Background: a community dental clinic in difficulty
This is a small dental clinic in a residential area of a second-tier city: about 120 square metres, with only two dental chairs, one dentist and two nurses. Six months after opening, it averaged fewer than three visits a day and monthly revenue below RMB 30,000, and the owner was close to giving up.
1. Diagnosis
1.1 Current situation
A full diagnosis found the following core problems:
- The Meituan store information was seriously incomplete: no store photos, opening hours not filled in
- Only one group-buying offer: cleaning at the original price of RMB 299, with no discount and no buyers
- Zero reviews: patients had never been encouraged to leave one
- No online promotion at all: entirely dependent on organic traffic
- No private-channel operations: patients came and went with no means of keeping in touch
1.2 Competitor analysis
We surveyed the dental organisations within 3 km:
- Competitor A: 200+ Meituan sales a month, 97% positive review rate
- Competitor B: 5,000+ Douyin followers, 30+ visits a month brought in
- Competitor C: 50+ Xiaohongshu patient-education posts
Our client, by contrast, had zero monthly sales on Meituan.
2. The plan
2.1 Step one: basic Meituan store optimisation (week 1)
- Complete the store information: add 20 high-quality store photos
- Upload the dentist's credential certificates
- Fill in detailed opening hours and directions
- Set up automatic reply scripts
2.2 Step two: redesign the group-buying offers (week 2)
Four tiers of offers were designed:
| Offer | Price | Main purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Comprehensive oral check-up | RMB 9.9 | Maximum traffic |
| Ultrasonic cleaning | RMB 49.9 | Main traffic driver |
| Composite filling (one tooth) | RMB 199 | Profit treatment |
| Children's fluoride varnish + check-up | RMB 29.9 | Families |
2.3 Step three: build a review system (weeks 3–4)
- Designed an SOP for encouraging reviews after treatment
- Produced well-designed review prompt cards
- Trained the front desk on scripts for encouraging reviews
- Set up "a gift for a positive review" (floss picks + mouthwash)
2.4 Step four: paid promotion (weeks 5–8)
- Opened Meituan Tuiguangtong (Meituan's promotion tool)
- Bid on core keywords ("teeth cleaning", "fillings", "oral check-up")
- Daily budget from RMB 100, increased gradually
- Targeted within 3 km of the clinic
2.5 Step five: build private channels (weeks 5–8)
- Opened WeCom
- Front desk invited visiting patients to scan a code and add the clinic on WeChat
- Set up an oral-health discussion group
- Designed a membership points system
3. Changes in the data over three months
3.1 Key indicators compared
| Indicator | Before | Month 1 | Month 2 | Month 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Meituan page views | ~50 | 500+ | 1,200+ | 2,000+ |
| Monthly group-buying sales | 0 | 35 | 85 | 130+ |
| Positive reviews | 0 | 18 | 42 | 70+ |
| Positive review rate | - | 95% | 97% | 98% |
| Average daily visits | <3 | 5–6 | 8–10 | 12–15 |
| Monthly revenue | <RMB 30,000 | RMB 50,000 | RMB 80,000 | RMB 120,000+ |
| WeCom contacts | 0 | 80+ | 200+ | 350+ |
3.2 ROI analysis
- Total investment over three months (promotion + campaign costs): about RMB 8,000
- Additional revenue over three months: about RMB 180,000
- Return on investment: about 22.5 times
4. Lessons learned
4.1 The three most important actions
- Redesigning the group-buying offers: the RMB 9.9 check-up offer brought in 60% of new patients
- Building the review system: positive reviews are central to improving ranking
- Private-channel acquisition: visiting patients were retained on WeCom, leading to repeat visits and referrals
4.2 Pitfalls we ran into
- The promotion budget was set too low at first, missing the best window for promotion
- Terms of use for the traffic-driving offers were not restricted at first, and some bargain hunters took advantage
- In the first month, unredeemed orders were not followed up promptly, wasting some potential patients
5. Next steps
- Add Douyin and Xiaohongshu to widen patient acquisition
- Bring in a second dentist to increase capacity
- Start offering dental implants to raise average spend
- Improve the membership system to raise the repeat-visit rate
Final thoughts
This case shows that dental operations is not a game of throwing money at the problem, but one that needs systematic thinking and careful execution. Even a small clinic can turn its business around by getting the three stages of attracting, converting and retaining patients right. The key is action: many organisations are not unable to do it; they simply have not started.