With a growing number of cloud-based solutions available for dental practice management, selecting the right one feels like navigating a Harry Potter-like labyrinth. But it’s important to make sure that the cloud-based solutions you choose aligns with your practice’s specific requirements. This guide demonstrates why ClearDent Cloud is the best cloud-based solution for dental practices in Canada (or at least we think so), and shows you the differences between true cloud-based solutions, cloud-washed solutions, and legacy software, highlighting the top considerations when making a selection.
What’s a “cloud-washed solution” and why should I care?
We’ve written an entire blog post about Cloud-washed solutions and you can read more about it here. Simply put, not all cloud-based solutions are created equal—namely, outdated legacy software that’s been re-packaged and associated with the “Cloud” buzzword for online use (cloud-washed)— and many lack the inherent advantages of true cloud platforms. While there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with this type of software deployment, practices looking to grow and scale, enforce better security, or reliably access systems from anywhere, would see a significant impact in both productivity and efficiency over time.
The different functions of a dental practice
At ClearDent, we take a holistic approach to building our products, considering the entire practice’s needs and how each part of the business works together. Whether you’re establishing a new practice, managing a single location or managing multiple practices, our robust set of features keep dental practices running smoothly. It’s important to take a comprehensive view of your overall operations and choose the right cloud-based solution that fits your unique situation. We’ve identified 5 areas of focus for dental practice success:
Schedule Management
Patient Management
Clinical Management
Financial & Insurance Management
Patient Care and Business Operations Management
Schedule Management
The heart and soul of any dental practice lies in the scheduler. Having robust scheduling capabilities is table stakes for efficient, profitable operations. But it’s not just about booking appointments; it’s about ensuring the right procedures are scheduled for the right amount of time, patient intake forms are completed before appointments, and critical alerts like lab case arrivals and account balances are seamlessly integrated into your workflow. While these features should be a priority regardless of the type of software (on-premise, cloud, hybrid), cloud-based solutions offer greater flexibility, allow access to systems from any location, and include real-time system updates and maximum security and privacy.
Has this happened to you?
Consider a typical morning at your practice. Imagine starting your day with a fully optimized schedule, where every appointment is perfectly aligned, patient information is at your fingertips, and your team is prepared for the day’s challenges. Everything seems “perfect”. But without an advanced scheduler, your team will likely have to deal with last-minute patient form updates, could miss out on collection opportunities due to lack of visibility, and may not be aware of important alerts including pre-medications or lab cases arriving for their appointments. This not only affects patient satisfaction but can cause unnecessary stress on your staff.
With ClearDent Cloud’s advanced scheduler management tools, you get a solution that’s both powerful and easy to use. Here’s how we solve common scheduler pain points:
Directly View Patient Insurance Details and Balances: Access patient insurance details and account balances directly from the schedule. This enables the admin team to be prepared for discussions with the patient before or upon arrival, ensuring timely collection of accurate amounts owed by both the patient and insurance.
Easily View Critical Information: Get alerts for important medical issues, allergies, required pre-medications, lab case status, insurance balance, and additional patient details.
Customize Appointment Views: Show multiple appointments, diverse family relationships, and different providers in an easily customizable view.
Improve Patient Retention: Enhance patient retention through recall reminders and notifications including personalized greetings and notices.
With comprehensive patient information readily available, the check-in process becomes seamless. We believe these scheduler features are fundamental in helping your team simplify their workflow.
Patient Management
Having a reliable system with the right tools is critical for running a smooth practice, and managing the unique needs of every patient can be overwhelming when you don’t. Key areas to manage include patient charts, appointment recalls, family accounts, outstanding Accounts Receivables by family or individual, lab cases, and much more.
To achieve full schedules and satisfied patients, three key processes are critical: treatment planning, billing, and lab case management. Let’s explore each of these scenarios in detail.
Billing (Billing Wizard)
Has this happened to you?
It’s a busy afternoon, and you’re juggling multiple tasks—answering phones, assisting patients, and handling billing inquiries. Just when you think you’re all caught up, a patient approaches to check out, settle their bill, and schedule their next appointment. Without an advanced billing system, this can get complicated and take more time than your patient is willing to spend while you manually check records for treatment details, billing, and appointments. This can involve navigating through multiple screens and performing several actions just to find the right information.
As you navigate through your software, the patient becomes impatient and decides to pay later. Not only do you miss the opportunity to get paid on the spot, but you might not see that the patient owes money and is overdue for a recall—leaving money and future revenue opportunities on the table.
With ClearDent’s Billing Wizard, you see all the information you need, when you need it. Here’s how we solve common patient management pain points:
Capture Revenue Opportunities: View outstanding accounts and unscheduled hygiene and recalls, ensuring all revenue opportunities are promptly captured.
Receive Instant Alerts: Get instant alerts for missing patient information like emails, EOB auto-updates, and privacy consent, preventing delays in the billing and scheduling process.
Enhance Patient Satisfaction: Enjoy instant claims processing and coverage determination, providing patients with immediate and accurate information about their coverage, enhancing satisfaction and trust.
Treatment Planning
Has this happened to you?
It’s a typical weekday morning, and you’re juggling multiple tasks—identifying patients needing follow-up appointments, handling billing inquiries, and assisting patients at the front desk. Without custom reporting capabilities, you manually sift through patient records, sometimes missing those with outstanding treatment plans. One patient, needing periodontal treatments, was overlooked, leading to a worsened condition.
Beyond that, when your doctor requests a report to analyze treatment patterns, you struggle to compile the data, resulting in incomplete and delayed reports. The lack of integrated tools forces you to constantly switch between screens, increasing errors and inefficiencies.
An effective Treatment Planning tool like the one built by ClearDent helps you tap into the hidden potential of your patient base. Here’s how we solve common treatment planning pain points:
Prioritize Follow-Ups: Use custom reports to identify patients with outstanding treatment plans and prioritize follow-ups accordingly.
Create Customized Reports: Generate reports based on procedure codes, insurance carriers, providers, and statuses.
Access Patient Files Directly from Reports: Save time and improve efficiency by accessing patient files directly from reports.
Save Report Settings as Templates: Save popular report settings as templates for faster future use.
Lab Case Management
Has this happened to you?
It’s a busy afternoon, and you have a full schedule, including an urgent appointment for a patient receiving new dental crowns. As the appointment time approaches, your dental assistant discovers the crowns haven’t arrived. Without built-in lab management, you manually sift through lab scripts, trying to identify the lab responsible. The patient, who took time off work, is visibly upset about needing to reschedule. Amidst this chaos, you juggle other patients and make multiple calls to track down the lab contact. The patient leaves the clinic, uncertain about when his/her treatment will be completed.
With ClearDent’s built-in lab management, you can streamline your workflow and enhance patient satisfaction. Here’s how we solve common pain points:
Track Lab Cases Efficiently: The appointment book shows you what hasn’t arrived and groups all outstanding cases by lab, ensuring necessary materials arrive on time.
Improve Patient Communication: Provide patients with accurate updates and minimize disruptions by having real-time lab case information.
Enhance Workflow Efficiency: Access lab case reports and email lab scripts directly, reducing the time spent on manual tracking and calls.
Organize Lab Contacts and Information: Maintain an organized system for lab contacts and case information to streamline communication and coordination.
The scenarios above demonstrate how a robust system can significantly enhance your team’s productivity and patient satisfaction. Using cloud-based solutions to optimize your practice’s workflow allows you to make informed decisions and improve performance.
Clinical Management
Good dental software should have all the basic clinical management tools including Odontogram and Perio charting. But a great dental software should help you better diagnose and make better decisions to plan treatments and increase overall patient care with speed and accuracy. There are other components involved in efficient treatment planning to consider, like making sure imaging equipment integrates well with the software and having productivity tools to quickly view and generate clear and concise clinical notes.
Has this happened to you?
You’re preparing for a complex procedure and need to review the patient’s history, current x-rays, and treatment notes. Without an integrated system, you must switch between different screens and software applications, wasting valuable time and risking miscommunication, or potentially missing key information.
ClearDent’s comprehensive Clinical Management tools simplify your workflow by integrating and making all patient and clinical information easily accessible. Here’s how ClearDent can transform your practice:
Integrated Digital Imaging: View detailed x-rays alongside your odontogram, notes, and treatment plan. Images are auto rotated, mounted, and labeled by tooth number. Easily import x-rays and create comprehensive treatment letters with one click. Complete your clinical workflow seamlessly within a single platform.
Complete Charting View (and more): Intuitive electronic charting displays clinical notes, treatment plan, and patient history in one view. Color-coded clinical information about existing conditions, planned, and completed treatment is visible from the odontogram. Plan and prioritize treatment plans with templates, improving accuracy, speed, and patient acceptance.
