Dental News - Use an online ‘ecosystem’ to find, attract and keep patients

Dental Tribune USA

Thu. 23 May 2013

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The digital age is completely changing the way dental practices and patients interact. The days of low-tech marketing efforts are long gone. The need for personal contact from a patient’s perspective has been rendered less important with the advent of digital communications, as patients increasingly state they prefer the convenience of online, on-demand information.

Interestingly, 93 percent of patients find it more convenient to find answers online compared with calling the office.

Patients have embraced the digital age, and practices must adjust to their patients’ preferences and be where their patients are —online. A digital strategy focused directly on patient engagement is now imperative to grow and maintain a long-term, sustainable practice.

There are four key outcomes that drive a sound patient-engagement strategy. Each of the outcomes is interrelated and work in concert to position a dental practice for sustained growth and stability.

New patient acquisition

The first step in acquiring new patients is making them aware of your practice. Be where your prospective patients are — online. This includes an optimized website, having an established presence in the social media world, and the ability to be present on search results. The next step is being chosen.

An optimized website is the cornerstone of a successful patient engagement strategy. Achieve this by building your site based on patient behavior and ensuring that it can be easily found by prospective patients within your region. This includes content, design and search engine optimization.

Practice loyalty

While finding prospective patients helps offset attrition, it’s always easier to keep a patient than acquire a new one. To effectively manage a dental practice for profitability it is imperative that you retain relationships with existing patients. Gain practice loyalty by responding to patient preferences.

A digital patient communication system offers a secure site that offers a comprehensive list of online services such as automated reminders, automated calling, invoice review and online payment. This part of your strategy seeks to deepen the relationship with patients while reducing administrative burden on office staff. Practice loyalty can also be defined as patient engagement, which speaks to interacting with current patients in their arena.

Your patients are avid social media users, and having a strong presence on these platforms promotes interaction and builds stronger relationships.

Increased treatment plan adoption

This same portal also provides a new level of education and understanding for your patients. It lets patients review advanced treatment plans and helps them articulate the benefits of the procedure recommendations. Suddenly the dental practice is transformed from the role of service provider to trusted advisor — it’s this latter role that helps patients make the decision to invest in their oral health and enrich their lives.

Referral acceleration

Patient referrals are, for many practices, one of the most important new patient drivers. In a recent Sesame survey, an astounding 41.4 percent of patient referrals from surveyed practices came from friends and family members

The continued success of your practice requires happy patients who refer their friends and family. While the first step is to encourage patients to tell their friends and family, one of the best ways to drive more referrals is to make the process easier and more consistent for your patients through their online portal. Social media outlets also serve as a platform to encourage referrals. They provide a window to express their satisfaction, recommend the practice to their online “friends” and complete the patient acquisition circle.

The benefits of implementing an online automated patient communications system include improved practice efficiency, effectiveness, quality of patient experience, and ultimately practice production, collections and profitability.

These benefits drive the key outcomes that define a successful patient engagement strategy. Automation delivers more consistent patient compliance and a more predictable schedule and production for the practice. And patients prefer it: 74 percent of patients said having anytime online access to information makes them more likely to stay with a practice.

Sesame Communications provides a complete digital solution that works across all four key outcomes and positions your dental practice for sustained growth and success. Sesame has created the only cloud-based platform that addresses all areas of patient relationship management. By creating this online “ecosystem” your practice will attract and retain more patients, drive higher treatment plan adoption and reduce the instance of no-show appointments.

(Source: Sesame Communications)

Note: This article was published in Dental Tribune U.S. Edition, Vol. 8 No. 3, March 2013 issue.

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