With significant amounts of competition, marketing is just as important for a dental practice as it is for other offices and businesses. In order to have more time to handle tasks around the practice, learn about proficient strategies for automating your dental practice’s marketing.
Offer Online Bookings
Sometimes, patients need to call the office to ask questions before scheduling appointments. In other situations, however, booking an appointment online is both possible and practical. Offering an online booking system allows patients to make appointments in a modality that is comfortable for them. Also, patients don’t have to worry about calling before the practice closes for the evening; an online booking system can make appointments at any time.
Establish a Patient Portal
The ability to book an appointment online is useful. However, your patients should be able to perform other tasks as well. Establishing a patient portal allows individuals to do so. Patients might be able to access their aftercare plans, or they may have the ability to view the results of tests or other examinations. Patients can also easily access information about their past appointments. Patients going to their primary care physicians might need to provide information about their dental health. For example, a patient with sleep apnea may discuss treatment plans with the doctor and the dentist. A patient portal allows individuals to access the necessary information quickly and easily.
Send Text Reminders
A friendly text message reminder prior to an appointment is a way to get patients to remember to come in at their scheduled times. Also, this system can build rapport with patients. The text message can also include other pertinent information, such as a reminder about any cancellation fees and current policies related to health and safety protocols. For example, if patients need to wear masks in the office, include that information in the text.
Email Follow-up Instructions
After dental procedures, patients are often provided with a lot of information about how to care for their teeth and know if they need to call the dentist for further help. Processing all of this information can be overwhelming, and paper copies of instructions can get easily lost, especially if patients also have a prescription to manage. Automatically sending out emails with aftercare instructions is a way to clearly and concisely provide patients with the details that they need.
Schedule Social Media Posts
In the modern age, a critical component of dental marketing involves the use of social media. You should have a person or team in charge of social media posts, and these posts can be scheduled. For example, you might schedule posts to go out at the end of the day when patients are finished with work. The posts could include holiday greetings, or you might decide to publish a dental tip of the day. Interacting with patients in this way is helpful in establishing a following and building relationships.
Say Happy Birthday
This marketing strategy can be particularly effective in a practice that deals with a number of young clients. Teenagers and children may love receiving a birthday email from the dentist. Ensuring that these emails are scheduled to go out at the same time every day is important. Patients can receive their birthday greetings even when the practice is closed, such as on holidays.
Ask for Feedback
Another possibility is to send out emails asking patients for feedback on their recent appointments. You could develop a series of questions asking patients to rate their experiences and include a space where individuals can write other comments or concerns. Make sure that these emails do not come across as gimmicky. Your patients should know that the professionals at the practice truly care about their well-being and are not being kind and helpful simply to earn high scores. Also, let patients know that the emails will be sent so that they do not think the messages are merely spam.
If your dental practice is not already automating its marketing, the time has come to do so. You can increase your marketing efforts by making this change and speaking to a larger group of both current and prospective patients in a shorter period of time.
AUTHOR NAME : ALISON LURIE