Templated Clinical Notes: Save time with customized clinical notes, referral letters, and templated post-treatment letters. Create templates with auto-merge fields for rapid, consistent documentation.
Additionally, with ClearDent you can access patient and clinical information on the cloud, eliminating worries about server failures and allowing access from anywhere. This ensures you have all practice information at your fingertips, anytime you need it. This integration enhances your ability to diagnose, present cases, and convert treatments efficiently.
System delays can have a domino effect on productivity and patient experience, potentially delaying appointments and reducing productive time that could be used for patient care. It’s important to identify the goals of your practice and find the right solution that fits your needs—balancing cost, performance, and features.
Financial & Insurance Claims Management
Managing finances and insurance information can be a beast unto itself. Updating patient ledgers, managing insurance information and claims, and handling family finances is just scratching the surface. Practices wanting to grow the business and patient base need to know the numbers inside and out or at least be able to find important information easily. Ensuring you have a bird’s-eye view of your revenue, along with tools for swiftly sending claims and updating ledgers, will ensure that your practice maintains financial health and is always up-to-date and accurate.
While legacy software and cloud-washed solutions can achieve ledger functions for basic use, finding a solution that updates ledgers reliably through a cloud infrastructure gives your practice peace of mind, eliminating system delays and lags that could cause a domino effect of information mismatches.
Has this happened to you?
You’re dealing with a mountain of insurance claims, patient record updates, and managing payment plans—all while trying to maintain the financial health of your practice. Each claim must be meticulously checked for accuracy, submitted to the correct provider, and tracked until payment is received. Without an efficient system, you spend hours manually processing these claims and entries, leading to delays, errors, missed payments, and write-offs that hurt your practice’s revenues.
ClearDent’s Claims and Ledger features eliminate common challenges by providing a seamless, automated solution for managing insurance claims. Here’s how ClearDent addresses the pain points associated with insurance and claims management:
Automatically Adjust EOBs: Automatically update EOBs, calculate insurance deductibles, and process claims. This reduces manual errors, saving valuable time and labor costs that can be better spent on more important tasks.
Integrated and Intuitive Ledger: Visually intuitive ledger for generating financial and management reports, managing family financials, and calculating patient and insurance sides of the ledger. This ensures comprehensive, organized record-keeping and minimizes the need for backdating and manual adjustments.
Dashboard Analytics for Better Decision Making: Get a real-time snapshot of your practice with comprehensive performance metrics. Leverage a user-friendly dashboard that provides quick views of key metrics like production, recalls, chair utilization, accounts receivables, and more. This enhanced visibility allows the office to make informed business decisions and improve overall practice performance.
If we haven’t mentioned it yet, ClearDent is a solution made by Canadians, for Canadians—so we understand the nuances of Canadian insurance processes. To that end, we’ve built tools that empower practices to automate workflows, reduce the administrative burden, and maximize revenue.
Patient Care and Business Operations Management
Running a dental practice involves a lot more than booking appointments, treating patients, and processing billing. Effective practice management requires tools that streamline both the patient side and the business side of your operations. And not all practices are alike; your needs will differ if you are a small family practice versus a large group practice. Practice management software companies like ClearDent offer additional functionality to cater to these varying needs. Identifying the specific needs of your practice is crucial to choosing a system that enhances efficiency and reduces the administrative burden on your team.
Has this happened to you?
Your practice is bustling with patients, but your administrative team is overwhelmed with managing schedules, inventory, and coordinating staff hours. The lack of an integrated system results in inefficiencies, errors, and stressed-out staff.
ClearDent’s comprehensive practice management tools are designed to address these challenges, ensuring your practice runs smoothly and efficiently. Here’s how ClearDent can transform your practice:
Improve Productivity: With built-in task management, you can assign and manage tasks, create lab prescriptions within a patient’s chart, and track case status. Easily create waitlists and send bulk messages to keep your schedule full.
Streamline Employee Hours: Employees can clock their hours directly through ClearDent, eliminating human error and saving thousands of dollars per year caused by clerical mistakes and overpaying.
Enhance Team Communication: Stay connected with your team without leaving your chair. Discuss cases, request providers to operatories, announce changes, and send direct messages to ensure coordinated and excellent patient care.
We know that no two practices are the same, and each has unique business goals and approaches. ClearDent understands that practices require flexible solutions to help you reach your goals. With the ability to mix and match your tools, you can save resources for other components of your business.
Conclusion
Choosing the right dental software for your practice is paramount for you, your patients, and your staff. This article has highlighted the key factors to consider when searching for the software that best meets your needs. With the rise of cloud-based solutions, it’s important to understand the differences between true cloud, cloud-washed, and on-premise solutions and the features and functionality each provides.
Understand what your practice needs and do your research—use free demos to assist in making the right choice. The last thing you want is to select software that falls short, forcing you to switch and waste time, money, and resources down the road.
Do you remember the first time you implemented dental software at your practice? It likely required extensive planning and preparation. As a ClearDent user, you’re familiar with the decisions involved in integrating practice management software to improve operations and have likely reaped the benefits of that decision for years, if not decades. Now there’s an opportunity for even greater improvements in flexibility, security and accessibility by moving to the Cloud. But transitioning to ClearDent’s cloud solution follows a similar path of thoughtful planning as your initial move to dental software did. In this post we’ll guide you through moving your existing ClearDent setup to the cloud, outlining the steps that will ensure a smooth transition.
Dental offices looking to grow revenues and streamline workflows while maintaining high-quality patient care require careful planning and decision-making. For example, expanding to or connecting different locations, adding remote teams, or developing an off-site call center or billing department may be the next step for your practice growth initiatives. A cloud environment is at the heart of making all those things possible. But when choosing a cloud solution, it’s important to consider more than just features, pricing, operations, and equipment compatibility. You have to consider the potential disruption, training requirements, and overall change management.
Each practice’s unique needs will determine the best strategy for a smooth and effective cloud transition but in general, there are two ways you can transition to the cloud in: a Hybrid approach or a Phased Transition approach. What’s the difference? Let’s explore further below.
Oak Dental Partners successfully connected multiple offices to a single call center, making patient bookings fast and seamless without overloading their staff and server—thanks to the cloud. Read more here to see how they did it.
#1: Cloud Hybrid Approach
Imagine your dental practice operating in multiple locations. You currently use physical servers at each site to manage patient records, appointment scheduling, and billing. However, you face challenges in accessing and synchronizing data between your offices, especially when patients visit different locations. You want to improve efficiency by enabling remote access to patient data while continuing to use the existing physical servers.
In this scenario, you have existing servers and require synchronization and remote access. This situation would greatly benefit from a hybrid system which involves seamlessly integrating both server and cloud systems, combining the familiarity of an on-premise system with the connectivity of the cloud.
At ClearDent, we offer a unique solution, ClearDent Link, to leverage the power and robust features of both on-premise and cloud systems. Click here to learn more about ClearDent Link.
Who is this for?
While having both systems that deliver the “best of both worlds” seems like a no-brainer, practices vary in size and operational scope, and it may not always make sense. While some practices would greatly benefit from a hybrid system, others might not. Here are the key criteria determining whether a hybrid system would be beneficial at this time:
Current Infrastructure Investments: Practices that have already invested heavily in on-premise infrastructure (servers, etc.) and are not ready to fully abandon it.
Remote Access Needs: Practices that need the reliability of an on-premise server and the connectivity of the cloud access data and applications from multiple locations or for remote work.
Solution
The core characteristics of a hybrid approach:
Centralized Data Access: Allows remote access to data stored on physical servers at each office. This hybrid solution integrates cloud capabilities with the existing server infrastructure so that anyone with the proper credentials can access information from wherever they are.
Data Synchronization: Access patient files, appointments, treatment notes, and treatment letters across all locations, so patient records are updated in real-time regardless of the office they visit.
Security and Compliance: Uses physical servers for primary data storage while leveraging cloud backup and remote access features to achieve tier 1 data security standards.
The benefits of implementing a Hybrid Approach:
Enhanced Accessibility: Staff can access patient data remotely, enabling better coordination and flexibility. For example, a dentist at one location can view the treatment history of a patient who visited another branch office.
Improved Patient Experience: Patients benefit from seamless care as their records are accessible online, reducing wait times and eliminating the need to contact other offices to repeat their medical history.
Cost-Effective Transition: By using a hybrid approach, practices can gradually transition to the cloud without the immediate need for a complete overhaul of their IT infrastructure. This phased approach minimizes disruption and allows staff to adapt to new processes gradually.
Business Continuity: The combination of physical servers and cloud capabilities ensures data redundancy, safeguarding patient information against potential hardware failures or cyber threats.
