Live Chat: How to Grab More Leads For Your Dental Practice

We live in a digital world where speed is key. From ordering online to overnight shipping, instant access to services is where society currently lives. Customers want things now. And let’s be honest, they usually get them.

The healthcare industry is no exception. Although patients might be willing to wait for an appointment with a reliable doctor, they likely want to talk to someone in your office right away. But consider how long it might take someone on your team to get back to social media comments or emails. Well, we’ve done some research and have some stats to share…

Did you know that the average response time for a service request on social media can be over 10 hours! Even crazier, an email response can often take longer than 12. Does this seem acceptable? If instant gratification is the norm in this day and age, how many patients are you potentially losing with these types of delays?

So what’s the solution? How can you respond quickly and easily? Drum roll, please…

The answer is Live Chat Software!

How Does Live Chat Work?

Here’s a quick breakdown on what Live Chat would look like.

Your visitors on your site will notice a small pop up in the corner when they first arrive on your homepage.

A live chat feature can create an easier way for your patients to communicate and to help generate leads for your practice!

Once they click on to the chat box, they will be instantly greeted with a message you set up. You can customize this however you prefer. Your guest will then be able to start a conversation.

Instant communication to your patients.

Another great feature is with your back-end access. You can look back and see your chat history, how many visitors are online in real-time and any missed messages. And the best part is you can do it on desktop and mobile!

View real-time users!

A Live Chat software allows you to have real-time conversations with your patients while they’re on your website. It’s quick, convenient and patients will love it because it’s so much faster than any other digital service channel, including social media. What are some other benefits you ask? Let’s dive in!

Live Chats Can Increase Conversions and Bring in New Dental Patients

A major benefit of Live Chat is the potential to increase sales for your practice. While browsing your website, your potential patients will likely have questions about your offerings and practice. With a Live Chat feature, your front desk can answer immediately — and while patients are still on your site.

Along with basic practice questions, patients may be looking for someone to relieve their anxieties. Dentistry is a scary thing for some people. But helping them overcome fears or concerns by answering their questions on-the-spot puts you in the best position to get them to your practice. Giving patients access to your team in real time gives you the chance to address concerns quickly.

Having a Live Chat feature gives you an opportunity to control that first interaction by giving your team the breathing room to provide the most helpful solutions at a pace they can manage.

Cut Down Costs

As your practice grows, your schedule will start to fill up. Juggling in-office patients will allow your team less and less time to dedicate to patient requests. By incorporating Live Chat, your front desk can multitask efficiently instead of being tied up on phone lines or incidentally ignoring in-office patients. Live Chat is also an inexpensive investment, unlike telephones.

Provide a Better Patient Experience

When your website’s call to action is to pick up the phone and call the practice, you’re relying on your front desk to woo the patient. But you only get one chance to make a first impression. That means the quality of the call is everything. Sometimes we deal with language barriers or strong accents, quiet talkers and bad reception. This can frustrate patients as well as your team. If a call is unsatisfactory, the patient experience is compromised. And every interaction after that is an uphill battle to win a patient’s trust, assuming that they’d like to give you a shot after a subpar initial experience.

Add a Live Chat feature to your site and grab more leads. If you’re not quite sure where to begin,  we’re always here to talk tech! Leave us a comment or shoot an email to Laura at laura.maly@wonderistagency.com.  

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Until next time,