How to Value Online Presence
A strong online presence of a dental practice can be incredibly valuable. Here’s how to evaluate it in dental practices you’re interested in buying.
contact us Work with UsA strong online presence of a dental practice can be incredibly valuable. Here’s how to evaluate it in dental practices you’re interested in buying.
contact us Work with UsHow Important is a Dental Office’s online presence?
Very important. Vital. Crucial. Pick your favorite synonym.
We know the saying: “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Well, a dental practice’s website is its cover. And like it or not, it will get judged.
A practice’s website is often the first thing a potential patient sees. They google “dentists in my zip code” and start judging. Since new patient acquisition is important, that first impression is important too.
At Dental Buyer Advocates, we take into consideration several digital components when assessing a practice and you should too in your search.
Is the website inviting and helpful?
In my real estate post, I discussed how many non-dental businesses have thrived because of digitalization. While dental providers don’t have the option to provide treatment from the comfort of their homes, they can (and should) be taking advantage of the advancements of the digital area.
I want to be perfectly clear: Any office that is not using digitalization as a tool will be a victim of it being used as a weapon.
Dentistry has been lagging behind other fields for years. Partly due to obstinate insiders resistant to change and operating under the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.
These are the practices that will get left in the dust. These are also practices that will require much more effort for you, as a buyer, to get to where you want it to be.
There are 3 features that can be included on an office’s website that tell a patient, “Look, we’re modern and care about appearance!” making a potential patient much more likely to pick you as their provider.
Most patients are looking to schedule or pay bills at night after work is done, dinner is cleaned up, kids are put down to bed. Setting a reminder to call and make an appointment or pay a bill is just another thing on their to-do lists and unfortunately, not usually very high up there.
These online options will do two things. First, they’ll free up your staff’s time to be more productive when they are in the office. Second, these offices will stay on schedule so that patients have complete paperwork prior and staff are caught up on tasks.
This means less “Sorry, honey, I’m going to be home late tonight” phone calls and more “Man, I love my job!” comments.
What are other people saying?
I cannot stress enough the importance of reviews.
When you are looking for a practice, ideally you’ll try to find one that has a high number of reviews, the majority of which being positive and recently rated.
When I Google “Dentist near me,” where will I start? I’m going to start with the ones that have the highest number of reviews. Then I’m going to go through and see what people are saying and how recently they are saying it.
If I see very few (or old) reviews, I’m going to be concerned. If I see people calling so-and-so a jerk, I’m going to move onto the next office on the list.
But, if I see someone say “Terri was the best hygienist I’ve ever had! Dr. Roberts really made me feel heard” multiple times, then I’m going to trust SmileyMiley131 and book an appointment.
Is it worth it? Yes!
As a business owner, you’ll want your website to work for you. Employees are paid for services that will increase your revenue, the same goes for the website. A good digital investment is a web presence that will make you money. Ideally, this will already be set up in a way that requires minimal effort on your end, however, if you need to make those changes, make them!
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