#2: Phased Transition Approach to the Cloud
Imagine your dental practice group is planning to fully transition to a cloud-based dental software solution, however, you want to do so gradually to ensure a smooth changeover, allowing your team to adapt comfortably and to minimize disruptions to patient care.
This approach involves a full migration from on-premise software to a web-based cloud solution. Practices that choose a phased approach typically want to leverage the full features and performance of cloud-based software.
ClearDent offers web-based cloud software, ClearDent Cloud, which includes the features of our proven on-premise software, with enhanced performance and additional functionality. Learn more about ClearDent Cloud here.
Who is this for?
While we believe most practices should leverage the benefits of the cloud (we’re biased, of course), there are certain situations where practices would greatly benefit from directly migrating to the cloud:
Outdated Servers: Practices looking to avoid the high costs of upgrading and maintaining their servers and save that money for other expenditures.
Growth-Oriented: Practices expecting moderate to rapid growth needing systems that can scale quickly.
Remote Access: Practices needing access to data and applications from multiple locations or for remote work. This includes creating interconnectivity between team members, clinic locations, and patients, allowing access to patient files, appointment scheduling, treatment notes, and billing operations from anywhere.
Solution
Below are the main steps to implementing a Phased Transition Approach:
Initial Phase: Begin by moving non-critical functions like appointment scheduling and billing to the cloud while keeping patient records on physical servers.
Training and Adaptation: Provide comprehensive training to staff on using the cloud-based features, ensuring they are comfortable with the new system.
Full Transition: Gradually migrate patient records and other critical data to the cloud, ensuring all staff members are proficient with the software before the final cutover.
Benefits of implementing a Phased Transition Approach:
Reduced Disruption: A phased transition minimizes operational disruption, allowing the practice(s) to continue functioning smoothly while staff adapt to the new system.
Tailored Training: Staff receive training specific to each phase, reducing the learning curve and increasing overall confidence and proficiency with the new software.
Scalability: As your practice grows, a fully cloud-based solution provides the scalability needed to add new locations without the need for additional physical servers.
Cost Management: Spreading the transition over multiple phases allows the office to manage costs more effectively, avoiding a significant upfront investment in server infrastructure, including installation, maintenance, support, upgrades, and emergency services.
Minimal in-house IT Burden: With a web-based cloud system, the reliance on server maintenance is significantly reduced as the cloud provider takes care of most technical aspects of the cloud, ensuring your data is triple-backed up and secure.
Meet MAP (Management Advisory Practitioners)
MAP (Management Advisory Practitioners) faced significant challenges managing rapid growth, feeling bottlenecked by the need for staff to travel between locations to access reports and manage scheduling. Their attempts to use third-party VPN and tunnelling software were unreliable and raised security concerns. Despite their eagerness to grow, the steep learning curve of transitioning to new technology initially intimidated them.
ClearDent’s trainers provided invaluable support, offering structured and personalized training that eased the transition. Once ClearDent Cloud was implemented, MAP immediately saw the benefits. They eliminated the need for third-party remote applications, enabling staff to access everything they needed from any location. This increased efficiency and freed administrative employees from constantly travelling from practice to practice.
Senior Clinical Team Lead Sarah Wakefield noted how ClearDent Cloud streamlined operations and cut down on redundancies, preparing MAP for continued growth. With real-time information at their fingertips, management could confidently make decisions quickly, empowering their teams and ensuring sustainable growth. Click here to learn how MAP got everything at their fingertips by partnering with Cleardent.
Conclusion
In short, we understand that switching software and moving to the cloud requires significant time, resources, and considerations. Factors like data management, staff training, IT costs, and long-term growth plans can and should influence your decision, even if you want a solution with shiny new features. It’s important to note that there are different ways to approach the transition and you should consider your options carefully based on your unique situation.
As we’ve emphasized, every practice has different systems and requirements. While we’ve provided a general comparison between the two cloud transition approaches, there may be additional benefits for each approach depending on your specific situation. We highly recommend leveraging external resources and reaching out to client account representatives to determine the best approach for your practice. They’ll help you assess your situation and offer the best solution for your needs. Gathering as much information as possible will help you make the right decision for your practice, increasing your chances of long-term success.
When selecting dental software, practices typically emphasize features that enhance patient care like patient management, clinical tools, and workflow optimization. However, one often overlooked core piece of functionality is ledger management, the backbone of strong practice and financial operations. While basic financial ledger functionality is table stakes when it comes to dental software, not all ledgers are created equal. While a good dental ledger presents accurate, timely, and detailed data, a great dental ledger reduces manual work and errors, enhances productivity, improves staff efficiency, boosts profitability, and elevates patient care by allowing the dental team to focus more on patients and less on administrative tasks. It’s critical that the system you adopt aligns with your long-term goals and can both simplify and streamline your financial operations today, and into the future.
Has this happened to you?
As a dentist running a busy practice, you spendcountless hours perfecting patient care, ensuring every visit is a pleasant experience. However, at the end of each month, youmay notice that the financial reports don’t reflect the hard work. Collections are low, and accounts receivablesare piling up. This discrepancy isn’t due to poor patient care, but rather aninefficient financial management system.That’swhere the ledger comes in.
The hard-hitting truth is that dental schools don’t emphasize the importance of the dental billing process and how important it is for the overall financial health and success of the practice. Some data suggests that as much as 11% of all claims are initially denied due to errors that could have been prevented with proper documentation and coding practices. Because many dental professionals are completely new to billing, claims management and other financial processes, they often overlook the need for technology that optimizes these functions – leaving money on the table every day. That’s why it’s so important for dental professionals to understand how their practice’s success is tied to efficient operations and financial management which are enabled by a good ledger system.
What is Ledger Management?
Ledger management in dental software is a comprehensive financial management tool designed to streamline and organize financial transactions within the practice. Main features include patient account management, billing and invoicing, insurance management, adjustments and write-offs, and financial reporting. With systems like ClearDent, you also get EOB auto-adjustment, flexible payment plans, and can easily manage a whole family’s financial claims in one place. (You can learn more here.) Think of it as a built-in, smart assistant for your administrative team that ensures all the financial details are handled efficiently and accurately, reducing manual data entry and automating important billing adjustments and insurance claims. It’s a win–win with more billing accuracy in a lot less time.
Here’s a breakdown of the main ledger features in simple terms:
Patient Account Management: Keeps track of what each patient owes and what they’ve paid.
Billing and Invoicing: Automatically generates bills and sends them to patients, enabling payment without a bunch of manual paperwork.
Insurance Management: Handles insurance claims seamlessly to ensure you get reimbursed correctly and on time.
Adjustments and Write-offs:Manage any changes or corrections in billing, like when an insurance company pays only part of a claim.
Financial Reporting: Generates reports that show how your practice is doing financially, helping you make more informed business decisions.
In short, the ledger is an essential tool to ensure all the financial management needs of your practice are taken care of. It streamlines billing processes and ensures regulatory compliance, ultimately contributing to strong cash flow and profitable practice operations.
Why is the ledger important and why does it matter?
While most dental software includes basic financial management tools, if your goal is to streamline practice operations—whether to reduce staff workload or attract new patients—it’s important to evaluate these solutions with your unique practice needs in mind.
Without an effective ledger management system, your practice will likely face several challenges. For starters, your administrative team may spend countless hours manually tracking payments and claims (time that could be spent on higher value work), leading to errors and inefficiencies. Uncollected balances will increase, and your cash flow will suffer, impacting your ability to invest in growth initiatives.
Imagine the frustration of working within a system that doesn’t clearly show which patients owe money or whether or not an insurance claim has been processed. Your staff would have to chase down payments that causes delays and ultimately leads to patient dissatisfaction. These inefficiencies almost always have a compounding effect, ending in financial instability.
Has this happened to you?
As a dentist running a bustling practice with a full schedule of patients every day, you invest in different marketing activities to drive a steady flow of new appointments. But despite the high patient volume, your revenue goals aren’t materializing. Accounts receivables (A/R) continue to rise, and write-offs are becoming increasingly frequent. Initially you may think the issue lies in not enough patients, but in fact, the root cause is an inefficient financial management system. Without the right tools, your practice will continue to struggle to track outstanding balances, leading to missed payments.
Understanding the importance of a well-designed ledger is the first step in recognizing which tool is critical for your success. In the next chapter, we’ll explore how different systems can vary in effectiveness and what to look for when evaluating your current software.
Ledger Navigation and Functionality
There’s a saying, “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” This rings especially true in the context of software system usability. There are many components to dental ledgers including billing, insurance allocation, adjustments, accounts receivable, and integration with patient engagement software for collections follow-up. It can get messy. While having more features can be a good thing, having a system where you can easily navigate between different sections of the ledger, like patient accounts, EOB responses, and family views, is equally important. The name of the game is a comprehensive yet concise, easy to use ledger for both staff and patients alike.
