Most of the aggressive health marketing consultants like to offer innovative strategies to doctors and dentists to find patients and gain more patients each day. However, the truth is that rather than go aggressively after more patients, it is far more useful to focus on the existing ones and build patient loyalty. An existing patient can bring in many new patients over a period of time just by his or her positive word of mouth publicity.

In the medical professional, there is nothing more powerful that word of mouth. Potential new patients tend to pay the maximum attention to the experiences and views of existing or past patients, and allow their decisions to be influenced by them to a significant extent. Therefore, the real marketing efforts for a medical or dental practice should focus on building the loyalty of current patients.

We are living in an era of Internet communication and social media networking. News, whether good or bad, goes viral on the Internet, and particularly in the healthcare industry, potential patients pay a lot of attention to such news, opinions and commentary. Existing patients share their stories and experiences on social networks, which can impact the online reputation of the doctor or dentist – for better or worse.

As a doctor or dentist, before you ask yourself how to find patients or how to get more patients, it is much more important to ask what you are doing to cultivate the loyalty of existing patients. A sincere approach of care and concern for every patient will go a long way in gaining new patients for any medical or dental practice. In a highly competitive medical marketplace, the winning doctors and dentists in the long run are those who are obsessed with delivering the best value to the patients for their time and money.