Communication Follow the
What could be a better advertisement for your practice than a testimonial from a happy patient? Ashley Latter looks at how to maximise the impact of positive feedback
I
n my previous article, I wrote about the importance of using the correct language when you are presenting treatment plans to your patients. I also wrote
about the importance of communi- cating features and benefits when presenting to your patients and not to talk too technically. Although the correct language is
important, it might not be enough to influence your patients. Another thing that might help, however, is evidence. So what is evidence? It is anything we can use to back up what we say when presenting our treat- ment options. Let me give you an example on why it is so important. A few weeks ago, I decided to go
for a run. I had the evening planned, I was going to come back to a hot bath and then settle down to watch some TV. As I left the house, my wife Graziella was on the computer reading customer feedback on a couple of vacuum cleaners that she was interested in buying. When I came back about an hour later, guess what? She was still on the computer reading these reviews and she stayed on for a further 20 minutes. Three things really hit home to
me. These were: 1. People read customer feed- back before making a decision on purchasing something. 2. The power of evidence and the importance of having good feed- back from your clients.
34 Scottish Dental magazine
3. People will spend a long time reading and researching before making a decision to buy some- thing. My wife spent the best part of two hours researching to make a £250 purchase. My gut feeling is that some people
take longer. I also know that a lot of people, including my wife, will care- fully read reviews from websites such as TripAdvisor before booking a holiday, or hotel. I believe that we are all becoming more investigative and doing our research before we make a purchase. This is mainly due to the prolonged recession we are currently experiencing. The one thing you need to be
aware of is that people’s buying habits have changed. They are still spending, but there is another barrier in the way before they will get their credit cards out. They need more reassurance, they need convincing and evidence can play a large part in this. With this in mind – if people are indeed influenced by
“If you do an outstanding job for your patients, on the whole, they will want to help you ”
Ashley Latter
evidence
reviews and testimonials – how can we take this concept and apply it to our dental practices? Here, I look at two types of evidence – video and testimonial letters. A good place to start using
evidence is your website and the most important page, which is the home page. When people are seeking out services of any kind on the web, they are in fact surfing and not actually buying at this stage. So, after looking at your website, if you don’t have them switched on and excited after about 10 seconds, they will most likely leave and go surfing somewhere else. I could fill several articles on this
topic alone, but let’s get back to the evidence and how it plays an impor- tant part on your front page. I would strongly recommend a
short video on the home page. This could involve a short tour of your practice and some brief background on yourself and the philosophy you and your team abide by. I would also include live testimonials from patients explaining the real benefits and get them to share their experi- ences of using your services. I believe there is nothing better
than third-party references and this will make your video very powerful. Many of my clients now have a video on the home page of their website and have reported an increase in new opportunities and enquiries. I have one on my website – www.
ashleylatter.com – and I have been amazed at how many people have watched the video and commented on how much they like it. When you are filming the video, ask your patients to really go into
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