Has this happened to you?
Imagine you’re an admin staff member handling patient billing. One of your patients has an outstanding balance, but when their family member comes in for an appointment, this balance is not displayed due to current software limitations.As a result, you miss the opportunity to collect the balance owed during the checkout process.
Things like family view are non-standard features that can benefit the practice in many ways. It’s important to understand what your next ledger offers down to the last detail, so that you can maximize both productivity and profitability. Now, let’s talk about common pitfalls and things you should avoid.
Negative impact of weak ledger functionality:
Staff Frustration and Inefficiency: You don’t want your administrative staff struggling to find and update patient financial information. Time is money and clicking through multiple screens leads to frustration and inefficiencies.
Errors and Inefficiencies: Systems that require any manual adjustments are prone to human error that leads to billing mistakes, resulting in time-consuming corrections and unhappy patients.
Missed Collections:Without clear visibility, collecting outstanding balances becomes a daunting task negatively impacting your cash flow. Unpaid balances can easily slip through the cracks, leading to missed revenue and higher overdue accounts receivable.
Key features and benefits to look out for:
User-Friendly Interface: A visually intuitive ledger can help staff quickly and easily manage patient accounts. Navigation is straightforward, reducing training time and errors.
Comprehensive Views: The ability to easily switch between individual and family accounts ensures all financial claims are managed effectively. This feature ensures that all outstanding balances are visible, allowing the front desk to address and collect payments promptly, thereby improving cash flow and reducing overdue accounts receivable.
Seamless Automated Updates: The system automatically updates all necessary information across patient accounts and EOB responses in the background. This minimizes human error from manual updates and ensures accurate, up-to-date records.
Insurance Management
Making sure that a practice has steady cashflow is critical to keeping the lights on, but to achieve that, practices have to make sure that collection and claims are set up correctly, especially when it comes to insurance management. Insurance management is a top priority and a reliable system that can seamlessly handle claims and collections goes a long way to avoiding mounting accounts receivables.
At ClearDent, we built EOB Auto Adjust to help you stay on top of what you’re owed.
Wasted Time: Staff spend hours manually processing insurance claims, often leading to delays and errors. Some office managers spend entire days sorting through stacks of EOBs, struggling to reconcile them with patient accounts.
Inaccurate Adjustments: Manual EOB adjustments require users to interpret insurance coverage and calculate patient costs. For instance, determining 80% coverage for a $100 cleaning means estimating the patient’s cost at $20. Errors in these calculations can lead to incorrect balances, write-offs, and the need to chase patients for additional payments, causing confusion and financial discrepancies.
Patient Frustration: Errors in insurance claims can result in denied claims, causing frustration for patients and potentially damaging the practice’s reputation.
Key features and benefits to look out for:
EOBs that adjust automatically: Having systems that automatically adjust accounts based on insurance payments drastically reduces manual work and errors. With tools like ClearDent’s Auto-adjust EOBs, office managers can focus on more critical tasks instead of manually updating EOBs.
Efficient Claims Management: Claims that are auto-adjusted are processed more accurately, ensuring timely reimbursements and fewer patient complaints. When an insurance claim is processed, the system updates the account immediately, eliminating any guesswork for your team and patients.
Payment Plans (Contract Billing)
A challenging economy significantly impacts treatment adoption and appointment frequency, particularly when it comes to high-cost, optional treatments. Dental practices often face the dilemma of providing essential care while managing the financial constraints of their patients, as well as selling higher value services that aren’t must-have treatments. Payment plans emerge as a valuable solution, offering patients the opportunity to receive treatments without the financial burden of paying for everything up front or at the time-of-service delivery. However, these types of plans can require considerable time and resources for administrative staff to manage, often leading to inefficiencies and errors.
Has this happened to you?
Imagine that you are an admin who handles billing for a busy dental practice offering various treatments. If the practice has over 50 patients enrolled in the payment plan system, each with different fees and payment dates, the admin team will be overwhelmed with paperwork, tracking who needs to pay what amount and when. They have to post transactions, send claim forms, process payments, and send receipts to each patient, all while managing new payment plans coming online every day.
Doing things manually can quickly become chaotic. The solution is a good payment plan system that integrates with the ledger to significantly streamline operations in your practice.
Negative impact of weak ledger functionality:
Wasted Staff Time:Staff spend countless hours creating individual payment plans, generating invoices, posting payments, sending claims, and updating ledgers manually. This process is not only time-consuming but can also lead to errors, delayed payments, and frustrated patients.
Treatment Avoidance: Without flexible payment options in your ledger, some patients might struggle to afford their treatments, leading to lower patient conversion and retention rates. Worse, because the management burden is so challenging for staff, they are less likely to encourage patients to adopt treatments requiring payment plans.
Key features and benefits to look out for:
Automated Payment Plans: A built-in automated payment module in your ledger system allows administrative staff to set up flexible payment plans quickly and efficiently, ensuring patients can afford their treatments without financial strain. The Contract Billing feature in ClearDent can create invoices, post payments, send claims, and update ledgers for up to 50 patients at a time. Learn more here.
Higher Treatment Acceptance & Steady Cashflow: By offering flexible payment options, your practice can attract and retain more patients. Imagine a scenario where a family has three children that all need braces. With ClearDent’s Contract Billing, your staff can easily set up a monthly payment plan for the braces, making it affordable for families to manage the expenses. This not only keeps patients satisfied but also ensures steady cash flow and low accounts receivable for your practice.
Business Analytics
A dental practice is a business after all, and running a successful business requires strategic decision making at every turn. To make informed decisions, dentists need access to information about their practice’s performance. Business analytics is an indispensable tool that provides insights into what’s going on in your practice, analyzing daily performance, trends, and more.
Accounts Receivable (A/R) Aging Report:View statistics for outstanding payments, grouped by the length of time they have been outstanding. This helps identify overdue payments and manage cash flow effectively.
Overall Production Trend:Assess your practice’s production over time to understand which procedures are generating revenue. This includes tracking how insurance companies or patients are paying out claims, highlighting any delays or reductions in insurance reimbursements.
Billed vs. Planned Production:Compare the dollar amount of billed productions versus planned productions. This metric can reveal inefficiencies in billing processes, missed billing opportunities, or issues with treatment acceptance. It provides insights into expected revenue versus actual revenue, enabling better financial planning and resource allocation.
Production by Treatment Type:Analyze the amount of production generated by each treatment type. Understanding this can help you develop targeted strategies to increase acceptance of higher-margin procedures through patient education, improved communication, and tailored treatment plans.
Selecting the right dental software is a big job. From scheduling to procedure to billing, the system is the heartbeat of the practice. It’s easy to get “wowed” by all the other features in dental software, but an often overlooked, yet business-critical feature is the ledger system. Effective ledger management drives smooth operations and the overall financial health of your practice. By ensuring that your ledger system is user-friendly, comprehensive, and capable of handling complex financial transactions, you can reduce staff workload and keep your patients happy and loyal. Its important to do your research! If you are diligent in your evaluation, considering both system features and how everything fits into your operational goals will bring you long-term success to your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this final part of our digital marketing for dentistry series dives into online listings.
The patient journey begins long before they set foot into your clinic. It often starts with a simple search, a hunt for the right practitioner to trust with their smile and overall oral health. As dental professionals, it’smore important than ever to recognize that this journey is a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour. And for that reason, it’s critical for practices to embrace the significance of online listings as an integral part of their overall marketing strategy.
The Search Journey
Every interaction a potential patient has with your clinic, whether through advertising or word-of-mouth, inevitably leads to a “Google” search. Your clinic needs to not only appear in those searches but present itself in the best possible light. Online listings can ensure that your practice is discoverable and appears reputable across multiple platforms.
Understanding Online Listings
Online listings are more than just digital directories; they are virtual storefronts that showcase your practice to the world. It’s not enough to have listings scattered across the internet; they must be claimed, consistent, and regularly updated. Platforms like Google Business Profile and the new Apple Business Connect aren’t just optional; they are important lifelines for your practice in today’s digital world.
Data aggregators are companies that collect, organize, and distribute vast amounts of business information from various sources across the internet. These sources may include public records, business directories, social media platforms, and other online databases. Data aggregators compile this information into structured databases, which are then licensed or sold to other companies, including search engines, online directories, navigation systems, and marketing platforms.
For dental practices and other businesses, being listed on data aggregators is important for improving online visibility and local search rankings. When practice information is consistent and accurately represented across aggregators, it enhances its credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines and potential patients. Approximately 6-7% of the reasons why businesses rank locally can be attributed to this factor alone. Therefore, making your clinic’s information accurately represented across various digital services should be a priority.
