Post-treatment follow-ups, driving and maximising feedback and inviting patients to book their next appointment has always been a challenge for the Real Good Dental Group as dental teams juggle the everyday business of running a busy practice. Group marketing director John Townend explains how brand-new, pre-emptive technology is now making a major difference to the group’s practices, using it as part of its patient care strategy.
“…but they already have one hundred things to do, so asking for reviews isn’t always at the top of their agenda.”
A big challenge the Real Good Dental Group has faced is increasing our Google ratings from patients posting positive reviews. Our front desk staff were charged with asking patients to leave us a review if they were happy with their treatment but they already have one hundred things to do, so asking for reviews isn’t always at the top of their agenda. It would occasionally result in a spike in reviews, but it wasn’t sustainable. We decided we needed a new strategy, so trialled FollowApp.Care in 12 or 13 of our group practices initially. It’s a brand-new, pre-emptive technology that automatically checks in on patients post-appointment, provides post-procedural recommendations, invites them for future treatment, plus importantly for us, prompts feedback and Google reviews.
“The patients themselves don’t need to download anything to their phones…”
The system works by sending patients an SMS message following their appointment, with a link to a follow up survey tailored to them and their treatment. The patients themselves don’t need to download anything to their phones, the system is activated by front-of-house staff, which helps to streamline patient management workflows and motivate follow ups effectively and efficiently, while allowing our clinicians to get on with their next patient treatment. It also alerts dentists if patient feedback is concerning or negative, analysing responses to flag problems early, including if a patient is in pain, for instance. It also offers patients tailored, ‘next step’ advice, but our dentists can also initiate a two-way SMS dialogue with patients if needed.
“The technology has been positive for different practices in different ways.“
We had quite ambitious KPIs relating to the number of reviews we’d like to get, but FollowApp.Care is the only way we’ve managed to get significant traction with Google reviews. One practice went from 3.2 to 4.2 stars, another from 3.8 to 4.5 stars, another from 3.9 to 4.5 stars. Because we’re now maintaining this level of good reviews throughout the year we’re now rolling it out to all group practices. The technology has been positive for different practices in different ways. Some like the fact it gives them more visibility of what patients are saying and how they are feeling. For instance, if they’re feeling pain their clinician will find out sooner. And clinicians like to hear about positive feedback from their patients. It also allows us to see which customers have requested a call-back or follow-up appointment, something we didn’t have prior to FollowApp.Care. Going forward we’re going to use it as a part of our long-term SEO strategy, because when I speak to SEO consultants, one of the first things they ask me is ‘do you have trust? Do you use Trustpilot or Google reviews, or have testimonies?’ Before FollowApp.Care I would have said ‘no’, but actually, now we’ve had it running for six months, we’ve done quite a lot of work that an SEO consultant would have done.