Chatbots for dental practices is a great way to improve the customer experience for patients that visit your website. Chatbots are computer programs that are designed to create AI-powered conversations. Chatbots can help your dental practice book more appointments, collect contact information, offer discounts, and provide visitors with information about the different dental procedures you offer. So, if you are a Dentists that doesn’t have a chatbot enabled on their website, you are missing out on an opportunity of turning website visitors into new patients for your dental clinic.
What Are Chatbots?
Chatbots are a computer program used for messaging that simulates and processes human conversation. They work to process a user’s words and provide them with the most appropriate previously set response to their questions. Chatbots become more accurate with their responses as they use keywords and data from previous conversations to communicate with users. Chatbots also collect data that will later help you modify your chatbot’s responses.
This technology can help your practice grow by generating more appointments and increasing patient satisfaction. Chatbots for dental practices can communicate with patients that visit your website and provide them with general information to their questions. If your chatbot can not help answer the patients’ questions then if available, they can be directed to one of your dental clinic’s staff members.
Below is an example of Apple’s chatbot system. You are first connected with an automated assistant but if needed, you will be connected with a specialist who can help you more personally.
Why Chatbots for Dental Clinics and Dentists?
A website chatbot enhances the customer experience and is essential for improving user engagement. Patients can have a real-time conversation with either the computer system or one of your employees which can also help retain customers that visit your website. Chatbots keep potential patients on your website by providing them with the most relevant and up-to-date information about your dental care services.
A key component of chatbots is that they are available 24/7. This feature will help optimize the appointment booking process and generate more appointments for your clinic. Patients will be able to schedule an appointment no matter what time they are looking for the dental care services you offer.
This is a huge advantage because people want to book their dental appointments when they get off their 9 to 5, but by that time, the dentist clinic is usually closed so they can’t make an appointment.
Chatbots are also a quick and easy way to provide users with information about the different dental treatments your clinic offers. For example, if the patient is interested in teeth whitening, it can give them basic information about the different types of teeth whitening treatments you offer. This makes it easier for a patient to get insightful information about the procedures they are interested in. Providing patients with the most relevant information to their questions will help convert them into patients for your clinic.
Did you know Google Ads is also a very effective way to help convert visitors into patients for your dental practice? Read our Google Ads for Dentists guide to get started!
Do chatbots for dental practices sound like a great idea but you do not have the time?
Benefits of Using A Chatbot For Your Dental Website
There are many advantages to setting up a chatbot on your dental website for your site visitors. New visitors on your dental website may still be researching different dentists and they may not feel convinced to call your office yet, but chatbots are a great way to start building a connection with these potential patients. They will quickly provide users with information about the treatments they are looking into. Make sure you develop an effective dental marketing plan to attract the most patients. Creating a chatbot for dentists will also give you a competitive advantage over your competitors that do not use chatbots.
Automate Your Practice
Chatbots work efficiently to automate frequent processes. They work to provide important and critical information to patients like different procedures, prices, and different treatment options available for the dental care they need. You can lessen the work of your staff by providing automation through chatbots for dental practices.
Chatbots can help increase productivity throughout your dental practice. This is because it will be the chatbot’s responsibility to answer any patient inquiries so that your dental practice staff can work on other important tasks.
Don’t worry, if there is a question or demand that the chatbot can not comprehend it will inform your staff so they can help the patient immediately.
Below is an example of commands and suggestions you can use to automate your practice:
24/7 Care
It is highly likely that we are all probably all too familiar with the problem and feeling you get when you miss an office being open by 5 minutes. You do not want your patients to feel the same way about our practice.
You want your practice to be available to users at all hours of the day. If you want your dental practice to have great customer service and want potential patients that visit your website convert into new patients, then 24/7 chatbots for dental practices and dentists are a great way to achieve this.
In the image below you will notice that this business also uses Facebook Messenger to chat with its customers online 24/7.
If you want to learn more about using Facebook to grow your dental clinic, read our Facebook Ads for Dentists guide.
Treatments & Procedures Information
Chatbots are a great way to provide patients with information about the treatments and procedures you provide that they are interested in. This can include, teeth whitening, root canals, crown replacements, or information about dental fillings. Making information about your treatments and services readily available to your chatbot users can help convert them into patients for your clinic.
A key component of chatbots is that they are capable of suggesting the best dental treatments or procedures based on the patient’s needs. The chatbot will ask the user for details of their problem and suggest the best treatment or procedure to help with their dental problems. The patients can also ask for more information to receive details like the benefits, starting price, and possible side effects.
Of course, the suggested treatment will be confirmed by the actual dentists but it gives users an idea of the type of dental care they can ask for or the type of dental care they will need.
