How Live Chat Improves Your Dentist-Patient Relationship

Dental healthcare is an important aspect of the overall well-being of a person. Patients understand this and as such, they are very selective when choosing their dentists and dental practice. For patients, the quality of their dental healthcare service is not limited to the expertise of the dentist. Patients factor the strength of their dentist-patient relationship when assessing dental healthcare options. The stronger and more trusting your dentist-patient relationship is, the more likely patients will choose and stay with your dental practice. Live Chat can play a crucial role in improving the strength of your dentist-patient relationship. 

With developments in social networking and patients communications, dentist-patient relationships have evolved in recent times. Patients - just like everyone else - want to have easier and direct access to their connections and the information they need. With Live Chat, patients can easily connect with their dentist as soon as they visit the dental practice’s website. Through a pop-up that launches from the corner of your dental practice’s web page, patients can chat with you or a team member from your dental practice, learn more about your services and make appointments. This easy flow of communication helps to build your patients’ confidence in you and your dental practice. 

In this article, we will be discussing 8 unique ways you can leverage Live Chat to improve your dentist-patient relationship. 

8 Unique Ways Live Chat Improves your Dentist-Patient Relationship

1. It focuses on your patient’s needs

Patients are at the center of everything you do as a dentist. It is important to keep the focus on patients as you implement marketing and business tools and strategies at your dental practice. With Live Chat, you ensure your current and prospective patients are always attended to when they visit your website. You can address questions that patients ask and point them in the right direction when they need more information or attention. The goal of having a Live Chat on your website is to respond to patients and attend to their needs. 

2. It meets patients where they are

Your website is your virtual storefront. When current patients look up your dental practice online or prospective patients are looking for a dentist or dental practice in your local area, they will likely find your website listed on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). When they visit your website, they should be able to get answers to the questions they have about your dental practice. By setting up your website with a Live Chat service, you can meet these patients exactly where they are - online. 

There has never been a better time to establish and maintain an online presence for your dental practice. Your website and Live Chat service are integral elements of your dental practice’s online presence. With these elements, your patients should be able to get access to you or your dental practice at any time and from anywhere. 

3. It eliminates unnecessary wait-times 

Long wait times are a big deterrent for patients. With Live Chat, you no longer have to keep your patients waiting. Patients can book and modify appointments, get updates about their appointments and services you provide, chat with a team member from your dental practice and make inquiries on the go. Eliminating unnecessary wait times is a crucial step to improving your dentist-patient relationship. 

Connect the Doc’s Live Chat service - Walter - enables you to screen and qualify patients faster. This way, your patients do not have to wait to meet you face-to-face and you can get a better understanding of the best way to meet their needs. By attending to your patients’ needs at a faster rate will assure them that you have their best interest in mind. 

4. It makes your dental practice personable 

Technology has made patients’ communications more generic than it should be. Generic communications make it difficult for you to showcase your dental practice’s brand and personality. Also, patients do not want to feel like they are speaking with robots. Instead, they want to know that their concerns are being addressed intuitively and personally. With Live Chat, you can get rid of generic communications and distinguish your dental practice by setting up specialized chat and text templates that are personable. 

Walter’s artificial intelligence and machine learning technology allows it to provide personalized responses to your patients. More so, with each new conversation it has with a patient, it gets smarter and finetunes its responses specifically for that patient. These non-generic communications will build your patient’s trust in you and your dental practice. 

5. It provides important updates for your patients

Every now and then, patients need reminders for appointments, prescriptions or matters related to their dental healthcare. As your dental practice grows and your services evolve, you need to maintain a solid line of communication between you and your patients so they get these updates. Live Chat’s mobile and texting features help you establish an open line of communication that is timely and non-intrusive. 

Patients may not always be available to get on the phone. Important messages could get lost in the mail, voicemail machines or email inboxes. With mobile notifications, you can reach your patients without interrupting their day or workflow. You can schedule your communications ahead of time and send your patients updates regarding their appointment or dental healthcare. 

6. Dentists can learn more about their patients

The more you know about your patients, the better the quality of your service to them. The better the quality of your service, the happier your patients will be. The happier your patients are, the better your dentist-patient relationship. Knowing your patients individually is crucial to improving your dentist-patient relationship. With Live Chat, you can gather more information about your patients and use that information to improve the way you deliver your services. 

With each new conversation that your patients have with Walter, Walter learns more about your patients and provides you with insights on their common needs and concerns. More so, your patients can easily leave online reviews through your Live Chat. The more reviews you gather, the more informed you will be about your patients and the quality of your dental care service. 

7. Dentists can send payment requests and reminders

Contactless payments are more useful today than anytime before. With contactless payments, your patients do not have to come into your dental practice with cash or payment cards to make payments, they can pay you from the comfort of their homes and at any time of the day. With the likes of Google and Apple offering mobile wallets to individuals directly on their phones, it has never been easier to collect payment from patients. 

With Live Chat, you can send payment requests and reminders directly to your patients’ mobile phones. In your requests and reminders, you can provide them with links to payment sites where they can make their payments online. Once your dental practice has information about your patients’ method of payment, your patients do not have to reenter their payment details when they are making payments in the future. Live Chat simplifies your payment collection process, reduces the time it takes for you to receive due payments and provides a convenient system for your patients to stay on top of their payments. 

8. Dentists can gather online reviews

Online reviews are an essential part of their dental practice’s online reputation management strategy. They play an important role in maintaining your online presence and spreading the word about your dental practice online. That said, it may be challenging for some dentists to ask patients for online reviews and successfully gather those reviews. With Live Chat, you can automatically request feedback and reviews from your patients as soon as they walk out of your dental practice. 

Satisfied patients are usually willing to leave online reviews for your dental practice. Through your Live Chat, these patients can easily leave a review without visiting multiple online review sites. The more reviews and feedback you can gather, the better you can improve your dental practice and the more likely your patients will feel like they are being heard. 

Conclusion

By introducing Live Chat to your dental practice, you will be embracing the future of patients communications in dentistry. As more people continue to prefer mobile systems of communication, you will need to meet your patients where they are. Having an open and convenient line of communication is key to improving your dentist-patient relationship. Your patients appreciate being able to get access to information and updates from your dental practice. More so, you can improve the quality of your dental practice by learning more about your patients and gathering essential feedback and reviews from them. Live Chat enables you to do this with ease.

Powered by innovative artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, Walter - Connect the Doc’s Live Chat service - can act as your 24/7 receptionist by attending to your patients’ needs, screening and qualifying them, scheduling their appointments, providing them with key updates and learning more about them. Contact us today to learn how you can improve your dentist-patient relationship by integrating Walter to your website and marketing process.