Published: 01/06/2022

Read time: 6 Minutes

It’s safe to say that the evolving events of the past couple weeks – on a global, national, and local level – have taken us all a little by surprise and leave the future of our economy, businesses, and families hard to predict and hard to prepare for.

However, despite the various worries of the impacts of COVID-19, there has also been a great show of community, generosity and ingenuity – from the creation of ‘self-isolation postcards’ for the vulnerable members of our communities, to new approaches in how we conduct or offer services to those in self-isolation – and there appears to be hope in how simple changes to the way that we work can help reduce the negative impact of the outbreak and inspire a new way of operating.

Technology, once again, proves to be the driving force of this positive change – enabling schools to close, but teachers to continue supporting their students; encouraging the sharing of accurate data and information through accessible platforms; and allows those in self-isolation to continue to communicate with the outside world.

Here are a couple of our favourite innovations and approaches to using generosity – and technology – to ensure that services remain accessible.

 

Different opening times

As we now know, COVID-19 can affect the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions more acutely. In response to this, supermarkets and banks are making special arrangements to give vulnerable customers early access to their services and thereby helping to reduce the risk of their exposure to the virus.

We’ve also seen a number of practices opening their doors early to vulnerable patients, so that they can be seen efficiently and effectively, thereby ensuring that they receive the care they need, in a safe environment.

 

Keeping patients updated

The most important aspect of working through the current situation is good communication. It’s hard enough to find a way through the barrage of news reports and data updates, without wondering what the right protocol is for contacting or visiting your dentist – so make it easier for your patients and your leads by keeping them updated.

We’ve seen some lovely examples on social media and practice websites that range from educational, to thankful, to playful – but the common factor across all of them is that they provide ways for patients to get in touch, re-arrange and even just call for comfort.

Examples of social media communications by dental practices

Video Consultations

Derek Uittenbroek and his team at Ignite Growth have been leading the charge on this one – guiding practices on how to continue to offer leads treatment consultations using video call technology.

Derek’s team put together a great instructional video that helps practices set up online calendar bookings, and talks through how to run a video:

https://www.ignitegrowth.io/covid-training-video?fbclid=IwAR0mVavqEGEKxka_gbFmQWsD1KpWdenSW9BVq99nSuxmbbUZ-AxYDXOmRIc

 

Notify your leads

Naturally, there is a lot of concern around practice growth and the future of lead generation and management. Video consultations, as suggested above, can be a great band-aid for providing trust and support to your leads in these unprecedented times.

To help support practices in communicating with their leads, building trust and longevity and enabling new approaches to providing treatment, we’ve released an update to the DenGro automated messages that allows practices to display a notification banner at the top of each email that DenGro sends out on behalf of the practice.

The banner can be switched ON or OFF and can be customised with whatever information you’d like to alert the lead to. You can also add a button linking out to any webpages for additional information, guidance, or booking calendar for video consultations.

Example notification banner now available for customisation in DenGro

 

DenGro Practice Support

Whilst we strive to run DenGro as normal, the health and safety of our customers, employees and the greater community are our top priority. Our Practice Support team are working remotely, but will continue to be available for users to contact as usual.

If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to discuss your ongoing plans for supporting your leads, please don’t hesitate to contact DenGro Practice Support, either via DenGro web chat or by calling +44 1225 375 025.