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Relating to Practice Relations Angela Weber

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by Angela Weber

As an orthodontic practice owner, you are busy treating patients and managing your business, leaving little time for networking or marketing your practice. Doctors across the country have been warming up to the idea of bringing on a dedicated employee to represent their practice to the public – someone to develop and nurture relationships with referral partners and to make sure patients are satisfied. This new position has been dubbed by some a Practice Relations Coordinator, or PRC, a title that has become something of a buzzword in orthodontic circles.

The emergence of the PRC can generally be considered a good thing. As an orthodontist you need to promote your business like any other small business owner, and the PRC role hovers somewhere between marketing, customer service and public relations, defining a space well-suited for orthodontic practices.

Considering that the position is so new, however, it's not surprising that many orthodontists have stumbled in their efforts to integrate their PRCs into their practices. Certainly, PRCs can be a great asset. They serve to boost referrals, convert potential patients and most importantly increase revenues. On the other hand, when the hiring and managing of the position are poorly executed, the PRC will end up wasting time, effort and money, as well as frustrating everyone involved.

Define Your Practice's Needs
PRCs can be found in many different types of practices. From doctors who operate several locations to smaller practices who just need someone part time. Beyond your practice size, your process for bringing on a PRC should be informed by your goals for your practice. Write down what you hope a PRC will achieve for you. Make your goals quantifiable. "Get more patients" is too vague. "Increase referral numbers from dentists by 30 percent" works well.

As you define your goals, figure out what the PRC's duties should entail. Some ideas include:
  • coordinate community event participation
  • develop professional referral relationships
  • build patient relations and manage the new patient experience
  • manage social media (Facebook, Twitter)
  • coordinate campaigns with your marketing firm
  • organize team-building activities
One Person, Two Jobs?
After deciding their practice could use a PRC, the first place some practice owners turn to hire is from within, especially if they've decided they don't need a full time PRC. These orthodontists might think that perhaps Susan at the front desk could take on some PRC duties in her spare time. Dividing an employee's role into two positions could work, but in all probability, it will end up being a mistake.

Your current staff members likely have little experience in the field of marketing or community relations. People tend to stick with what they know, so they'll naturally prioritize clinical or office functions over the development of new marketing initiatives. Even if your newly promoted staff member does try, how effective can someone be in a new, specialized role without any relevant background?

On the other hand, you might decide to bring on a new marketing person, and if there's not enough going on to keep your new hire busy, the PRC could take on office duties during down times. But someone who has made advances in a marketing career will probably feel overqualified and resentful when tasked with clerical work. In sum, if you hire one person for two very different jobs, you're likely to end up with either a disgruntled marketer or a floundering technician or office worker.

Choose the Right Candidate
As your practice advocate, the PRC should believe in you and what you do. However, a background in orthodontics is not essential. You can teach a marketing person the outlines of your industry fairly quickly. The PRC doesn't need to develop expertise in fitting retainers to do a good job, after all.

It is usually best to choose someone with marketing or public relations expertise for your new hire. Still, caution is advised. The recession has put many marketing people out of work, making their salary demands quite reasonable. But marketing experience and low costs don't mean they're necessarily right for the job.

Graphic designers, for example, operate in a marketing capacity. They might feel at home with designing Web sites and brochures on a computer, but they might not feel comfortable with networking and building relationships.

I know of a practice owner who hired a PRC based on her previous sales and marketing experience at a network TV affiliate. He figured that anyone with such impressive broadcast experience could handle his practice's marketing needs. It turned out, however, that all this PRC wanted to do was run TV ads. TV is not a promotional avenue that on its own is well-suited for most orthodontic practices.

In essence, the right candidate for the PRC position should be able to handle the goals and job duties you established before you began the hiring process. Along those same lines, once the new PRC is on board, you should offer guidance. The new hire might have marketing experience but not necessarily have all the answers. You might not know much about marketing, but you do know what you expect from your PRC.

Free the PRC
In addition to guidance, you should provide the PRC with tools, and one of those tools is a budget. He or she needs funds to take referral partners out to lunch, to join professional organizations, to pay an expert to design marketing materials and to take on other initiatives. Of course, the budget need not be limitless, but you and the PRC should work together to determine a reasonable amount for expenses. Also, realize that the PRC is unlike the other employees. I've seen practices who forbid their PRCs from leaving the office during working hours, or the office culture is such that the PRC would feel guilty for leaving. You must understand that marketing people need to get out in the community to do their jobs effectively.

Offer Incentives
You might be reluctant to let the PRC leave the office because you are worried he or she won't really be working when out and about. Granted, this concern can be legitimate. But ultimately what's important to the practice is that the PRC gets results. You have already established quantifiable goals for the position, right? Make the position incentive-based and tie bonuses to the realization of those goals. Then, it will be up to your PRC to determine how to achieve them.

Author’s Bio
Angela Weber is the marketing director for OrthoSynetics (OSI), a business services firm that assists orthodontic and dental practices utilizing a full-service, turnkey management approach to address all non-clinical practice functions to gain better efficiencies and profitability. Services are also offered on an a la carte basis. For more information, visit www.orthosynetics.com or e-mail aweber@orthosynetics.com.
Orthotown Magazine
September 2025
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