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Online Patient Connection Strategy and the Practice Bottom Line Diana P. Friedman, MA, MBA

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by Diana P. Friedman, MA, MBA

The numbers are staggering. In March of 20101,2 more than 266 million Americans were online, representing 77.4 percent of the entire U.S. population. In October 2009,3 an astounding 155 million consumers visited Google and 87 million visited Facebook. Being online is also garnering significantly more consumer attention with average U.S. users spending 4.5 hours per month on Facebook and 2.3 hours per month on Google, a 25 percent increase since 2008.

Not only are your patients online for lengthy visits, they are looking to transact with service providers online. In a 2009 study, half of surveyed patients4 reported that online access is "much more convenient." The same market study found that 97 percent of surveyed patients prefer to visit their orthodontist online with questions, as compared to calling the office. Bottom line – in the Internet age, your patients would rather click than call. In a speech delivered at the Dental Trade Alliance annual session in November 2010, Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity.com, stated that the online world is all about speed, simplicity and convenience. Most importantly for orthodontists, it is about creating digital relationships with patients online.



Internet's Impact on the Practice Bottom Line
Establishing that patients are online and seeking to transact with the practice with a click of a mouse still does not address the issue of return on investment (ROI). The key question is how an online patient connection solution improves practice performance by enhancing the patient relationship, generating incremental revenues and reducing the costs of the practice.

The scope of assessing ROI is vast, which is why it is important to focus on several key performance indicators to help measure the return on investment in an online patient connection system by assessing the impact on new patient acquisition, production increase and practice collections. The information and statistics shared are based on research gathered from Web service providers such as Marchex and TransFirst, as well as studies performed by Sesame Communications.

New Patient Recruitment
Professional referrals from general dentists are an important factor in new patient flow accounting for 38.5 percent of new patients. However the second most powerful driver at 36.4 percent is friends and family. Interestingly, many of those are communicating online, sharing information about service providers they like on Facebook, blogs and YouTube. This organic world of online communications significantly enhances the friend and family category referrals with substantive positive ROI.



A five-month research study by Sesame Communications (concluded in October 20105) tracked data from 167 practices and concluded (on average) online social media campaigns generated approximately 40 calls per month to the practice with an average of 12 being new patients. Practices launching three search optimization strategies (for instance organic Web site SEO, social media and Google AdWords) generated (on average) 152 percent more calls and 123 percent more new patient calls.

Production Increase
New patient flow into an orthodontic practice translates into increased case closes and production. Considering an average orthodontic case at $6,000 and an online tracked inflow of 12 new patients per month, even with a weak 20 percent case acceptance rate, online strategies have the potential to yield first-year revenues of $12,000 per month.

The impact of online marketing initiatives on practice production spans beyond new patient case starts. A significant challenge faced by orthodontic practices is keeping active patients in the practice, ensuring they keep their appointments so the cases progress efficiently and effectively according to plan. Effective patient appointment reminders are critical to maintaining treatment flow.

Patients are increasingly receptive to receiving reminders from the practice by e-mail and SMS text messages. In a longitudinal patient survey study6 86 percent of orthodontists stated automating reminders reduced the need for administrative teams to make outbound calls and 84 percent stated it decreased no shows. Patients are eager to have the flexibility as demonstrated in a 2009 patient survey4 that found patients preferred e-mail appointment reminders to phone reminders 3 to 1.

Improved patient relations and decreased cancelled and no-show appointments critically influence practice production, as on average a practice incurs an annual loss of $138,000 per year due to missed appointments.7

On average, a single year investment in search optimization and online marketing initiatives can range from $500 to $1,000 per month. Even at the higher end of the spectrum, these initiatives yield an impressive ROI for the practice. These important return-on-investment data points are fortified by dental professionals stating that electronic reminders give them the peace of mind that patient communications are executed consistently and efficiently.



Practice Collections
In the Internet world consumers are becoming increasingly more comfortable doing business transactions online with 4 of 5 households in the U.S. paying at least one bill online monthly.

Orthodontists have benefited from this trend. In a 2009 study8 80 percent of patients surveyed expressed comfort with making dental payments online, and 40 percent enthusiastically endorsed it. In the same Sesame Communications study, 63 percent of those orthodontists surveyed stated (on average) the patients who pay online pay faster than those who pay via check. Thirty percent said they pay a week faster or more.

Collections increase significantly with the comfort, convenience and ease of online payments. A 2010 study by Transfirst notes 32 percent of online payments were made the day the patient received their financial reminder and 50 percent were made by the end of the second day. In a follow up Transfirst study in October 2010 further analysis of 9,800 online patient transactions during a single month demonstrated 46 percent of online payments occur outside the Monday through Friday full work week.

Not only were collections providing patients with a new level of convenience, these collections are generated without the extensive costs and time investment of generating monthly invoicing or requiring patients to submit their monthly installments via snail mail.

Conclusion
The online 24/7 world of digital orthodontics might be complex and somewhat intimidating at first glance. This stated, creating relationships with patients online is a win-win proposition enhancing patient satisfaction and improving practice production and revenues.
Author’s Bio

Diana P. Friedman, MA, MBA, is the CEO of Sesame Communications. Diana has had an extensive career launching dental innovations for leading manufacturers such as Philips Sonicare, as well as experience as a recognized speaker and practice management consultant. To contact her, e-mail diana@sesamecommunications.com
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September 2025
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