Dental office managers are finding themselves spending a lot more time managing social media and less than one hour a day marketing the practice but wish they had more time for the marketing. Those are some of the key findings of “The Changing Role of the Dental Office Manager”, a recently released report prepared by 1-800-DENTIST.
The report, which is based on a survey of 800 dental office managers from around the country, finds office managers are being pulled in a variety of directions with online activities growing in importance, but traditional management tasks still just as critical. The report is available for free following a free demo of 1-800-DENTIST’s marketing products by calling 1-855-254-2498 or visiting www.1800dentist.com/OfficeManagerReport.
Read the full press release with additional findings of the study below.
Office Manager Report Reveals New Trends in Workload, Social Media and Marketing
LOS ANGELES, CA – 1-800-DENTIST®, the dental industry’s premier dental marketing company, has released “The Changing Role of the Dental Office Manager,” a 20‑page report analyzing in-depth responses from 800 dental managers nationwide.
The study, co-sponsored by the American Association of Dental Office Managers, surveyed office managers about a wide range of business activities, including new patient scheduling, continuing education, patient communications, social media, billing and practice marketing.
Key findings include:
- Social media is the #1 ranked business activity where time spent has increased.
- 59% of practices spend less than one hour per day on practice marketing.
- 92% of office managers use, or plan to use, patient communication software.
- 20% of respondents do not engage in dormant patient reactivation.
- The top four CE topics that are more important than they were two years ago:
- Online Marketing
- Handling Online Reviews
- Technology for Marketing
- Marketing
- Only 22% of practices see new patients within 48 hours of the initial phone call.
- 35% of practices have not claimed their business listing on Google Places, and do not plan to claim it in the future.
- Respondents rank practice marketing as one of the top business activities where not enough time is being spent.
The report also reveals that dental office managers are being asked to perform more duties than ever before while still being held accountable for more traditional business activities. Office managers consistently reported a high level of anxiety about not being able to spend enough time on new online and social media activities that are expanding much faster than resources within the practice.
The report also identifies the biggest missed opportunities found in most practices as a result of this discrepancy.
“I think dentists will be surprised to realize just how much their office managers are having to juggle,” said Fred Joyal, founder of 1-800-DENTIST. “This is one of the most important roles in the practice, and it literally gets more challenging every year. I hope everyone in the industry reads this report and understands just how dramatically the business of running a dental practice is evolving.”
Dental professionals can get a free copy of the comprehensive report by taking an online demo of 1-800-DENTIST’s marketing products – available by calling 1-855-254-2498 or visiting www.1800dentist.com/OfficeManagerReport.
Source: 1-800-DENTIST