With competition for new dental patients at an all-time high, savvy practice owners will take advantage of every effective tool to influence more quality patients to choose their practices.
Attracting new patients – particularly the ones you want – requires addressing all stages of your new patient funnel. It’s no longer enough to just post an offer or sale online; your competitors are doing the same thing. Instead, you have to give people reasons to choose you that don’t require you to shave prices to the bone.
Local Search
All dentistry is local, and keeping your practice’s Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) consistent across every “aggregator” site is a challenge. SmartBox’s Local360
Search Engine Optimization continually works to keep your NAP identical no matter which list or listing your prospect views.
Online Reputation
Over 90 percent of dental prospects begin their search for a dentist online. Those prospects overwhelmingly check out a dentist’s reviews and “star” rating. A low rating and/or a handful of negative reviews can be enough to immediately have prospects looking elsewhere. Just as with social media, practices don’t pay enough attention to reviews and ratings due to time constraints. Our RAVE Online Reputation Management makes monitoring and responding to reviews a snap.
Social Media
It’s not surprising that many dentists shy away from maintaining a robust social media presence. It’s time-consuming, and it’s difficult to see direct cause-and-effect results. However, social media isn’t designed to “make the sale”; it serves to make prospects curious enough about you and your practice to visit your website. It’s the website that convinces them to choose you. SmartBox’s BUZZ powered by My Social Practice, is the solution for time-pressed practices.
Phone Answering
The phone is almost always a new patient’s first point of contact with your practice. Every qualified new patient who isn’t appointed is a complete waste of your marketing investment. There are very few “natural” phone answerers who have the insight, empathy, and skill to elicit and overcome objections, take control of the call, and ask for the appointment at exactly the right moment. For everyone else, SmartBox’s proprietary, dental practice-specific Patient Attraction Phone Training & Certification is the answer.
Online Conversations
A growing number of prospects, primarily younger, prefer to interact via the internet rather than talking over the phone. Our New Patient Assistant is a done-for-you “chatbot” that will provide answers to standard questions, record appointment requests and prospect information, and offers a call-back if queries become too complex. However, your staff can also monitor online interactions and step in as needed.
Effective And Surprisingly Affordable
Our Practice Growth products are available on a stand-alone basis or as part of a service package. Prices vary, but it’s fair to say that one to two new patients per month will cover your investment. It may also be possible to bundle different products for additional savings.
The products listed above are just a part of SmartBox’s continuing innovation on behalf of dentists. For more information, visit the Products page on our website.