Answering Queries and Controlling Information
To improve overall visibility, you should always answer questions on directories and listings. This proactive approach increases the likelihood of your clinic being found by potential patients. Taking control of the facts about your practice across multiple digital platforms—from search engines to social networks—is paramount.
Embracing Enriched Listings
Enriched listings go beyond basic business information and provide more dynamic and engaging experiences for potential customers or patients. They involve enhancing your online presence with additional content like photos, videos, descriptions, reviews, and other interactive features. Enriched listings differentiate your practice from competitors, showcase your brand personality, and provide valuable information to potential customers. Every interaction with your practice online is an opportunity to showcase your expertise and foster trust.
The Rise of Voice Search
Have you ever said, “Hey Siri, find me the nearest XXXX?” Voice search is not just a trend; it’s the future of search and it’s here to stay. With the growth of voice-enabled devices, making sure your clinic is optimized for voice search is non-negotiable. Being found through voice search requires you to optimize keywords and embrace conversational language in your online content.
Words of Wisdom From a 30-Year Marketing Veteran
OK. I’ll admit it. Online listings aren’t the sexiest or most exciting activities in the marketers’ bag of tricks. But let me be clear – they are table stakes. If you don’t make them a priority for your practice, you are probably one or more steps behind the competing practice down the block. Oh, and listings are probably one of the lowest cost things marketers can do these days.
Online listings offer visibility, credibility, and cost-effectiveness. While other marketing activities are important, online listings are the cornerstone of a robust digital presence, providing a cost-effective and impactful way to reach and engage with patients.
In Conclusion
The significance of online listings for dental practices cannot be overstated. They serve as the digital gateway to your clinic, shaping the first impressions of potential patients. By harnessing the power of online listings, clinics can enhance their visibility, credibility, and ultimately, their ability to attract and retain patients in an increasingly digital world.
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, Social Ordeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice.Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this is the sixth in a seven-part digital marketing for dentistry series.
In today’s digital game, having a robust online presence is paramount for businesses, and that includes dental practices. Social media, in particular, has evolved from a platform for personal expression to an important business tool. For dental clinics, leveraging social media is not just an option but a necessity to stay relevant, engage with patients, and attract new ones – especially the younger generations. Let’s dive into why social media is pivotal for dental practices, which platforms matter, best practices to follow, and whether to DIY or hire a professional agency.
Social Media for Dental Practices – Do You Need It?
Absolutely. The question is no longer about needing social media but rather how effectively you use it. Social media offers a direct line of communication to your current and potential patients, providing a platform to stay top of mind, showcase your services, share educational content, and build trust with your audience. It’s a powerful tool for creating brand awareness, with the potential to find new patients and get current patients more engaged. Moreover, it enhances your search engine rankings, making it easier for patients to find you online.
What Social Platforms are Important for Your Dental Clinic?
Facebook and Instagram (META)
For most dental clinics, Facebook and Instagram are essential. They are ideal for showcasing before-and-after photos, sharing testimonials, and posting educational videos. These platforms also offer targeted advertising options, allowing you to reach potential patients in your local area.
X (formerly Twitter)
Though not as visual as Instagram or Facebook, X is excellent for quick updates, sharing links to your blog posts, or engaging in conversations about dental health and industry trends.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the hub for professional networking, attracting talent, and establishing the credibility of your dental practice. Share industry news, achievements, and professional tips here.
TikTok
For more forward-thinking clinics, TikTok offers an opportunity to reach a younger demographic through fun and informative short videos.
Social Media Best Practices
Consistency is Key: Maintain a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged.
Quality Over Quantity: Share high-quality, informative, and visually appealing content.
Engage With Your Audience: Respond to comments, messages, and reviews to build a community around your practice.
Educate and Inform: Use your platforms to share dental tips, explain procedures, and debunk myths.
Promotions and Offers: Share exclusive promotions or discounts to social media followers to encourage loyalty and new patient sign-ups.
Creating a Plan and Social Media Strategy for Your Practice
Developing a social media strategy involves setting clear goals, understanding your audience, and planning your content in advance. Identify what you want to achieve through social media, be it increasing brand awareness, boosting patient engagement, or driving traffic to your website where they can book appointments using online booking tools. Know your audience’s demographics, preferences, and pain points to tailor your content. Finally, create a content calendar to plan your posts, including a mix of educational content, promotional offers, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of your clinic.
DIY or Hire a Digital Agency?
This decision hinges on your budget, time, and expertise. If you’re just starting out or have a small team, you might initially take a DIY approach to manage social media in-house. This allows you to maintain a personal touch and immediate control over your content (especially since you have direct access to social content in the form of photos, videos, and more that an external provider won’t). As your practice grows, the complexities of managing multiple platforms, creating content, and running ads might necessitate hiring a freelancer or digital marketing agency. Agencies bring expertise, resources, and tools to craft and execute a comprehensive social media strategy, ensuring your online presence is both professional and effective.
Words of Wisdom from a 30-Year Marketing Veteran
OK. I have a confession to make. I have a total love-hate relationship with social media. On the one hand, I am fully entertained scrolling through feeds seeing the weird, wacky, funny and heartfelt memes and other content out there. That said, I post very little on my own accounts. Not being a digital native, social media is something I just am not super comfortable “doing”. I live in fear of posting the wrong thing on the wrong platform to the wrong group. (queue the eye roll from my daughters…)
As a marketer, however, I have seen first-hand the absolute power social media yields when done well. I’ve had clients see notable business growth come from dedicated social programming. But simply put, it’s another piece in the marketing puzzle. Without it, your marketing mix is incomplete.
When I first thought about social media in dentistry, I thought, “Really, it is that important?”. Then I started to think about it more deeply and my answer was “yes”. Truth be told, no one is chomping at the bit (no pun intended) to go to the dentist even though we all know we need to go regularly. And it’s easy to forget things you don’t really want to do. So right out of the gates, social media is an easy way to stay top of mind with your patients.
My second thought was around the “fear” of dentist visits. Drills, needles, scraping, and so on do not conjure up “positive vibes”. But truly, visits to the dentist have become much more pleasant over the years and there’s nothing like walking out with freshly cleaned teeth! Amplifying the positives, whether that be innovative new treatment capabilities, patient experiences, and new staff members can go a long way in keeping patients engaged and coming back.
And of course, there’s all the other reasons mentioned above.
In Closing
Social media represents a vital aspect of digital marketing for dental practices. It’s an investment in your brand’s online presence, patient engagement, and ultimately, the growth of your practice. Whether you choose to manage it in-house or hire professionals, the key is to start with a clear strategy, remain consistent, and always be authentic to your brand’s voice. Embrace the power of social media, and watch your dental practice thrive in the digital age.
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, Social Ordeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice. Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this is the fifth in a seven-part digital marketing for dentistry series.
In today’s shifting digital landscape, dentists are quickly realizing that digital advertising can lead to practice growth. The transformation from traditional advertising methods to digital platforms has reshaped how practices connect with their patients, market their services, and establish their brand presence in a competitive market. This blog post is a little longer than our other marketing topics so sit back and relax. You’ll be glad you took the time to learn more.
What is Digital Advertising Anyway?
Digital advertising is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers, and it encompasses a broader set of activities than you may think. Unlike traditional advertising mediums like print, radio, and television, digital advertising has the advantage of tracking the performance and engagement of ads in real-time. The key components and strategies of digital advertising include:
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): SEM is a digital marketing strategy used to increase a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. Businesses bid on keywords that users might enter when looking for specific products or services (like “best dentist in Calgary”), allowing their ads to appear alongside organic search results. This process involves selecting relevant keywords, setting a budget for bids, and creating compelling ad copy to entice users to click. Advertisers are charged based on clicks (pay-per-click, or PPC) or impressions, depending on the campaign’s setup. SEM campaigns offer the advantage of being highly targeted, as ads are displayed to users who are already searching for related information or products. The effectiveness of SEM can be measured and optimized in real-time through analytics, enabling advertisers to refine their strategies and improve return on investment (ROI) by focusing on high-performing keywords and ad variations.
Social Media Advertising: Social media advertising empowers businesses to reach targeted audiences through various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, leveraging sophisticated demographic, interest, and behavior targeting. Advertisers choose from multiple ad formats and utilize a bidding system to manage budgets and ad placements. The process involves creating compelling content, launching campaigns, and continuously monitoring and optimizing based on real-time performance metrics such as engagement rates and conversion rates. Analytics play a crucial role in refining advertising strategies, enabling businesses to achieve specific marketing objectives effectively. Additionally, retargeting features allow for the re-engagement of users who have shown interest in a product or service, enhancing conversion opportunities. Through a combination of targeted advertising, strategic content creation, and data-driven optimization, social media advertising offers a highly personalized and efficient way for brands to connect with their audience.
