the box. Make that phone call. Take a chance. You may have a record month!