Straightforward marketing

Marni Alexander explains how a modest marketing campaign turned an underused treatment suite into a whitening treatment success story.

On the Channel Island of Guernsey, we have a population of around 60,000 people with some 30 dentists all jostling for patients. This means there is a very competitive dental market. At Queens Road Dental Centre, we consider ourselves very fortunate to retain an extremely loyal patient base.

With three treatment suites, two of which cater for full-time dentists whilst the other hosts hygienists, we are always looking for ways to attract new patients. As well as routine hygiene treatments, our hygienists also provide in-practice tooth whitening under prescription, and we have been keen to find new ways to appeal to more patients for this particular service.

Looking at our appointment book and by reviewing reports from Exact, it became apparent that one of our hygienists was finding it difficult to fill her book on Mondays and Tuesdays. This meant the treatment room was being underutilised, rendering it unprofitable in the long term. We needed to find a way to fill those white spaces and generate some extra income to turn this situation around.