Your Practice Name Can Make You King
of the Hill
By Dr. Chris Kammer - www.TheSmileExperts.com
One of my favorite songs from the Electric Light Orchestra came
from their El Dorado album back in the 70s and it was titled Can’t
Get it Out My Head. When I have lectured, I have shown the album
cover and asked if any of the audience members could recognize the
group or the name of the album. The only dentist that ever knew
was Dr. Lawrie Ingles of Ottawa—a musical superstar in his
own right, (he handles instrumentals with the GenR8Ters Band.) Well,
the marketers of that album must have known that they chose one
of the most memorable movie scenes in history to feature on the
cover of that album. It is a shot of the Wicked Witch of the West
reaching for Dorothy’s ruby slippers. She is prevented from
grabbing them because of some sort of electrical force field.
That very familiar sight would spark memories of familiarity with
the record buying public. For some of you younger cats, you’ll
need to know that when music came out on vinyl records, the album
covers were displayed much more prominently in music stores and
were
a critical aspect in the selling of music. Nowadays, cds are so
small you can hardly see what is depicted on their covers. The ELO
song title, Can't Get It Out of My Head, brings me to the point
of this article.
We would all love to have a message and an image so powerful that
the listening public Can’t Get it Out Their Head! Marketing
the message of your practice is a progression and starts with preliminary
basic steps and moves on to the methods of communicating that message.
One of the biggest mistakes that I see occurring in the field of
dentistry over and over again, is that most doctors are skipping
steps in the process.
Before you can put an advertisement out, you’ve got to know
what you want to say. Before you know what you want to say, you’ve
got to know who or what you want to be. Finally, before you figure
out who or what you want to be, you have to decide what brings you
joy in your dental practice and in your life. What it all comes
down to, is that we are seeking joy in one form or another. Once
you decide what makes you happy and you’ve decided what you
want to stand for as a dental practice and who you want to be to
the community, then it’s time to move to the next step. This
is usually the most neglected and yet critical step for doctors—NAMING
THEIR PRACTICE! More often than not, dentists name the practice
after themselves— Joe Jones, DDS, Inc.
Show
Some Emotion
The name of your practice should evoke some sort of emotion and
it should be a positive one. Naming a practice after yourself means
that you think that your name alone brings some sort of joyful message
to people’s lives and that’s all you need. What about
telling someone about the benefits you bring to people’s lives?
The name of your practice may be the only thing some people ever
hear and I’ve got news for you, the mention of a dentist’s
name is not going to send anyone into fits of ecstacy. In fact,
quite the opposite may occur. Is there a way you can communicate
joy to their lives by the name you choose for your dental practice?
There is a lot of power in a name, and the vast majority of dentists
are missing the boat on this simple issue.
Important Marketing Decision
I would like to be so bold as to say that the most important marketing
decision you will ever make is what to name your dental practice.
I once consulted with a dentist who named his practice The Dental
Office. The reasoning behind this was that he figured people all
over town would be talking about him when they were speaking generically
about their scheduled dental appointments and telling their friends
that they had to “go to the dental office” this afternoon.
He thought that everybody would be thinking that these people were
talking about his office.
I am impressed with the fact that this dentist was looking for a
creative name for his practice, however, “The Dental Office”
stirs up the most generic of thoughts in my mind and this particular
doctor’s practice was anything but generic. In fact, it was
one of the finest, most high tech and beautiful offices that I had
ever seen. Once again, hearing the name, The Dental Office, will
not send anyone into fits of ecstacy. It is not a name that will
impress anyone because it says nothing about the care and cutting
edge service they provide. I have also run into dentists who have
used this tagline Quality Care for the Scared.
I can’t think of anything worse than coming to work each day,
knowing that I will be facing patient after patient with dreadful
fears of dentistry and not a single one wanting to be there in the
first place. I can handle those people, but if I had to go all day
long with just patients like that, I wouldn’t like it at all!
There is a practice in my city named Abcom Dental. This name gives
no message whatsoever about the practice. The only thing it has
going for it, is that it appears first in the telephone book yellow
pages. Once again, I like the fact that these doctors were thinking
along some marketing lines, but the message of Abcom says nothing
and means nothing.
A good friend of mine is working at a dental practice called Dentistry
for the Quality Concerned. I would like to hear the receptionist
utter that name with every phone call. That is a mouthful! To me
that conjures up nitpicking people that are looking for a bargain,
are very demanding, and are not willing to pay for it. I wonder,
is that name insinuating that if you don’t go to that practice,
then you aren’t concerned about quality?
