There was a time when dental patients didn’t expect all that much from their dentist. A reasonably comfortable dental chair, a ready hand with the Novocaine, and a quick fix would be produce a satisfactory outcome.
Those days are gone, and they’re not coming back.
The human side of dentistry is now a major decision factor for today’s dental prospects. Today’s dental patients are looking for a complete experience when they choose a dental practice. Dentists who focus mostly on technique to deliver a superior clinical outcome will miss many opportunities to attract new patients.
Here are four things that are important to your dental prospects.
- Getting Personal
Patients have more choices in dentists than ever before. They won’t settle for an impersonal, routine approach to dental care. Rather than a “standard” approach for all new patients, your prospects want to know that they’ll be treated as individuals. That means you need to take the time to explore their histories. You’ll need to help them define their wants and needs. And you’ll need to propose case solutions that make sense for their desired outcomes, their schedules, and their budgets.
As well, today’s patients are more demanding about the physical appearance, layout, and comfort features of your practice. If you’re looking to attract better patients with the funds to pay for better solutions, your practice has to be appealing, modern, comfortable, and offer a range of conveniences for your patients.
- An Expert Dentist
Dentists today are assumed to be competent, so in the minds of many dental patients, one dentist is as good as another. To get the patients that you need to thrive, you have to set yourself apart from your competition.
Content marketing is how you become the dental expert in the minds of your prospects. That doesn’t mean authoring a number of technical articles. Rather, your patients want engaging, informative, and useful content that’s written at a level that’s easy to read and to understand. You provide that content on demand through your website via an opt-in link, and then feed them a steady stream of quality information via email.
- Mobile Access
Online searches from mobile devices overtook desktop searches in 2015. Today’s dental patients are very accustomed to using their phones frequently and check them multiple times each day.
Your practice must offer email and/or text appointment reminders that are optimized for mobile viewing. Your website must be mobile-compatible. Your patients and prospects should be able to research and communicate with your practice just as easily as they can from a desktop or laptop.
- A Preview
Many of today’s tech-savvy internet users would rather watch a video than read a written explanation or biography. Your website should include written explanations of your services, your amenities, and what your patients can expect. However, you also need to cater to shorter attention spans by offering video on your website and/or YouTube.
Your practice should be familiar to your new patients before they ever walk through the door, and video is the ideal way to accomplish that.
Give your dental prospects these four things and watch your new patient numbers grow.