Schedule Appointments
A chatbot makes it quick and easy for patients to schedule their appointments, no more long holds or waiting on the phone. Use dental appointment call tracking if you want to track where your patients are coming from. The appointment feature available with chatbots makes it easy for patients to book an appointment with your office any time.
You don’t want your dental clinic to miss out on any after-hour contact with potential patients that are looking to make an appointment. Patients may be looking to make an appointment with your office and realize your office is closed, so they may seek dental care elsewhere that is available to answer their questions at that moment.
Below is an example of a dental clinic that allows its patients and new patients to book an appointment through the chatbot on its website. It makes it quick and easy for patients to schedule an appointment at your clinic no matter the time.
FAQ
Chatbots can answer patients’ frequently asked questions about all things dental. It is a great way to educate and inform your website visitors. “How often should I visit a dentist?” “Do I need to floss every day?” or “How often should I brush my teeth?” These are all common questions that patients may want information about but do not want to call your office to ask. The chatbot will provide information based on the keywords the user inputs.
Below is an example of a Chat Support system that gives suggestions of frequently asked questions. It also gives you the option of asking your own question about a product:
Technology Behind Chatbots
Chatbots operate through pre-programmed keywords and answers, artificial intelligence, or sometimes both. Additionally, chatbots collect and analyze data through the messages it receives and the questions it answers. Based on the process of your chatbot, the chatbot will analyze a user’s request to deliver the most accurate and relevant response.
Learn about the 8 Best Chatbot Platforms Build A Chatbot For Your Business.
Rule-Based chatbots and AI Chatbots are the two main types of Chatbots that businesses use.
Rule-Based Chatbots
Rule-based chatbots communicate with users through pre-programmed responses. Rule-based chatbots use keywords to determine the most proper and relevant responses. This specific type of chatbot is not able to understand and comprehend the context of the conversation it is having with the user. They deliver accurate and relevant responses when the user mentions a keyword or a command that the chatbot was designed to answer.
When a user asks a rule-based chatbot a question, the chatbot looks for keywords in their statement to choose the most appropriate response. For example, if a chatbot is asked, “What is the cost of a crown replacement?’, the keywords it may focus on could be “cost” and “crown replacement.” This will help the chatbot know to give the user information about crown replacement pricing. This method helps the system provide the patient with the most relevant information. Providing users with the most relevant information to their needs can also help turn these users into patients for your clinic.
Rule-based chatbots do not use data from past conversations to help with future conversation responses. A user may be asked to rephrase their question if a rule-based chatbot can not analyze it to deliver an appropriate answer. If needed some chatbots may also transfer these users to someone in your dental office who is responsible for responding to these inquires. If you want to improve the response choice of your chatbot you need to implement more defined preprogrammed answers to improve the algorithm.
Need help choosing the right keywords for your chatbot’s responses?
AI Chatbots
AI chatbots use machine learning and natural language processing to deliver the most appropriate responses to users. Unlike rule-based chatbots, AI chatbots have the ability to learn from previous conversations. They collect data to identify patterns in user input.
The natural language processing (NLP) capabilities of AI chatbots allow them to understand the context of the conversation. The NLP still works if the patients make a spelling mistake or use phrases that are much harder to interpret. NLP helps chatbots understand, analyze, and prioritize the questions according to their complexity. This enables chatbots to be able to respond to the patient’s questions faster than an actual person.
At first, AI chatbots need to be programmed with predefined responses for the users. But, as they engage with users and hold more conversations with them they will use data from previous conversations to answer more appropriately and will not need to be manually updated later. An AI chatbot is capable of analyzing a user’s mood which allows them to alter their communication with the user appropriately. This is called sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis is also a part of NLP and is the process of detecting positive or negative emotions through text.
Want to learn more about the steps that go into building a chatbot for your website? This article will teach you how to build a chatbot.
Conclusion
Chatbots are a great way to enhance a patient’s experience. They are able to complete various tasks and answer all types of questions. Thye can provide users with the most important information based on their needs. It is a great way to create a connection with potential patients before they even call or visit your office.
So, if you do not have a chatbot for dentists installed on your dental clinic’s website you are missing out on an opportunity of converting your website visitors into new patients for your dental clinic. Chatbots can help your dental practice grow significantly by booking appointments at any time, collecting contact information from new leads, offering discounts, and providing site visitors with helpful information about the different dental treatments and procedures you offer.
Want to grow your clinic using Chatbots for Dental Practices?
Are you looking for more ways to grow your dental practice? Read our article that explains 21 Creative Dental Marketing Ideas. Also check out our article to learn more ways to bring in new patients to your clinic called, 13 Ways To Attract New Patients To Your Office.
Read about how we helped a dental practice gain 20+ patients every month, we are sure we can do the same for your dental clinic using Chatbots for Dental Clinics and Dentists.
