Friday, November 21, 2014
You’re well aware of how important it is to stay up-to-date on the latest advances in dentistry, but when was the last time you focused on updating your office technology? Improving your office tech sets your employees up to be as efficient as possible, while simultaneously keeping your patients happy and impressed.
There are a few key areas you can focus on to bring your dental practice into the 21st century. Here are some “tech hacks” to help you keep up with the times:
1. Go Paperless
Are you still using fax machines and manila folders to manage paperwork? If so, it’s safe to say you’re long overdue for an update. The benefits of going paperless are numerous. Not only do you stand to save (hundreds of) trees, but you will free up valuable office space and achieve a more organized office environment. Furthermore, your office staff will appreciate the newfound ease with which they can call up the information they need (giving you, as their employer, a better bang for your buck). Finally, your patients will appreciate knowing their dentist is running a more efficient and environmentally-conscious office.
2. Update Your Office Computers’ Memory
Once your paperwork is consolidated onto office computers, be sure to regularly check how much memory your computers have. Memory (or DRAM) provides your computer short-term data access, which you need to run multiple applications at once. So, how much memory you have determines how fast (or slow) your applications are able to operate, and how many tasks can be operated at the same time. While 2GB of RAM may have done the trick a few years ago, with employees performing more tasks on their computers than ever before, there’s a chance this amount no longer meets your needs. Computer memory upgrades can vary in cost depending on the make and model of your system, but they tend to start around $50. It’s an easy cost to swallow when you consider the difference it will make in employee efficiency and patient support.
3. Create an Online Presence for Your Practice
Maintaining a website for your practice does not need to be a complicated process, and you do not need to be a tech expert to make updates. Simple websites such as Wix, SimpleSite and Weebly make the process of creating a site for your practice a breeze. Start by including the office address and contact information and a few photos of your practice. As you get more advanced, you can include a patient experience page with positive reviews, as well as a page where people can indicate their interest in learning more about becoming a patient.
4. Take Steps to Improve SEO
Have you ever Googled your practice? Or have you searched for dentists in your general area as prospective patients might do? There are many resources at your disposal to increase the chances that a simple web search for a dental practice in your area will point users to your website. To get started, many online tools to help businesses learn about and improve their SEO are available such as this course from Udemy.com: SEO for Small and Medium Businesses.
Although social media is not considered SEO in a technical sense, it serves the same purpose—helping your potential customers find you online. Make sure your office has an account on the online review site Yelp, which receives approximately 35 million unique visitors each month looking for recommendations on everything from dentists and doctors to mechanics and restaurants. Encourage your patients to review your practice on Yelp – a number of positive reviews will increase the likelihood that potential patients will schedule an appointment.
Technology can bring lots of benefits to your office, but it’s important to manage it properly. Make sure you take the appropriate precautions to offset losses that could come should your office system crash. Carry out backups to an external hard drive whenever possible, and consider investing in technology that handles backups automatically. Overall, however, these technology upgrades stand to improve the office experience for your employees and patients alike.