Celebrating the Holiday Season in Your Dental Practice

December offers up many reasons to celebrate the Holidays and it doesn’t really matter what your personal beliefs are; the festive season presents a wonderful opportunity for you to engage with your patients, and attract new ones. The rule of thumb here is to tie your messaging in with seasonality, weather, or holiday celebrations.

Show You’ve Got the Spirit

Brighten up your practice with some low-key decorations such as lights or snow on the windows. Perhaps hang Christmas bulbs or snowflakes from the ceiling.
If you usually play music in the practice you might want to swap it for something a little more festive.

Give the Gift of Good Dental Hygiene

The festive season offers many relevant topics you can use to inform and educate your patients—and, of course, write about topics that matter to them. While many patients will be worried about their expanding waistlines over the holiday season, it’s a good idea to remind them about the dangers of sugar to their teeth.

Offer up sugar-free alternatives to tasty festive recipes or eating and chewing tips to minimize sugar damage to the teeth. Encourage year-end appointments before your practice closes for December so your patients can have cavities addressed before the end of year binge.

Send out a holiday newsletter full of useful information so you stay top of mind while your patients are away.

To Gift or Not to Gift?

If 2016 has been a good year for business, you may want to gift your patients. Gifting is a good way to thank your patients for their support during the year, but if you decide to do this remember to keep the gifts simple and be sure to give one to everyone.

If you want to make more of an impact on your community, consider taking the money you would have used to buy gifts and support a local charity with presents or a donation.

Put a Christmas tree up in your reception and ask patients to donate any new or used toys they want to get rid of. You can donate these toys to a children’s charity and make someone’s holiday season extra special.

Communicate Your Opening and Closing Times

If you are closing at all during the festive season, November is a good time to advise your clients. This gives everyone time to plan their end-of-year check ups. Also remind your patients to use their dental benefits up before they expire.

Remember to include a backup number for emergencies. You might be taking your first vacation in a very long time because you’re always around for your patients. But, if someone does have an emergency and doesn’t know who to turn to, you could very well end up losing the patient to another dentist.

Make sure your backup dentist is reliable and prepared to be contacted by your patients.