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Is Your Web Site Driving Away New Patients?

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Sesame Communications Introduces New PAR Methodology for Web Site Design
Posted: February 18, 2009
Is Your Web Site Driving Away New Patients?

Seattle, WA, February 13, 2009 - Sesame Communications Introduces New PARTM  Methodology for Web Site Design

A recent study by Sesame Communications is the first of its kind in the dental industry.  Before this, dentists used gut instincts or consultants to determine what works online with patients.  Now we have data from prospective patients themselves.  There are a lot of dental web design companies out there, but this is the only one doing online research to find out what works and what doesn’t.  Sesame has our own full-time User Experience Manager who conducts research with dental consumers, and we’ve pioneered a method of measuring a site’s Patient Appeal RatingTM to help make sure your site gets chosen.   

Have you looked at your web site lately?  Could any of these be said about your site?
 “It seems kind of impersonal”
“There’s way too much stuff on this page”
“It’s ominous and unfriendly”

These comments were all made by prospective patients about dentists’ web sites in this study.  We recruited consumers who were searching for a new dentist online, videotaped them visiting various dentists’ web sites in their local areas, and then had them fill out a survey on each web site saying whether they would call the practice for an appointment.  We asked prospective patients to talk out loud while they were viewing the sites.  

What we found is especially important in today’s tough economy.  What your web site says about you can make the difference between bringing new patients into your practice or sending them to someone else’s.  The dentists’ sites that won phone calls from new patients had some things in common.

First, patients responded best to sites that had a “warm,” “friendly,” “family-oriented” feel to them.  Most important was the doctor’s page.  According to the Sesame study, it should have a color photo of the dentist in normal clothing, not your lab jacket.  Patients tended to say they would not call for an appointment on sites that didn’t include photos of dentists. 

The text on the doctor’s page was also important.  On the sites where dentists talked about how much they liked their patients and their work, prospects were more likely to call for an appointment.  Doctors’ pages that were impersonal or that didn’t say much were likely to send patients clicking on to the next dentist’s site. 

Another thing the study found is that patients check to see if the practice provides regular exams and cleanings.  This seems pretty basic, and yet a lot of dental sites that the prospects visited didn’t include this information.   The most successful sites had a “first visit” or “services” page that talked about regular checkups.  The sites consumers rated as worst talked a lot about cosmetic services that the dentist offers and little – or not at all – about caring for the patient’s dental health.

By now, you understand the importance of doubling or tripling your marketing efforts when times are tough.  Now is a good time to take a look at what your web site says about you.  If it’s sending patients the wrong message, it’s past time for a change. 

Look carefully at every page on your site, starting with your doctor page.  Does it have a color photo of you with a friendly smile?  Do you take the time to say something nice about your patients and your work? 

How about your home page?  Does it come across as family-oriented, or does it say you’re more interested in boosting your profits?  (Even single men in the study said they were looking for a “family-oriented” dentist.)  

There’s a time for selling treatment plans and cosmetic services to patients.  That time is after you’ve established a good relationship with them, when they’ve had time to get to know you in person.  Does that mean you shouldn’t mention cosmetic dentistry or orthodontics on your web site?  No, it just means that can’t be the main focus of your site. 

Take a look at every page on your site.  Ask yourself, “What would I want to see and hear if I were a patient?”  What about the content of each page?  Does it convey, “Here’s what I want you to know?”   (Bad.)  Or does it say, “I understand your needs and concerns?”  (Good.)
Or does it say nothing at all?  In the Sesame study, sites that answered patients’ questions with consumer-focused text on every page got the most phone calls.  Sites that had sparse or missing content were rated as bad.  If you have a page that says “coming soon,” it’s time for a redesign. 
Even when prospects receive referrals from friends, they’re still going online to check out your practice.  You can’t afford a web site that sends prospects to someone else.  All web sites need to be updated periodically.  Take a good, hard look to see if now’s the time for your site.

Whoever you use, make sure you do three things online:
·      Have a web site
·      Make sure it’s optimized for web searches
·      Make sure it’s warm, friendly, and patient-focusedWant to build trusting relationships with your prospective patients – before you even know about them?  You can with the right web design.  It’s a marketing investment that keeps paying for years to come.  For additional information, visit http://www.patientappealrating.com/dtarticle.
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