Display Advertising: Display advertising is a form of online advertising that conveys a commercial message visually using text, logos, animations, videos, photographs, or other graphics. These ads appear on websites, social media platforms, and other digital environments that are not owned by the advertiser but are part of a network that agrees to show ads in exchange for revenue. Advertisers use display ads to promote their products or services, increase brand awareness, and drive traffic to their websites. Targeting options for display advertising are sophisticated, allowing advertisers to reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviours, and even retargeting users who have previously interacted with their brand. The effectiveness of display advertising campaigns is measured through metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), impressions, and conversion rates. This form of advertising leverages the visual appeal of ads to capture the attention of potential customers, making it an integral part of many digital marketing strategies.
Mobile Advertising: Mobile advertising is a form of digital advertising specifically tailored for mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, leveraging features unique to these devices to engage users in a more personal and interactive manner. It encompasses a variety of formats, including text messages (SMS), banner ads, video ads, and in-app advertisements, capitalizing on the ubiquity and personal nature of mobile devices. Advertisers can target audiences based on detailed criteria, including location (using GPS technology), browsing habits, app usage, and demographic information, making it possible to deliver highly personalized and contextually relevant ads. Mobile advertising enables marketers to reach their audience at almost any time and place, offering opportunities for real-time engagement and immediate action, such as calling a business directly from an ad. The effectiveness of mobile ads is measurable through metrics like click-through rates, engagement rates, and conversion rates, allowing for the optimization of campaigns in real-time to improve ROI. This form of advertising is particularly powerful due to the widespread use of mobile devices and the increasing amount of time people spend using them.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is a performance-based advertising model where businesses reward external partners (affiliates) for directing traffic or sales to their products or services through the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. Affiliates use unique tracking links or codes to promote products or services to their audience, typically on their websites, social media platforms, or blogs. When a consumer clicks on these links and makes a purchase or completes a desired action (like booking an appointment), the affiliate earns a commission from the action. This model allows companies to expand their marketing reach with minimal upfront cost, paying only for measurable results, while affiliates can earn income by leveraging their content and audience reach. Affiliate marketing fosters mutually beneficial partnerships between advertisers and affiliates, relying heavily on trust, transparency, and shared goals to drive success.
Video Advertising: Video advertising is the use of video content to promote products, services, or brands within various digital platforms, including social media, video sharing sites like YouTube, and websites. This advertising format leverages the dynamic and engaging nature of video to capture viewers’ attention, convey messages more effectively, and foster emotional connections with the audience. Advertisers can target specific demographics, interests, and behaviours, ensuring their content reaches the intended viewers. Formats range from short, snappy clips suitable for social media feeds to longer, more detailed explainer videos or interactive ads that encourage viewer participation. Video ads are valued for their ability to increase brand awareness, engagement, and conversion rates, with performance metrics like view count, engagement rate, and click-through rate providing insights into their effectiveness. The growing consumption of video content across devices makes video advertising an increasingly vital component of digital marketing strategies.
Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing is a strategy where brands collaborate with individuals who have a significant, engaged following on social media or other online platforms to promote products, services, or campaigns. These influencers leverage their credibility and relationship with their audience to endorse brands in a more authentic and organic way than traditional advertising. By partnering with influencers whose followers match the brand’s target demographic, companies can effectively reach and influence potential customers in niche markets. Campaigns can vary in form, including sponsored content, product reviews, and endorsements, which appear on the influencer’s platforms. The effectiveness of influencer marketing is often measured through engagement rates, reach, and ultimately, the conversion rates or ROI these campaigns generate. This approach capitalizes on the trust influencers have built with their audience, translating that trust into a powerful tool for brands looking to expand their visibility and credibility among prospective consumers.
Digital advertising allows for more precise targeting and segmentation of audiences, as well as the ability to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in real-time through analytics and other metrics. This immediacy and data-driven approach can lead to more efficient and effective marketing strategies compared to traditional methods.
Examples of Digital Advertising in Dentistry
Social Media Campaign
A dental practice launched a Facebook and Instagram campaign featuring before-and-after photos of cosmetic dentistry. They utilized targeted ads to reach individuals interested in cosmetic dental services within a specific geographic area. By showcasing their work’s quality and patient satisfaction stories, they not only increased their social media following but also saw a significant uptick in consultations for cosmetic dental procedures.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
To attract new patients, a dental practice utilized Google Ads to create PPC campaigns targeting high-intent keywords related to emergency dental services within a specific region. By bidding on keywords like “emergency dentist” and “24-hour dental care,” they were able to appear at the top of search results when potential patients were in urgent need of dental services. This strategy resulted in a high conversion rate of clicks to appointments.
Video Marketing
Understanding the impact of video content, a dental clinic created a series of educational videos addressing common dental concerns and the services they offer. These videos were shared on their website, YouTube, and social media platforms. By demystifying dental procedures and showcasing their team’s expertise and bedside manner, the clinic was able to reduce patients’ anxiety about dental visits and attract a broader audience.
Creating a Strategy and Measuring ROI
To create an effective digital advertising strategy, dental practices should first define their goals, target audience, and budget. It’s important to choose the right mix of digital advertising types to reach your audience effectively. Once the campaign is underway, measuring ROI becomes crucial. This involves tracking metrics such as website traffic, click-through rates, conversion rates, and ultimately, the increase in appointments or revenue attributed to digital advertising efforts. Having online booking capabilities and tools like Google Analytics and CRM software can provide insights into these metrics.
Words of Wisdom from a 30-Year Marketing Veteran
OK, that’s a lot to take in. I get it. Digital advertising can be daunting, especially when you are just getting started. So, my advice? Start small. I’ve seen companies waste a lot of money on digital advertising, only to scrap it and conclude that “it doesn’t work for us”. But I can tell you this, when done right, it almost always has a positive ROI. Here’s my advice:
Work with someone who knows what they’re doing and ideally, has done it within dentistry. There is a lot of value in “been there, done that” when it comes to digital advertising.
Make sure you have a strong foundation in place BEFORE you spend a nickel on advertising. And what I mean by foundation are things like a good website, tools like online booking and Google Analytics so that you can measure the success of your programs, and good communication with your front-line staff who know to ask questions like “how did you hear about us”?
Start small. If I had a dollar for every organization I know who went “all-in” on advertising, only to get marginal or worse returns, I’d have a beautiful beach house somewhere sunny and warm. Advertising is an iterative process. Test, tweak, test, tweak, test, tweak is the name of the game. Only when you’ve got good results should you increase spend.
Be patient. Advertising generally isn’t a “quick win”. Perfection comes with time, learning, experimenting, and refining. Oh, and the rules, tools, and algorithms are always changing so what works today may not work as well tomorrow.
In Closing
The shift towards digital advertising in dentistry is not just a trend; it reflects where audiences spend their time and how they prefer information. By effectively leveraging digital advertising, dental practices can improve their visibility, engage more meaningfully with patients, and drive growth. The key to success lies in understanding the digital landscape, crafting strategic campaigns, and continually measuring and adjusting to ensure the best possible outcomes. Digital advertising has indeed become an indispensable tool in the modern dentist’s marketing toolkit.
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, Social Ordeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice. Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this is the fourth in a seven-part digital marketing for dentistry series.
In the digital age, the adage “Word of mouth is the best form of advertising” has evolved significantly. Today, online reviews are the digital equivalent, spreading faster and further than traditional word-of-mouth ever could. For dental practices, reputation management and a strong presence in online reviews have become indispensable tools in the marketing toolkit. This blog post talks about the importance of these elements, showcasing their multifaceted benefits—from enhancing SEO efforts to attracting a talented workforce and fostering customer loyalty.
Online Reviews: The New Word of Mouth
The digital transformation has made information more accessible, allowing online reviews to travel at unprecedented speeds. A patient’s feedback on your dental clinic can reach thousands of potential patients in no time, emphasizing the necessity for dental practices to actively engage in reputation management. This digital word-of-mouth can significantly influence public perception of your practice, making it crucial to monitor and manage online reviews across various platforms.
Boosting SEO Efforts
Online reviews do more than just influence potential patients; they also play a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines prioritize businesses with higher ratings and more reviews, as they are seen as more relevant and trustworthy by users. Actively managing your online reviews can therefore improve your practice’s visibility in search results, making it easier for potential patients to find you.
Your Online Reputation Reflects Your Brand
Your online reputation is a digital mirror reflecting your clinic’s values, quality of care, and patient satisfaction. It’s essential to respond to all reviews—positive and negative. Engaging with feedback demonstrates your commitment to patient satisfaction and helps maintain a positive image. Responsiveness to reviews, especially on platforms frequented by your target audience, can significantly enhance your clinic’s brand perception.
