Why Your Practice Needs Online Booking Now More Than Ever

Did you know that 43% of patients search for doctors and dentists after hours? Your practice doesn't have to lose revenue due to unavailability during non-office hours. And it's not just about after hours. People today want convenience.  

We have an old saying where I come from, and it's “get found, get chosen, stay connected.” And if you're only focusing on the get found, you might not be getting chosen as often as you think. I can't tell you how many times I've been to a tradeshow and had a doctor come up to the booth and say, “I'm coming up at the top of all of the search engines, but I'm not as busy as I'd like to be.” 

What's going on? Well, when it comes to getting found and getting chosen, a lot has changed over the years. When I started working in dental 18 years ago, things were very different than they are today. And if you've been around the block in your dental career, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 

18 years ago, dentists were spending thousands of dollars per month on Yellow Pages ads. They were sending thousands of direct-mail postcards to homes around their practices, and the number one source of new patients was referrals from friends or, if you were a specialist, referrals from AGP. 

Things have changed. Today, patients are finding you online. They're finding you through social media referrals, reading online reviews, and through a Google search. Did you know that approximately 95% of all online searches today are done on Google? Because of this, how you show up on Google is critical to the health of your business, and having an online presence on Google that is easy for patients to interact with is also critical. 

Think about it, when you make a dinner reservation, do you call, or do you book a table through your phone? When you make a purchase, how often do you go into a store versus making that purchase online? When you're traveling, how often do you call for a taxi versus an Uber? People want to interact with things that make their lives easier and online booking is an example of something that makes patients' lives easier. COVID changed a lot of things, and, among other things, it changed the way people access healthcare providers -- and that includes you. 

Today, millennials are between 28 and 43 years old, and 90% of them are booking medical appointments through a website or a mobile device. So, if you are a pediatric dentist or an orthodontist, many of the moms you're looking to target fall in this group. And it's not just millennials that we're seeing the demand for online booking. We're seeing it across the generations. 

Because of this, it's critical that you give your patients and prospective patients the options that they're looking for. Online booking is a feature that I know many of you are skeptical about. And many times, I say the word online booking to an office manager, and I get an instant, “We're not interested in discussing that.” 

But I want to challenge your thinking for a minute. Because people want to interact with things that make their lives easier, and online booking is an example of something that makes patients’ lives easier.  In fact, 94% of patients say that they'd be more likely to choose a service provider if they offered online booking options. And when attracting new patients, it's best to meet people where they are, and where they are is online. 

Learn how to grow practice revenue and discover new and better ways to book appointments anytime, day or night, and ensure you operate at peak efficiency. Kristin Leavitt, Solution Consulting Engineer and Sherry Rojas, Practice Consultant, from Henry Schein One, recently shared the latest patient demand generation, online booking, and scheduling strategies designed to unlock hidden profits in their webinar, “Dental Web Wisdom: Turning Browsers into Bookings for Practice Growth.” View the full on-demand webinar now.