There are so many new ways to take advantage of the dynamic marketing potential of your waiting room WITHOUT force feeding products and services onto patients. When you walk through the front door of a clinic, one must feel like they are being considered, informed and made to feel comfortable. Content should be clear and valuable yet tailored for your new patients with educational and fun materials that relate with the visit to your office.

The days of paper handouts and bulky TVs are over. However, the content of what IS on this screen is incredibly significant. Leave it on a standard pop culture channel or even the news and you’ll be flooded with the sexual escapades and abusive behavior of pop culture icons or political figures. So much for a peaceful, informative and positive environment.

WHEN AND WHY THE CHANGE? 

The health and medical history are experiencing technology innovations faster than ever. The days of disposable pamphlets, clipboards and local news channels are quickly becoming a thing of the past. From a large clunky box to a shiny, sleek, attractive flat screen is only one way this is happening. Audience curation, customization and tailored content is becoming one of the most essential tools for any business that provides services.

An Intuitive and genuinely informative display is proven to keep patients engaged, shortens perceived wait times, and stimulates discussion about your services in a non-confrontational format. Not to mention, being excellent for calming any treatment anxieties as well as softening any kind of perceived hard selling of services.

We believe that whoever initially introduced televisions into reception area was well-intentioned, but now time and time again we see offices just sticking on a standard news channel or other paid service that simply does not motivate or speak to patients. It’s doesn’t offer any real sense of calm, excitement or information that the cell phone if everyone’s pocket can. Passive involvement with forces media is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

We need to get back to the once overused term “captive audience.” We’ve lost all meaning of what this stands for. Why? Most likely because most business and passive service providers have lost touch of how to captivate an audience in this fast-moving digital world. But don’t worry, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s all about provided VALUE in the content. Something that a person actually could benefit from, not just mindless fodder to pass the time. More and more the public is getting immune to this kind of force feeding of content. People crave value in their busy lives. Think that reading handouts might work better? Think again, going paperless is the future and we all know how much trust and information one can convey in a 20 second video clip over a disposable, bent out of shape, folded piece of paper.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU BE LOOKING FOR? 

Start by finding a service that can engage and make your patients feel good about their time in your office instead of just blasting them with endless visual noise that just serves to distract and take them out of any experience that related to their visit to your office. Don’t underestimate how much the average patients appreciates seeing something informative, exciting or even soothing. That can be something as simple as learning about the wonders of a new treatment, clinic success with before and after photos of happy patients or a piece of trivia about how coffee affects our teeth.

A huge bonus is if you can also integrate the daily essentials that standard local news channels provide alongside your specialized content. Elements like weather forecast, time, date and ticker tape style local news are a must so that patients don’t start looking at their phone for this and becoming disconnected.

Make sure that your services can be translated into multiple languages. More and more we have offices in areas that are home to non English-speaking people. Weather it be a newly arrived citizen or a parent or grandparent. Never underestimate the power of a complex treatment being explained in someone’s native tongue. The comfort and confidence provided with accessible communication is INVALUABLE in today’s global network.

Be sure to stay away from bulky products that are full of dangling wires, protruding boxes and old school antennas. Your hardware should be small, sleek and easy to conceal. Nothing should distract your viewer from the experience. Something that comes with a remote is ideal so that you don’t need to log in on another computer to make the changes and customization you need.

Lastly, the service should allow you to curate and customize your own content. This puts the power at the clinic’s fingertips and doesn’t hold them a slave to pre-loaded and possibly irrelevant subject matter. Standard news channels like FOX, MSNBC and CNN enables passive viewing of biased negative news by spouted by talking heads or commercials for things that alienate and don't relate to their visit to your office. If that doesn’t sound irrelevant enough, imagine leaving it on the Disney Channel, happy to appease the screeches of pre-pubescent boys and girls, and brain-numbing cartoons with no reservations about creating chaos in your reception area. Remember that YOUR patients are sitting YOUR reception area to learn about beautiful smiles, treatment options and great oral health. Not the latest fashion trends, cartoons or celebrity gossip.

So what do you think? Personally, I feel taking advantage of the unique and powerful tools out there can significantly enhance the way you can utilize the potential of your waiting room. Disagree? Agree? Let us know what you think!

Learn more about Smile-PRO TV for your waiting room!

https://consult-pro.com/smile-pro-tv-dental-waiting-room-software.html

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