Over 40% of millennials show interest in new healthcare formats, including more convenient dental options, according to Oliver Wyman. The demand for convenient dental care has driven expansion within existing clinics, encouraged creation of new clinics and even caused retail giants like Walgreen’s to introduce their own retail dental clinics.
As the popularity of convenient dental care increases, maintain your dental clinic’s competitive edge by addressing key pain points to increase patient satisfaction and drive revenue. Take advantage of innovative digital signage solutions to reduce patient anxiety, promote additional services and increase patient census by retaining existing patients and attracting new ones.
Reduce Anxiety with Interactive Education and Entertainment
Dental patients suffer from anxiety more frequently than any other preventive care patient. 61% of people are apprehensive about the dentist, per Oliver Wyman. Many clinics rely on dental patient education to ease patient anxieties but end up accidentally increasing their fear instead. Use digital signage to encourage patients to engage with comforting facts in a non-threatening way. For example, create customized, educational trivia games that engage and distract patients while in the waiting room or in chairs. Trivia games facilitate patient learning through gamification while decreasing anxiety. Patients participate directly from their phones, keeping patients in control of their educational experience and creating a more positive and inviting environment.
Additionally, calm patients by using digital signage to introduce them to their care team. Humanize the practitioner behind the mask, face shield and dental devices with information about a practitioner's favorite hobby or beloved pet, building a sense of trust and familiarity that qualitatively improves the patient experience.
For a more traditional experience, provide patients with relaxing entertainment. Use digital signage to share a variety of videos like funny animal clips or meditation guides to calm nerves and reduce perceived wait time or decrease stress.
Promote Additional Services with Authentic Messaging
Digital signage showcases additional services to help dental clinics educate patients while not seeming overly pushy.
Use videos and images to demonstrate the relevance of each product or service to your patients. Include custom QR codes alongside this information, enabling patients to quickly schedule a consultation or learn more, directly from their phones. Remember: patients who routinely visit your clinic for cleanings prioritize their oral health and are a great audience for promoting additional preventive care options. By leveraging digital signage to display these services, patients have a better understanding of what your clinic offers. This makes them an active participant in their oral health care plan.
UPshow’s digital signage allows your clinic to target patients with hyper-relevant products and services using scheduling tools. If your clinic schedules routine cleanings in the afternoon and specialty services like crowns in the morning, UPshow’s platform allows you to customize your educational messaging to the appropriate audience.
Increase Patient Census with Positive Word-of-Mouth
According to the Wall Street Journal, 77% of people use online reviews as their main source when choosing a new healthcare provider. In the increasingly competitive world of convenient dental care, clinics must prioritize attracting and retaining as many patients as possible. Digital signage measurably impacts driving online reviews and referrals.
Ask for reviews from patients when they check out while their visit is top of mind, rather than hours or days later via email. Position digital signage at your clinic’s reception and checkout desks, and ask patients to share an online review while they wait to checkout. Custom QR codes minimize the friction of leaving a review: once a patient scans the code with their phone, they go immediately to your review site of choice.
The growing appeal of convenient dental care presents an opportunity for many dental clinics to grow quickly and successfully. Creative implementation of digital signage transforms the traditional patient experience into one that satisfies patients while benefiting your clinic.
