The Dental Consumer’s IQ
I want to talk today about dentist industries IQ. Was reading in a trade journal this morning that another marketing consultant had stated that the consumer IQ is at an all time low which I’m not sure I agree with. He went on to say that you need to make sure that you’re relating the benefits of your treatment to your patients in a way that they understand. They’re not on a college level talking about clinical options and too many details are certainly is not an approach that is going to, that they’re going to be able to relate to but as far as the dental consumer index goes I would have to say that within the past 50 years of dentistry if we’re looking at how educated and how informed the general public is about what dentistry can do and modern advances in todays world we’re at the pinnacle of the educated gentle consumer. The reason for that is the internet. Never in history have we had the information and instant availability of the internet, WebMD, Wikipedia, of Youtube where they can literally look and see other people’s mouths and crazy videos that people are posting, see what’s going on and see what options are available to them, never before in history have they the accessibility of information that they can go on to these sites and they can look in their local market area and find and compare providers without ever stepping foot, not only into your practice but without even stepping foot out of their house. Consumers are making decision in today’s world in a way that they’ve never made them before. They don’t have to come in for a consult to find out who you are. They can look at your website, they can look at your videos, they can read your reviews. People don’t have to call your office to see if you have a likable staff, they can go on your website to see who you are, to see who you’ve hired, watch videos with your staff, find out if you’re a likable dentist or not, people do business with people they like. The dental consumer IQ in my opinion is at the highest level it has ever been in human history because of this availability of information. People have developed what I call digital attention deficit disorder which is if they can’t find the information that they need right now they’re going to skip onto another place or another time and keep looking. Your website has to be delivering this information to them on a silver platter that they can not only read and take in but in bite sized portions that they can digest and consume because it you just throw a buffet at them that’s not something a consumer can digest. You have to give it to them in a method, in a way that they can understand, that they can consume, that they can read and then they can make an educated decision on. When you’re putting together your website don’t just talk about the services you offer, consumers don’t care about what services you offer, consumers can about how your services can help them. There’s two real ways you can compete, you can compete on price or you can compete on value. If you compete on price and you go for lowest price, it’s a slippery slope. The race to the bottom is not one you want to win. If you compete on value and the expertise that you provide, you compete on the value of your services to the consumer you’re going to attract more and better patients of the more and upper affluent class the type of patients that you want to attract.