Building online presence vs depending on other platforms
Lack of information & overbearing salespeople pushing their products or services make us paralysed in deciding the right strategy to choose when going online.
Do we take the help of marketing people who call us every day & tell us that they will rank us in the first position on Google in only a couple of rupees or do we go ahead & list our information on platforms like Practo or Eka who want us to be perpetually dependent on them for getting new patients on whatever limited patients they do provide. Or do we simply leave all this noise & focus on our clinical practice & patients will come on their own?
Importance Of Digital Strategy
One can argue if there is even a need for an online strategy for our clinic(s). At present 75% of the population in Tier-1 cities search online when they want to visit a doctor.
People now know the different specialities of dentists that exist. They know that they need an orthodontist - if they are looking to get braces. They know they need an implantologist - if they are looking to get dental implants & so on.
When looking for a dentist patients will check with their family/friend circle & see if they can refer anyone or simply go online & search for that specific speciality doctor. Normally - patients look at only the top results that come out of these online searches & even out of those top results they will look at reviews of the doctor, pictures of the clinic etc.. & make a decision.
To summarise the above points:
- A digital strategy is important as 75% of tier-1 populations search online for any service, including a dentist.
- They pick the best clinics for the speciality doctor they are looking for.
- Most of the patients want to visit a good clinic in their nearby area.
Therefore if we have a good digital strategy we only need to be one of the top clinics in a 4-5 km radius in our speciality to begin with & this will give us a good patient-footfall through online sources.
Once we have done this we can move to nearby localities to get additional patient flow.
Third-Party Platforms
Practo, Eka, and Clinic-Spots are some platforms that promise new patients to doctors, once you register with them. They either take a percentage on each booking done through them or charge you a flat yearly fee to list with them.
These platforms are ok if you can get additional patients through them & if your return on money spent is good. It still makes sense to at least list on them & try them out.
But these are not permanent solutions in this digital game. They can never provide the benefits that investing in your digital strategy will. These are just add-ons to your core digital strategy, they can never replace your core strategy.
Investing once in your digital strategy will lead to benefits in long-term, whereas these platforms offer you services till only you pay them for such services & also need to cater for other doctors who are also listed on the same platform therefore number of patients to any one doctor will always be limited.
Conclusion
Invest in a digital strategy for your clinic/self. Build a website, Optimise for Google searches, Automate clinic operations & provide Exceptional services. These will lead to long-term benefits & not short-term solutions.