By nature, orthodontists are in the business of providing incredible customer service. Wanting to create a positive experience for every single person who walks through your door, you go above and beyond at every step to ensure that your clients are cared for from start to finish.
Unfortunately, however, most orthodontists fail to consider the experience their clients and potential clients have on their website. And, because so many people visit your website every day, this is a monumental mistake.
Great website design is a good place to start to remedy this oversight. But, is it enough? According to some of the latest online marketing research, over “70% of a customer’s journey with a small business now happens online in a ‘self-service’ capacity.”
What does that mean? That your potential clients are wanting to not just find information on your website – they want to get involved.
The best way to do that? Create an interactive website for your orthodontist practice.
And, before you ask, yes, it is possible to do this even with a fairly basic website design.
The key is knowing which components are required to building an effective interactive website. A basic definition of “interactive” when it comes to web design is that there are ways for your business to interact and/or automate with each unique visitor.
To understand how this looks on an actual website, let’s dive in to the subject a little deeper.
Interactive websites are so effective for businesses because they create a relevant experience.
As a business owner, you understand that each customer has a unique set of needs. While one person might come in looking to book an appointment, another one might have an insurance question. And, the next person through the door, might be looking for a specific orthodontist to talk to about a recent procedure.
Just as you would expect your front desk assistant or secretary to help direct each of these requests to the appropriate information, an interactive website responds to their needs in the same way. By understanding what each of your visitors wants, an intelligently designed interactive website puts everything they are looking for right at their fingertips.
One of the easiest ways to create an interactive experience on your website is to ask questions. By learning right away what your visitor is looking for, and then building an automated response action that gives them what they need, your website can become one of the most powerful tools you have for generating new business and hot leads.
In addition to basic service questions, below are a few examples of ways you can specifically make your orthodontist website design more interactive:
- Ask them to push play on a video clip.
- Give them an opportunity to share a page or a post.
- Encourage them to “click here” on a relevant link.
- Create a poll or survey and then ask them to vote.
- If you have multiple locations, ask that they enter their zip code or city.
- Ask them to choose between one experience or another (“Would you like to book a service or learn more about our team?”
- Create a search bar tool.
- Make a space for them to leave comments or reviews.
In addition to making your visitors’ experience more relevant and engaging, creating opportunities for interaction on your website is also very helpful for your business because they can be measured.
By analyzing which option people choose most or what the majority of your visitors are looking for, you can better understand how to improve your website. Interactive websites provide much more useful data than websites that aren’t – and smart businesses understand how valuable this type of data is for creating a competitive edge.
As you collect information from your visitors, you can do some pretty incredible things to increase your business and improve your sales, including:
- Getting more visitors to see your call to action.
- Showing visitors the exact answers to their questions.
- Customizing the offers you make.
And, when you look at interactive websites from a psychological perspective, there’s actually another interesting thing that they do: They get people to say “yes” more easily.
The more opportunities you give them to click and subconsciously say “yes,” the more primed they are for actually following through when they’re shown an offer or strategic call to action.
While some businesses shy away from creating interactive opportunities because they feel like it might be perceived as invasive or annoying, most online browsers actually want you to ask them what they need by collecting data – 73% of them according to a survey done by Salesforce.
And the best part about interactive websites is that, once they are designed, there’s nothing you need to do – except wait for more clients to walk through your door.
Fully automated, building an interactive website for your orthodontia practice is actually the smartest investment you can make. Not only will it make you more sales, but it will also decrease the time and money you need to put in to your business in order to generate and convert leads.
Interested in seeing what an interactive orthodontist website could look for your business?
Contact our team at FreshySites today and let us design a unique website experience for your customers. It will be the best business move you make all day!