Dental office jobs are changing.\u00a0 What will dental administrative staff do in the future?<\/p>\n
We know that the time spent on manual, time-consuming tasks such as making and confirming appointments and collecting payments is decreasing.\u00a0 Dental offices are using automated systems to confirm appointments via e-mail, text message, and computer-generated phone calls.\u00a0 Even the process of making appointments is undergoing a revolution.\u00a0 If people can make an appointment with a hairdresser or veterinarian using an app, then they want and demand to make dental appointments just as easily.<\/p>\n
When it comes to collecting payments, the process of handing a plastic card to someone at a desk for processing is going the way of pegboard accounting systems.\u00a0 There are automated systems that allow patients to swipe their phone over a sensor.\u00a0 If it works for Starbucks, it also needs to be available in dental offices.<\/p>\n
The new role for dental administrative staff is lead conversion.\u00a0 We are moving from an era of mass marketing to micro marketing.\u00a0 When I lived in Chicago, Swissair advertised on a major radio station every day.\u00a0 Their pitch was designed to entice people to buy a first-class ticket on Swissair from Chicago to Zurich.\u00a0 The problem was that over 99% of the listeners were a) not planning a trip to Switzerland, or b) wanted to find the best possible airfare, not pay for first class.<\/p>\n
Utilizing the power of Facebook and other social media, you can target very precisely.\u00a0 Ad campaigns can be started and stopped at will, and the automated system can be designed to operate until a preset expenditure level is reached.\u00a0 There are many companies will expertise in this area.\u00a0 This type of target marketing is efficient\u2014you reach people who are your target demographic\u2014and the campaign does not have to be unduly expensive.<\/p>\n
The problem is that when leads are generated, the individuals who work in dental offices often have little or no training in lead conversion.\u00a0 It\u2019s not enough to be courteous and polite. Shoppers need to be educated about the practice in a structured yet low key and respectful manner.\u00a0 Going from inquiry to appointment takes training, experience, and persistence.<\/p>\n
The good news is that those talented people who work in dental offices, now being freed from many manual tasks, are eminently trainable.\u00a0 They can and should be trained to respond to leads and turn as many as possible into new patients for the office.\u00a0 At least for now, those skills are beyond anything an app can do.<\/p>\n
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