Safeguarding Your Advertising Efforts
Investing in advertising without a solid reputation management strategy is like sailing without a compass. Online reviews and your responses to them can markedly improve advertising conversion rates. Prospective patients are more likely to choose your clinic over competitors if they see a plethora of positive reviews and constructive engagement with patients. This social proof acts as an insurance policy for your advertising investments, maximizing the return.
Creating Instant Social Proof
Online reviews serve as instant social proof, validating the quality of your services to prospective patients. This not only supports your social media strategy by providing content that can be shared and celebrated but also builds trust with potential patients who see others vouching for your clinic. Leveraging positive reviews in your social media can amplify your practice’s reach and attract more patients.
Attracting a Talented Workforce
The benefits of a stellar online reputation go beyond attracting patients; they also help draw talented professionals to your clinic. High-caliber dental professionals seek employment with clinics that have an excellent reputation, as it reflects a commitment to quality and patient satisfaction. A positive online presence can thus be a deciding factor for potential employees, making your clinic a more attractive place to work.
Increasing Customer Loyalty and Brand Advocates
Engaging with reviews and managing your online reputation effectively fosters a sense of community and appreciation among your patients. This engagement can transform satisfied patients into loyal customers and brand advocates. Patients who feel heard and valued are more likely to return and recommend your clinic to others, extending the lifecycle of customer loyalty and advocacy.
Words of Wisdom from a 30-Year Marketing Veteran
Let me start with a question. When’s the last time you bought a product or service that had 3-stars or less? Probably not recently. Google and other ratings carry a lot of weight and are used to weed out the people or products that you DON’T want to buy from.
Reputation management and online reviews are foundational. In other words, don’t waste time on other high cost, high effort marketing activities until you have a solid plan and process in place for managing your reviews. You’ll be throwing money away.
I won’t repeat what’s already been covered in this blog post, but I will go out on that limb and say that this is in the top three things that you need to address before moving on to other digital marketing activities. And in my experience, if you make review management a priority, it seeps into the rest of the business and raises the bar across the board. When everyone knows how important it is, they tend to work hard to keep the positive feedback coming!
Conclusion
In conclusion, the importance of reputation management and online reviews for dental practices cannot be overstated. These elements are critical in ensuring that your practice not only attracts new patients but also retains them, builds a talented team, and maintains a positive and professional image online. By effectively managing your online reputation, responding to all reviews, and leveraging positive feedback, your dental clinic can achieve sustained growth and success in today’s competitive healthcare marketplace. ClearDent’s ClearConnectpatient engagement solution provides the tools you need to communicate by text or email, and offers advanced features like online reputation management.
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, Social Ordeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice. Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this third part of our digital marketing for dentistry series dives into SEO.
In today’s digital-first world, having a strong online presence is not just an option for dental clinics—it’s a necessity. With most prospective patients turning to search engines to find their next healthcare provider, standing out on platforms like Google and Apple Maps has never been more important. This is where the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. In this post we’ll explore why SEO should be a fundamental part of your dental practice’s marketing strategy and how it can help you build trust, credibility, and ultimately, a larger patient base.
What is SEO Anyway?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a collection of activities meant to enhance the visibility and ranking of websites on search engine results pages (SERPs). In other words, when someone goes to Google and searches for “Best dentist in Vancouver,” you want to be in the top 3 spots of the search results if you are a Vancouver-based practice. Key components of SEO include thorough keyword research, the creation of high-quality and relevant content, on-page optimizations (like title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data), and technical SEO enhancements (such as improving site speed, mobile-friendliness, and secure connections). Off-page SEO efforts, particularly link building, alongside local SEO optimizations, contribute significantly to a website’s authority and ranking. Additionally, providing an excellent user experience and regularly updating the website with fresh content are crucial. These efforts, combined, create a comprehensive SEO strategy that not only boosts a site’s visibility and traffic but also enhances user engagement and conversion rates.
Building Trust and Credibility with Prospective Patients
SEO does more than just improve your website’s visibility on search engines; it helps build trust and credibility with potential patients. Here’s how it works: when your dental clinic appears at the top of search results, it’s not just about being seen first; it’s about being perceived as the best. High rankings signal to potential patients that you are a trustworthy and credible source for their dental needs. This creates a virtuous cycle: the higher you rank, the more clicks you get. The more clicks you get, the more Google sees you as a reputable site, further boosting your visibility.
Leveraging Local SEO for Increased Visibility
Local SEO is a game-changer for dental clinics looking to attract more patients. By optimizing your online presence for local searches, your clinic can appear more prominently on Google and Apple Maps. This means when prospective patients search for dental clinics nearby, your practice won’t just show up—it’ll stand out. Features like “directions”, “call”, and “website” buttons make it easy for potential patients to take immediate action, directly translating into more traffic for your clinic.
The Role of Organic SEO in Driving Traffic
While local SEO helps your dental clinic shine on maps, organic SEO ensures your website ranks well in traditional search results. This is crucial because, even with the prominence of map listings, many potential patients still scroll through organic search results to find their preferred provider. By focusing on organic SEO, you ensure your website is visible both below and alongside map results, capturing the attention of a wider audience.
Staying Ahead of the Competition
It’s no secret that the dental industry is competitive, and with more practices recognizing the value of SEO, the digital landscape is becoming increasingly crowded. Implementing an effective SEO strategy is no longer optional—it’s imperative to stay competitive. Ignoring SEO means risking being overshadowed by other practices that are more visible online, making it harder for potential patients to find you.
SEO: A Long-term Investment with High ROI
Unlike traditional advertising, which requires ongoing investment to maintain visibility, SEO is a long-term strategy that continues to benefit your practice over time. Think of SEO as a vitamin for your digital marketing efforts: it may take time to see the full benefits, but once your online presence is optimized, it will consistently attract new patients to your clinic. This not only ensures a higher return on investment compared to short-term ad campaigns but also establishes a solid foundation for your marketing strategy.
Words of Wisdom from a 30-Year Marketing Veteran
SEO isn’t just one thing, nor is it a one-time thing. It’s kind of like brushing your teeth. Doing it once a week isn’t enough. It’s all about maintenance and staying diligent on an ongoing basis. Just as you wouldn’t expect a single dental check-up to keep your teeth healthy forever, you can’t anticipate a one-off SEO effort to sustain your website’s visibility and ranking in the long term. The digital landscape is constantly evolving, with search engine algorithms updating regularly and user behaviours shifting. This means that what works today might not work tomorrow. As a 30-year veteran, I’ve seen trends come and go, but the principles of consistent effort, adaptation, and commitment to quality content have remained constant. Success in SEO—and in marketing more broadly—is about playing the long game, continuously analyzing performance, adjusting strategies, and staying ahead of the curve. Remember, when it comes to SEO, patience and persistence are your greatest allies.
In Closing
SEO isn’t just a tool for increasing online visibility; it’s a critical investment in the growth and success of your practice. By enhancing your search engine rankings, you not only make it easier for potential patients to find you but also establish your clinic as a trusted and credible choice in a competitive market. Whether through local SEO, organic search rankings, or a combination of both, optimizing your online presence is a surefire way to secure a steady stream of patients now and in the years to come. Don’t let your clinic be left behind—embrace SEO today and watch your practice thrive tomorrow.
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, Social Ordeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice. Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this second part of our digital marketing for dentistry series dives into website building.
In the evolving digital age, the significance of having a compelling online presence is undeniable for businesses in every sector, and dentistry is no exception. A dental clinic’s website serves as the cornerstone of its digital marketing efforts, offering a first impression that can either attract or repel potential patients. This post digs into the essential elements that make a dental clinic’s website an effective tool for capturing and retaining patients, reflecting the practice values, and ensuring it stands out in a crowded landscape.
1. Reflect Your Brand and Values
Your website is the digital facade of your dental clinic. It should encapsulate the essence of your practice values, reflecting the quality, professionalism, and care patients can expect when they visit. This means having a clean, aesthetically pleasing design that aligns with your branding elements such as logos, colours, and fonts. A website that truly represents your clinic’s ethos will resonate with prospective patients, making them feel more connected to your practice even before their first visit.
2. Content and Photos: Up-to-Date and Engaging
The content on your website, including text and photos, should accurately represent your current services, team members, and clinic environment. Outdated content can mislead potential patients and may reflect poorly on the professionalism of your practice. High-quality, authentic photos of your clinic, staff, and happy patients can significantly enhance trust and comfort, encouraging website visitors to book an appointment.
3. Navigation and Usability
With Google increasingly prioritizing user experience in its rankings, your website must be easy to navigate. Patients should find answers to their questions effortlessly, with services, contact information, and resources accessible within a few clicks. A well-organized, intuitive site structure not only improves user satisfaction but also boosts your clinic’s visibility in search engine results.
