The Dental Marketer

Facebook isn’t just for the kids anymore.  Take a look at your e-mail inbox these days. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or none of your friends use computers, you’ve been getting invitations to look at the Facebook pages of people you never expected to have a Facebook page.  What happened is that Generation X (born 1966-1977), and even some of the younger Baby Boomers, just discovered Facebook.

Facebook is a social networking site that lets users communicate through their individual customized web pages.  The site is free, and the user interface is so simple that anyone with a PC and an e-mail address can make their own page in a couple of minutes.

What does it have to do with dentistry?  Well maybe not so much specifically, but everything in general. 

A dentist could certainly set up a Facebook page for your themselves or even a “business” page specifically for the practice.  And why not?  Free exposure offers unbeatable ROI.  But Facebooking with your dentist may never become extremely popular.  Your best return with this technology may just be from the top-of-mind awareness when you keep your name out there in the community. 

What really jumps out about the Facebook craze is the way technology quickly emerges and becomes part of people’s lives.  The real lesson is that we need to be observers of human nature, especially the way people communicate and the way they learn new information.  Ten years ago few dental practices had websites – now it’s almost inconceivable not to have one or more. 

E-mail is a standard method of communication now.  It has become a terrific way to stay in touch with patients, and to remind them to schedule and keep appointments.  There’s nothing magic about e-mail though.  The reason it is such a useful tool is that this is the way your patients communicate.  If patients used messenger pigeons, the smart dentists would have coops on their roofs!

When your practice designs its systems around the preferences of the patient, instead of making the patient conform to the way you do things, you make their life easier.  When you make it easier to be your customer, you give someone another reason to value your practice.  You’ve just added value – without lowering the price.

So Facebook reminds us that technology changes quickly, and behavior follows.  so if your patients like to communicate online and with e-mail, make your practice a place where they can do that.  Why not take it a step further and anticipate the next step?  Why not be the first office in town to use instant messages and text messages to communicate with patients? 

The businesses who offer a fair price, and make people’s lives easier with a total customer experience designed to meet their needs and their wants are the businesses that will thrive.