Dental clinics aren’t exactly the most comfortable and welcoming places for patients. In fact, there’s such a thing as "dentophobia", otherwise known as the fear of dentists, which affects about 36% of people in the United States.
That isn’t exactly good for business, is it? Dentists should strive to counter that and make their clinics look and feel comfortable, safe, and welcoming for their patients.
While there are many ways to do that, from improving the clinic’s interiors to refining customer service, something as simple as a digital signage installation can go a long way in making a dentist appointment a fun, entertaining, and educational experience.
Digital signage, when used and managed optimally, is a powerful advertising and communications tool. For a dental practice, it functions to improve patients’ experience, streamline processes, make wait times more manageable, and ultimately, bring more patients into your doors.
The best part is that incorporating digital signage solutions into your practice isn’t complicated. There are plenty of ways you can use it to deliver important information and make your clinic a place your patients actually want to go to.
Here are 10 ideas for using digital signage in your dental practice.
Digital signage provides you with an easy and cost-effective way to advertise your practice and help you stand out from the competition. It’s been found to be 47.7% effective for generating brand awareness, capturing 400% more views than static displays and raising the viewer’s recall rate to 85%.
You can install digital signs in high-traffic areas near your clinic and display eye-catching content that people walking by will find hard to ignore.
As a necessary healthcare service, your dental practice needs to be able to relay important information and announcements to your patients quickly and effectively. You can use digital signs for that, providing notices and reminders that can help keep patients up to date on what’s happening in your clinic.
This is a practical way to share information about your operating schedule, appointment information, any days when your clinic will be closed, etc. Digital signage works better at reaching more people compared to traditional signs, not to mention they make it easy to update or change content as needed.
Patients typically go to the dentist with a specific treatment in mind or to address a pain or discomfort. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be interested in what else you have to offer.
Use your digital signs as an opportunity to introduce your services. You can also display time-limited promotions and discounts that they can be aware of on their next visit.
Digital signage doesn’t always have to be customer-facing. You can also take advantage of it to improve internal communication and streamline processes.
At your clinic’s front desk, a digital screen can make it easy for staff to look at appointment schedules and manage the queue. In the operating room, they can provide dentists and their assistants with a quick view of the patient’s records and X-ray results.
While your patients are waiting for their turn to see the dentist, it’s a good time to provide them with valuable information about dental health and hygiene. Use your waiting room digital signs to display graphics or videos about brushing, flossing, and other common dental health practices.
Not only will this give them actionable tips they can do at home to keep their dental health in check, but you also give them something to watch while waiting, effectively reducing their perceived wait time.
One of the less attractive things about going to a dental clinic is the long wait before they can actually see a dentist. Sitting in a quiet waiting room alongside other patients and with no source of entertainment creates a recipe for anxiety.
Digital signage displaying entertaining content creates a welcome distraction for waiting patients. You can use it to broadcast TV programs, show engaging dental videos, or run a live stream. With something to keep their mind busy, digital signage can reduce a patient’s perceived wait time by over 35%.
A lot of people perceive dentists as scary, uptight healthcare practitioners. But as a dentist yourself, you know that’s far from the truth. Use your digital signs to change patients’ perceptions about you and your practice.
You can display profiles of your dentists and dental assistants, complete with friendly photos, job titles, and descriptions of their backgrounds, qualifications, or even hobbies. This will introduce and humanize your staff, helping reduce anxiety and fostering good relationships.
Waiting for your turn in a dental clinic is already unpleasant, add it to the uncertainty of how much longer you have to wait, and it becomes an anxious and frustrating experience. For a patient, 10 minutes in the waiting room can feel like half an hour.
Digital signage is a powerful tool for queue management. By displaying live information about who’s next in line to see the dentist, patients are given real-time updates about how much longer they have to wait for their turn. This allows them to get ready beforehand, which also speeds up your clinic’s patient intake process.
When looking for a good dentist, people often refer to feedback and recommendations from other patients. Positive reviews about your practice are social proof of the work that you do and how many people you’ve helped, reassuring your patients that they made the right choice to book an appointment at your clinic.
You can make your digital signage a social media wall, showing your Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare feeds and highlighting the best customer reviews about your dentists, staff, and treatments.
Dental digital signage doesn’t have to be all about business. Break up your educational, advertising, and informational slides with ambient content that will keep your patients entertained.
You can display YouTube live streams or news feeds related to your industry or simply add widgets for weather maps and forecasts, calendars, or photo feeds.
The benefits and applications of digital signage in a dental clinic are numerous — it’s high time for you to take advantage of them to facilitate good patient experiences, improve your operations, and give your practice an edge over the competition.
Ready to get started with dental digital signage? Try digital signage for free with Rise Vision.