Published: 31/05/2022

Read time: 6 Minutes

Providing premium software solutions to the dental market, where lead nurture and conversion are essential for business growth, isn’t as simple as creating a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Different market segments have varying needs and expect software to cater to and handle specific (as well as common) goals and challenges.

Despite the many hurdles that the dental industry faced in 2020, the number of new practices opening in the UK actually grew slightly last year. The number of group (corporate or micro) dental practice owners in the UK marginally increased in 2020 to over 525, which is understandably slightly slower than previous years, but is still impressive given the circumstances. Naturally, this is expected to accelerate over the course of 2021, as transactional levels begin to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Despite the slower pace of M&A activity last year (or at least in the first half of the year), a percentage of corporate and group operators expanded their acquisition strategies from Q3 with the goal being to make up for lost time. It’s also worth noting that despite this small growth during one of the most difficult years in our history, the proportion of practices owned by the largest ten operators was still under 14%.

So, where does DenGro fit into all of this?

At present, our client segment statistics are as follows:

  • 45% independent (single practices)
  • 38% corporate
  • 17% micro-groups (2-10 practices)
  • One of the key benefits DenGro provides to the single independent practice is that it handles the bulk of the follow-up activity that would otherwise fall on the shoulders of the practice manager, saving much time. The software capture all leads and provides the tools to nurture each through to completion as well as the reporting capability to view how many warm leads the practice has, what stage each is at and where every lead has come from. This attribution reporting enables the practice to maximise its growth potential by allocating budget to marketing activities that pull in the best (high quality) leads.
  • One of the many benefits of DenGro for corporates and micro-groups is the ability to compare performance across the practices. By monitoring activities at practice level for several key metrics (e.g. time to first contact), the central marketing team can identify where “best practice” is achieved. This can then be modelled and rolled out across practices along with any training needs to close gaps in performance. This approach supports the front-of-house multi-tasking marvels, boosts productivity and patient liaison which can only benefit the bottom line.

How lead management software benefits each segment:

With high-quality lead nurture and conversion technology, DenGro approaches its customers’ needs based on which segment their practice falls into. An example of their tailored approach goes as follows:

INDEPENDENT (SINGLE PRACTICES):
  • One of the key benefits DenGro provides to the single independent practice is that it handles the bulk of the follow-up activity that would otherwise fall on the shoulders of the practice manager, saving much time. The software capture all leads and provides the tools to nurture each through to completion as well as the reporting capability to view how many warm leads the practice has, what stage each is at and where every lead has come from. This attribution reporting enables the practice to maximise its growth potential by allocating budget to marketing activities that pull in the best (high quality) leads.
CORPORATES & MICRO-GROUPS:
  • One of the many benefits of DenGro for corporates and micro-groups is the ability to compare performance across the practices. By monitoring activities at practice level for several key metrics (e.g. time to first contact), the central marketing team can identify where “best practice” is achieved. This can then be modelled and rolled out across practices along with any training needs to close gaps in performance. This approach supports the front-of-house multi-tasking marvels, boosts productivity and patient liaison which can only benefit the bottom line.

DenGro’s unique software adopts the general focus of providing each practice with a sales funnel to track where every lead is during the conversion process, as well as enhancing practice performance reports that can be accessed at the click of a button. By capturing all leads in one place, every practice can rest assured that it isn’t missing out on any potential revenue. DenGro understands that every practice is different, so the software has been designed to accommodate any treatment the practice offers. It has been built predominantly with the front-of-house team in mind, and therefore is structured to be intuitive and easy to use for every practice, whether independent, corporate, or somewhere in between!