Why Sell Products on Your Dental Practice Website: The Benefits and Reasons You Haven’t Thought Of
In addition to the amazing dental services you provide in your practice, do you sell products in the office?
If you do, ask yourself or your dentist: “Why?”
What if I told you that the products you sell in your dental practice have the potential to grow your practice!?!?
This article will explain how displaying your product inventory online will:
➡️ Improve your patient experience
➡️ Free up your team
➡️ Create a non-salesy practice
➡️ Drive organic traffic to your website
Hi, I’m Kelly, an experienced dental professional with 20 years of experience in clinical and administrative operations. My goal is to help you understand how taking small steps in your dental practice can positively impact your bottom line.
Improve Your Patient Experience
Patients are busy people.
We can hardly get them to fill out medical history updates.
We remind them many times about their appointments yet, they still don’t show up.
It is likely that after spending an hour or more in your dental chair, your patient needs to leave the office and resume their day. They have things to do, kids to pick up, or have to get back to work.
The vast majority don’t want to spend another 10 minutes listening to what products we offer - even if it is for their health!
So, how can we meet them where they will hear us?
For most of us, that is on our couch at the end of the day.
They finally get a chance to breathe and would like to know more about the differences between the electric toothbrushes on the market. They trust us and going to our website would be a logical solution for most patients.
This is why having your products listed, with pricing, on your website is important.
Meet your patients where they are and improve their patient experience. It will create greater loyalty and trust. Which in turn equals what?
Positive Patient Experience = Greater Loyalty & Trust
Greater Loyalty & Trust = Increased Case Acceptance
Increased Case Acceptance = Improved Bottom Line
Free Up Your Team
Have you seen your patient schedule lately? Your team is crunched for time.
Your hygienists: Yes, it is their job to educate patients.
Yes, you think (as the owner or OM), they have plenty of time in their schedule to talk with patients about the products you sell and how each one may or may not benefit them.
Your hygienist will tell you they do not have time to do this.
I’m not going to tell you who is right or wrong in this example. But, what I am going to tell you, is that you need an alternative that will help your entire team share your products.
Your dental assistants: They are your secret weapon.
Have them start a conversation with the patient about how to care for their new restoration. If an in-office product is appropriate to introduce at that time, have them do it. It is possible that the patient may be a bit overwhelmed at this point in their visit and not be actively listening. The dental assistant should encourage the patient to visit the website to explore the available options and costs at their convenience.
Your administrative team: They are your patients' first and last point of contact.
Use them to remind the patient to check out the product selection on the website. The patient may have paid hundreds of dollars out of pocket and isn’t financially ready to purchase today.
The admin team, utilizing the patient communication software, sends a link to your website’s product page mentioning the specific product recommendation made in the office. This type of personal reminder will solidify the patient experience. But, it is important to make sure it is accurate and personalized.
Now, let’s take it a step further.
What if the patient receives an email two weeks later reminding them to visit the website and review the products you recommended? They have received another paycheck or two and are now ready to purchase. You have just turned this lost or delayed sale into tomorrow’s revenue.
Your entire team has the potential to gain back valuable time by having a patient product resource page on your dental practice website.
Create a Non-Salesy Practice
Have you ever received feedback from a patient stating that they like to be upsold at the dentist?
Me, neither.
Some patients may interpret product recommendations as an upsell. We know your recommendation is in their best interest to improve or maintain good oral health. But, your patient is a skeptic. Instead, let your website do the low-pressure selling for you.
Some team members will be uncomfortable “selling”. You can eliminate this weight while still having the potential to achieve the desired outcome of a product sale.
You, as the dentist/owner, will control the message being shared on your product page and can rest assured that patients will receive information that is:
Consistent
Accurate
Unopinionated
With the right words, your website product page can do this for you and your team without feeling too salesy.
Drive Organic Traffic to Your Website
Now that you understand how a product page will improve your patient experience, free up your team, and create a low-pressure sales environment, let’s look at how it will boost your Google ranking.
Without getting too deep into SEO or search engine optimization and everything your website needs to be successful, consider this...
On any given day, your website analytics tell you that on average 10-25 people visit your website.
Your practice, on average, sees 30-35 patients a day.
20 of those patients received an in-office product recommendation.
Of those 20 patients, 10 go to your website and explore the products page.
They spend anywhere from 2 - 20 minutes on your website.
Google finds this amazing!
This increased traffic and the amount of time a visitor spends on your website has a direct impact on how valuable Google thinks your information is. (If you want more information on Google’s E-E-A-T algorithm - google it).
Google now likes your website more and will share it with the next person that searches for “dentist near me” or “great dentists in Portland, Maine”.
New patients will contact your office for an appointment.
And that is how you grow your practice with a website product page.
If you found this information helpful, please share the article.
If you would like your product page written for you, contact me through my website contact page.