Generic Doesn’t Stand Out
Let’s not kid ourselves. Everybody wants excellence and everybody
wants quality. Show me anyone going to a medical professional that
doesn’t care about either of these two things. So, don’t
let your name be so generic. It is like saying Dentistry for People
Who Are Breathing. Everybody is breathing. Maybe everybody will
come to your dental practice…
Once there was a beautiful, tropical and exotic location in the
Caribbean Islands, called Hog Island. Do you think anybody saved
their money and took the family on a warm weather vacation to Hog
Island? No way. Not until they changed the name to Paradise Island
did it become a popular vacation site—the difference is in
the name.
Staying
Power
20 years ago, it was a bold move for us to rename our practice from
J. S. Kammer and Associates (my father) to Center for Cosmetic Dentistry.
At that time, cosmetic dentistry was still considered fluff and
unnecessary; not the meat and potatoes dentistry that made people
healthier. Thanks to meeting Dr. Ron Ashley at one of the earliest
meetings of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry and after
hanging out at his office, were we inspired to change the name of
our practice. Dr. Ashley may have been one of the first dentists
in the country to name his practice Center for Cosmetic Dentistry.
My father and I really wanted to send a message through our name,
so we changed it to Center for Cosmetic Dentistry. At that point
in my dental career, my father was more of the decision maker and
I was just along for the ride. I am thankful that he wanted to make
that decision.
When we changed the name of our practice, we assured our current
patients that we would continue to take care of all of their dental
needs as we always had. However, we informed them that our new name
communicated the type of dentistry that we excelled at, that we
enjoyed practicing and that we had special training in as well.
From that moment on, we moved forward and never looked back.
Today, that name seems almost too generic and general for my tastes.
I feel like I am quite a bit more creative and progressive than
the name signifies and quite honestly, for the last 3 or 4 months,
I have debated about whether to change the name of the practice
again. I am in the smile business and to me, the smile business
brings joy to people’s lives and I want people to get that
sense from the name of the practice. I was feeling that the Center
for Cosmetic Dentistry is just a little bit too generic of a name.
We are in the process of building a new practice location and we
will be in the new facility in one year. There are some unique features
and benefits about this new facility that I want to incorporate
into the name of the practice.
Pampering at the Dental Spa
There is now a movement going on in dentistry called spa dentistry.
It involves bringing spa-like amenities as an added benefit to the
dental experience. Our profession, as a whole, has been long overdue
in pampering our patients and to change the dental experience from
one that is dreaded to one that is better tolerated and maybe even
enjoyed. Wow, what a concept!
One of the practices at the forefront of the spa dentistry movement
is Debra King’s in Atlanta. I have the utmost respect for
everything that they do—excellent cosmetics, topnotch practice
management, and brilliant Madison Avenue marketing concepts. They
recently went through a similar transition moving their dental practice
into a newly-built mansion and I believe they probably have one
of the finest dental spas in the country. Naturally, I looked to
the Kings, Debra and her husband, Dan, (the marketing and office
management genius behind their practice), for guidance in changing
the name of my practice. Well, here is the news. They had previously
been the Atlanta Center for Cosmetic Dentistry and now in their
new location, they continue to be the Atlanta Center for Cosmetic
Dentistry. They didn’t change their name, because they had
spent many dollars and many public relations efforts in burning
their name into the minds of the public.
I was starting to think that I shouldn’t change the name of
my practice, even though I wanted people to get a better message
from the name than what was being communicated. (Maybe I am just
too darn demanding to begin with). Though the name Center for Cosmetic
Dentistry does sometimes feel a little generic to me, it does tell
people the major benefit of our practice (assuming that most people
know what Cosmetic Dentistry is.) So our name does communicate that
we are “the Center,” the place to have cosmetic dentistry
performed. That is what we do. That is the major benefit that we
bring to people’s lives so they feel better about themselves.
They look better and they are happier and are more successful in
business and relationships.
In conclusion, the name of your practice needs to tell your potential
patient what the major benefit is about your practice over Joe Jones,
DDS, Inc. The name of a doctor, name of a street or the name of
the city is just not going to be a powerful message. It will not
work its way into the mind of the patient that you are wanting to
come to your office. To take the first marketing step for long-term
success in your dental practice, choose a first-rate name for your
practice—one that tells what you do best. If you are spending
lots of time and money to get your message out there, then make
sure that the people in your town, in regard to your practice name
Can’t Get It Out of Their Head.
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