4. Clear Calls to Action
Your website should guide visitors towards taking the next step, whether it’s booking an appointment, calling for a consultation, or subscribing to your newsletter. Clear, visible calls to action (CTAs) are crucial. Ensure that your phone numbers and email addresses are clickable, facilitating immediate action. Integrating chatbots for instant queries and offering online appointment booking and patient portals can further enhance the patient experience.
5. Mobile Responsiveness
With most internet traffic coming from mobile devices, a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional. A responsive design ensures your site looks and works flawlessly on smartphones and tablets, offering the same quality of experience as on a desktop. This adaptability not only meets user expectations but also factors into Google’s ranking algorithm.
6. Security and Speed
A secure and fast-loading website is vital for maintaining patient trust and satisfaction. Ensure your site uses HTTPS to protect users’ data, and regularly optimize performance to keep loading times low. Patients’ patience for slow websites is dwindling, and a sluggish site could lead them to seek dental care elsewhere.
7. Local SEO and Online Presence
While the role of websites in local SEO has evolved, they remain a critical component of your online presence, contributing to your local ranking on Google. Including your social media buttons on the site enhances engagement, while linking to your Google Business Profile can improve your visibility on local maps, making it easier for patients to find your clinic.
Words of Wisdom from a 30-Year Marketing Veteran
As a marketing strategist and consultant, I’ve been in the marketing game for over 30 years — long before websites were even a “thing”. There are two rules that I live by that I always share with my clients.
Rule #1: Don’t spend a penny on marketing until you have a good website to drive people to. Marketing costs money and if you spend money driving traffic to a poorly designed website, you might as well just throw it away. Your website is the foundation of the house. If it isn’t built well, things won’t work on top of it.
Rule #2: I generally don’t care what CEO’s, owners, chefs or bottle washers think about the website. I care what Google thinks. You’d be amazed at what things make a website perform well and pretty pictures and colours aren’t usually enough. Always consult with someone who knows about SEO and conversion optimization when you create or refresh your website.
A dental clinic’s website is a multifaceted tool that, when optimized correctly, can significantly enhance your digital marketing efforts. It’s not just about having a website; it’s about having a website that works hard for your clinic. By ensuring your site is reflective of your brand, up-to-date, easy to navigate, mobile-friendly, secure, and integrated with your broader online presence, you can attract more patients, provide better service, and ultimately grow your practice.
Conclusion
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, Social Ordeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice. Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
Authored by marketing strategist, Robin Jones, this second part of our digital marketing for dentistry series dives into website building.
There is a growing trend of integrating digital marketing into traditional business models, and dentistry is no exception. As more and more patients turn to the internet to find healthcare providers, digital marketing has become an essential tool for dentists to attract new patients, enhance patient engagement, announce new service offerings, and build a strong, recognizable brand. Here’s why digital marketing is now a cornerstone of modern dentistry:
Online Visibility Increases Patient Inflow
The first step in choosing a dentist often starts with a Google search. Effective digital marketing ensures that your practice appears prominently in search results, making it easier for potential patients to find you. Through search engine optimization (SEO), local listings, and paid advertising, dentists can significantly increase their online visibility, leading to increased patient inflow. When coupled with online booking and patient engagement tools like ClearDent’s ClearConnect, dentists can expect to see considerable growth for their practices.
Engage and Educate Potential Patients
Digital marketing isn’t just about attracting new patients; it’s also about engaging them. By creating informative content that addresses common dental concerns and communicating with patients on a regular basis, dentists can educate their audience, fostering trust and establishing themselves as authorities in their field. It’s important to announce new services when investing in capital equipment as well. Digital equipment to support in-house orthodontics, implants or other services carry a significant capital outlay, so it’s critical that your current and future patients are aware of the new offerings. This engagement is crucial in converting website visitors into actual patients. With tools like ClearDent’s ClearConnect, you can easily communicate by text or email and encourage patients to visit your blog to learn more.
Enhanced Patient Experience
Digital marketing extends beyond attracting new patients—it also enhances the patient experience. Online scheduling, reminders via email or SMS, and patient portals for accessing dental records are just a few examples of how digital tools can improve patient satisfaction and retention. By making interactions more convenient, dentists can ensure a smoother, more enjoyable patient journey.
Leveraging Social Proof
Online reviews and testimonials play a critical role in a patient’s decision-making process. Studies have shown that a majority of patients (70-80%) consider online reviews important in selecting healthcare providers and the overall star rating of a practice is a quick indicator of its quality for many. Positive reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and social media can significantly influence potential patients. Digital marketing strategies that encourage satisfied patients to leave positive feedback can enhance a dental practice’s reputation and attract more patients. With ClearConnect, you can customize post-appointment survey messaging, automatically prompt your reviewers to amplify their positive feedback online, and view all collected feedback in-software so you can follow-up with reviews.
Competitive Advantage
In a crowded market, standing out is key. Digital marketing provides dentists with the tools to differentiate themselves from competitors. Whether it’s through a well-designed website, engaging social media presence, or targeted advertising campaigns, digital marketing can highlight a practice’s unique selling points, attracting patients who are looking for specific services or qualities in their dentist.
Cost-Effective Marketing Solutions
Compared to traditional marketing methods, digital marketing offers more cost-effective solutions with measurable results. With digital advertising, dentists can set their budgets, target specific demographics or areas, and track the effectiveness of their campaigns in real-time. This allows for better allocation of marketing resources and a higher return on investment.
Adapt and Respond to Market Changes
The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and with it, patient expectations. Digital marketing allows dentists to quickly adapt their strategies in response to new trends, technologies, or patient needs. (think back to the Covid years and the importance of telehealth solutions). Whether it’s updating their website, launching new services, or responding to feedback, digital tools provide the agility needed to stay competitive.
Six Digital Marketing Tactics Every Practice Should Be Thinking About
This is the first of a 7-part blog series focusing on digital marketing in dentistry. In this series we’ll tackle 6 important aspects of digital marketing including:
A well-designed website serves as the cornerstone of a practice’s online presence. It’s the first point of contact for prospective patients, offering a comprehensive overview of services, team qualifications, and patient testimonials. An effective dental website not only showcases the practice’s professionalism and expertise but also ensures ease of navigation, facilitating appointment bookings and inquiries with user-friendly interfaces. This central digital asset reflects the practice’s brand, values, and commitment to patient care.
SEO is crucial for dentists looking to enhance their online visibility and attract more
patients. By optimizing their website content, structure, and on-page elements like meta tags and keywords, dental practices can rank higher in search engine results for relevant queries. Local SEO strategies, including optimizing for “near me” searches and ensuring accurate Google My Business listings, are particularly important in attracting local patients actively seeking dental services.
Digital advertising encompasses various online platforms and strategies, including pay- per-click (PPC) campaigns, display ads, and social media advertising, tailored for dental practices. By targeting specific demographics, locations, and interests, dental practices can efficiently reach potential patients. Digital ads offer measurable results, allowing practices to adjust their strategies for optimal return on investment, whether it’s increasing brand awareness or driving appointments.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X offer dental practices unique opportunities to engage with current and prospective patients. Through regular posts, live Q&A sessions, and patient testimonials, dentists can build a community, showcase their work, and highlight their practice’s personality. Effective social media management enhances brand visibility, fosters trust, and encourages word-of-mouth referrals.
Accurate and comprehensive online listings are vital for dental practices to ensure they’re easily discoverable by potential patients. Platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, and health-specific directories allow practices to list their location, hours, contact information, and services. Keeping these listings updated and consistent across platforms improves SEO, helps avoid patient confusion, and enhances overall online visibility.
Online reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and health-specific review sites play a significant role in a dental practice’s reputation. Positive reviews can attract new patients, while negative feedback can deter them. Actively managing these reviews by responding professionally to feedback, addressing concerns, and encouraging satisfied patients to leave positive reviews is essential for maintaining and enhancing a practice’s reputation online. Reputation management is a continuous process that directly impacts a practice’s trustworthiness and success in attracting new patients.
Digital marketing is no longer an option but a necessity for dentists who wish to grow their practice and stay relevant in the digital age. By embracing digital marketing, dentists can not only attract and retain patients but also offer them a superior healthcare experience. As the digital world continues to expand, the importance of digital marketing in dentistry will only increase, making it an indispensable tool for success.
At ClearDent, we partner with Social Ordeals, experts in digital marketing for dentistry, to offer a comprehensive online marketing solution. Social Ordeals has developed a platform and services that help dental practices monitor, manage, and build their online reputations and brands. From building or refreshing your website, to search engine optimization, to digital advertising and more, SocialOrdeals coupled with ClearDent’s patient engagement solutions is a win-win for today’s modern dental practice. Get a FREE Digital Audit Report for your practice.
