Are you currently looking into the possibility of relocating a dental practice?
Maybe your existing dental practice space is more expensive than you would like it to be and making it impossible for you to turn a profit. Or maybe you’ve outgrown your existing dental practice space and want to find something larger.
Whatever the reason, you shouldn’t make the decision to move to a new space until you’ve taken the right dental practice relocation steps. It starts with finding a new practice location and includes doing what needs to be done in terms of retaining dental clients.
Let’s take a look at some great advice and tips for those relocating a dental practice in the near future.
Begin by Making Sure Dental Practice Relocation Is Right for You
First, before you even think about making your dental practice relocation plans official, make sure that moving your practice is the right move. Sit down and think about why you’re relocating a dental practice prior to planning to do it.
There are some instances in which it’ll make all the sense in the world to move. If, for example, your current office space is just too small for your dental patients, dental practice moving might be your only option.
But if you’re only moving because it costs too much to lease your current office space, have a discussion about this with your landlord. They might be willing to extend a better price to you if it means keeping your office space occupied.
Whatever you do, don’t rush into relocating a dental practice without thinking about all possible options first. It’ll prevent you from making a big mistake and allow you to formulate a surefire plan in the end.
Try Finding a New Practice Location That Will Be a Perfect Fit
If you think it over and decide that dental practice moving is your only option, finding a new practice location will be of the utmost importance. You should look for an ideal location for both you and, more importantly, your dental patients.
You can do this by checking out where the majority of your current patients live and picking a location that will work well for them. It should be somewhere that is located in a place that will be easy for them to get to for their appointments.
At the same time, you should also look for an actual office space that is going to be able to accommodate your patients better. You should be able to design it the way you want so that you’re able to deliver a top-notch experience to your patients from now on.
This guide breaks down how you can set your new office space up to make the most of it.
Start Letting Your Dental Patients Know About Your Move as Soon as You Can
You don’t need to let your dental patients know that you’re thinking about relocating a dental practice when it first enters your mind. There is no sense in getting them all worked up if you’re not even sure whether or not you’re going to move.
But you also shouldn’t wait until the last minute to tell your patients that you’re moving, if you can avoid it. You should give them at least a couple of months’ notice before your dental practice relocation is scheduled to take place.
At first, you can do this by simply telling them that you’re going to be moving in person when they come to see you for appointments. But as you begin to get closer and closer to your relocation date, you should also find other ways to alert them to the news about your move.
You can do this by:
- Adding a big blurb about your dental practice relocation to the top of your website’s homepage
- Making announcements about how you’re relocating a dental practice on social media
- Sending letters and postcards to your clients’ homes to inform them of your dental practice relocation
You’ll have a much better chance of retaining dental patients when you give them advance notice about your relocation. It’s why you should start trying to get the word out on the earlier side.
Put a Plan in Place to Make Changes to Your Website and Social Media Profiles
As we mentioned a moment ago, you should use both your website and your social media profiles to notify your dental patients of your upcoming move. These are invaluable tools for a dental practice that is relocating.
You should also adjust your website and social media profiles as you inch closer to your move and add your new address to them. You can do this about a week before your move to show people that you’re no longer using your old address.
If you’ve utilized search engine optimization in the past to bring in more traffic to your website, you might also want to make a push to work on what you’ve done. You want to be sure that any SEO content you have on your site is geared towards your new location as opposed to your old one.
Make Marketing Your Dental Practice an Even Bigger Priority Than It Already Is
In this day and age, it’s pretty much impossible to run a successful dental practice without doing some form of marketing. Dentists can no longer rely on word of mouth alone to help them run their practices.
You should already be using marketing to build up awareness around your dental practice’s brand. But you should send your marketing campaigns into overdrive once you’re ready to make a move to a new office space.
Under normal circumstances, you might not think to run a commercial on a local TV or radio station. But when relocating a dental practice, it might be a great idea for you to do this. It’ll help spread the word about your move to both your existing patients and to any potential patients who might live in your new area.
Don’t pass up on the opportunity to put strong marketing campaigns into place as you prepare to move your dental practice. They could pay off in a big way once you set up shop in your new office space.
Hire a Moving Company to Make Dental Practice Moving as Painless as Possible
You can’t afford to shut down your dental practice for days on end while you move to a new location. You’re going to run the risk of losing a lot of business if you have to close down your practice for an extended period of time.
With this in mind, you should bring a dental practice moving company on board to assist you when it’s time to make your move. They can help you load up all your dental equipment onto a moving truck so that it can be taken to your new location.
They may also be able to do all of this outside of normal business hours so that you only have to close down your practice for a day or two tops. This will limit the impact that your dental practice relocation has on you and make your move less painful than it would be otherwise.
Let Your Clients Know You’ve Relocated Once Your Move Is Complete
Ideally, your dental practice won’t skip a beat when you’re in the process of making a move to a new location. You’ll be able to get your new office space up and running in no time while retaining dental clients.
But there is, of course, a chance that some of your clients aren’t going to hear about your move despite all the effort you put into informing them about it. This might lead to some of them taking their business elsewhere if you’re not careful.
It’s why you should finish your relocation by letting your clients know that you’re all moved into your new office space. You should have a stack of postcards ready to go out in the mail the moment you’re finished moving.
This will ensure that all your dental patients know where they can find you from now on. It’ll also clear up any confusion that people might have as far as where your dental practice is located now.
Relocating a Dental Practice Is Challenging But Not Impossible
If you don’t follow all the steps that we just listed while relocating a dental practice, it could end up being a big disaster. You might lose a bunch of your patients and have to work that much harder to build your practice back up.
Avoid finding yourself in this kind of scenario by using the advice and tips found here when relocating a dental practice. It’s still going to be challenging making a big move. But it’ll be so much more manageable when you think ahead and prepare your practice for your relocation.
Would you like to get your hands on more moving tips that will make your next move a success? Browse through the articles on our blog to get all the advice you need.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.