These days, most dental practices have TVs in their waiting rooms – but is yours living up to its full potential?
You can buy packages of generic content with many reception room screens now – but if you’re only using these videos, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with potential and existing clients when they’re most receptive to your brand.
People in your waiting room will most likely be at different stages of the buying journey – they might be coming in for their first consultation, be part of the way through a treatment, or they could be a repeat customer.
This offers a lot of opportunities to connect. But with such a broad audience, what kind of videos do you need and why? Read on to find out everything you need to know to boost sales, customer retention and recommendations with bespoke video.
1. First impressions are everything
When a potential client walks into your reception for the first time, your TV will be one of the first things they see. They may have found you online or through word of mouth, and they want to be sure that you’re that you’re the real deal – so they’ll want to find out as much about your practice as possible. This is your chance to make a brilliant first impression.
If your TV is showing bespoke content that’s tailored towards your clients, it signals to them that you care about every part of their journey with your practice. It acts as a reminder of everything they’ve heard about you so far – your expertise, your values, and the quality of your service. To look at it another way, if all the videos on your screen were generic, what might a potential client infer about the rest of your work?
2. You’ve got a captive audience - so captivate them
Generic videos can feel like a distraction, possibly even an annoyance – like elevator music on a screen. But if you grab your clients’ attention with engaging and interesting custom video content, the time they spend waiting will pass much more quickly, leading to happier customers and a warmer perception of your overall service.
Take Dr Jack Yang’s personal branding video:
From the start, this isn’t your standard dental video. It jumps out at you with action-movie style shots and high-end animation. Once it’s got your attention, it goes on to weave this sense of adventure and drive with a closer look at Dr Jack’s story, mission and purpose. Beyond that, it implicitly promises a premium service with a tireless dedication to craftsmanship.
Hopefully your clients won’t be in your waiting room for too long – but while they are, it’s a great chance to remind them why they chose your practice over the competition. Even if they’re not actively watching your TV, if it’s in the background, they’ll still take it in passively – and be reminded of your commitment to your vision, your clients and your craft.
It is important to have subtitles on the bottom of your videos so that your patients can still consume the content without any audio. A lot of dental practice’s prefer to have a peaceful reception environment so having closed captions means you’re not playing out your video on loop, but you’re still getting the main points across.
3. Address clients’ worries and pain points
Your new customers may have never been to a cosmetic dentist before, and they might not be totally sure what to expect. They may even be one of the many people who experience dental anxiety. Fortunately, your reception videos can help to put your clients’ minds at ease, especially if they’re unfamiliar with certain procedures – like we did in our work with Mona Vale Dental:
The video follows Janine and Brittany’s journeys through their treatments, focusing on how the team at Mona Vale made those journeys as smooth and stress-free as possible. By seeing how you enhance your customers’ moments of joy and help them overcome their moments of pain, your new clients can see your practice’s values in action.
You can also create educational videos to answer common questions or show step-by-step demonstrations of treatments – for the sake of your less confident patients, it’s probably best if these are animated! See an example of one of our animations below:
4. Upsell to your existing clients
Your existing clients will already have some idea of the types of treatments you offer – rationally, they know you’re good at what you do, but decisions (especially buying decisions) involve our emotions too. Once you’ve taken them on an emotional journey and tapped into their deep buying motives, your clients may be more open to trying other products you have to offer.
For instance, take a look at this video we made for Dr Jack Yang’s Denfinity brush and water-flosser:
This kind of video is especially effective between longer-form brand-building content such as smile transformation videos, personal branding clips and educational walkthroughs. Marketing is essentially about building trust, and no-one likes a hard sell, so these clips should be part of your broader repertoire, to create variation and a change of pace between videos where you promote products and services as part of a wider story.
5. Turn repeat customers into referrals
One of the strongest ways to build your client base is through referrals. While testimonials are a good start, actually showing the journey that your clients have been on during a treatment is far more effective, as it creates room for your clients to put themselves in your previous clients’ shoes. These videos can also remind your existing customers about your other services in a memorable and engaging way – so if a friend mentions they’re thinking about improving their smile, your practice will be at the top of their mind.
Summary
Your reception room TV is an untapped resource – by appealing to customers on an emotional level, personalized video content can help you connect with customers across their buying journey, build brand loyalty, reduce patient concerns, upsell to existing clients and increase referrals.
If you want bespoke videos like these for your dental practice, we can help bring your vision to life. Book a free 15-minute consultation with us below.