When the Phone is on Silent: The 7 Things That Practices Can’t Ignore About Text Messaging.

Text messaging received a bad rep early on in the game — images of teenaged girls sending a million emojis dance in our heads. Very rarely, do we think of SMS/text messaging as a viable tool to conduct business or market your practice.

This is a mistake. Text messaging has become a dominant (and preferred) method of communication in modern life. Whether it’s business or personal, all generations of people are now using it. What if you could harness the power of text messaging to grow your dental practice? What if you could use it to improve patient retention and save time? If harnessed correctly, text messaging and healthcare go together like peanut butter and jelly.

Here’s why:

Only 18% of People Listen to Their Voicemails

That’s a mighty slim response to something that is a time suck for dental practices. This means missed appointments, reschedules, late patients — all of which spell trouble for dental practices and their already tight schedules. Any one of these things means lost revenue, stifled growth, and wasted time.

If a known contact leaves a voicemail, that number increases to 33%, but let’s be realistic — who do you know that actively stores their dentist’s number in their phone? There is no reason to waste your staff’s time (and your money) on an ineffective communication channel.

Businesses Only Try to Avoid Placing Someone on Hold 14% of The Time

This means 86% of the time, patients/customers are put on hold! This is lost revenue, the beginning of a negative experience; the list goes on and on. Not a single patient of yours is going to appreciate wasting their time calling when 9 out of 10 calls are placed on hold.

Meanwhile, 90% of texts are read and responded to within minutes.

Patients Sit On Hold An Average of 56 Seconds Every Time They Call

Sure, anything with ‘seconds’ after it seems trivial, but your patients have busy lives! This is setting you up to fail to connect with patients if every time they call your practice, they sit on hold for a minute (and that’s just the average!).

Here’s the big one…

30% of Callers Placed on Hold Hang Up Immediately

And do you blame them? They’ve got things to do! Life is busy! (and don’t forget, 9 out of 10 calls get placed on hold!)

Now, to learn more about the power of text messaging

98% of Texts received are opened, compared to 22% of emails

Most companies would be thrilled if their email campaigns were opened by every 2 out of 5 people. But when it comes to patient communication, 2 out of 5 just won’t cut it.

However, when you’re using text messaging, you can expect that almost every single patient will read your appointment reminder (and 95% of those will read it in the first 3 minutes.)

If you’re ready to harness the power of text messaging and focus on growing your practice, sign up for Curogram here today!