Under-performing website? Unexpected ongoing costs?

Did your dental supplier give you a bad recommendation you now regret?

Over the last couple of months we’ve taken on three new clients who needed to move supplier for their website management and SEO. All of them had launched new websites built by designers recommended by other dental suppliers; two by a dental coach and one by a monthly payment plan provider.

All three cases were quite similar in that the dentist had their website designed, signed up to an expensive monthly maintenance and SEO contract and then sat and waited for the anticipated new patient enquiries. However, after 6 months nothing positive had resulted, then after a further three or four months of paying out fees, still no progress.

At this point, all three businesses pulled the plug on their suppliers and went in search of an alternative provider. Understandably so. So what actually happened to cause this and what can you do to avoid a similar situation? Let’s start by looking at the why you need to be skeptical about some business recommendations as they might not be quite as transparent as they seem.

Supplier associations

It’s often said that the dental business is a “small world” and so you wouldn’t be surprised to learn that lots of suppliers have actually set up formal and in some cases informal, associations with other suppliers. So for example, patient payment plan providers will work with a specific web designer and try to push their business exclusively. This is advantageous to the designer as they rely on the regional representatives of the other company to help sell their services. In return, the design company will offer incentives to the dentist e.g. 10% off website design or other similar perks.

In a similar way, trainers and coaches in the profession tend to push the services of companies where they have set-up mutually beneficial relationships, often under-pinned by some form of commercial arrangement.

These types of arrangements are common in all forms of business and should be expected. However, as we see from the examples above, all isn’t necessarily rosy when it comes to some of these recommendations which are arguably driven by incentives, rather than an appropriate fit with the business of the dentist concerned.

Incompatibility

As a case in point, let’s take a quick look at one of the examples I mentioned earlier. Here, a business coach had visited the practice and talked to the team about search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media in the overall context of digital marketing. He then advised the business owner to invest in the services of his “partner” provider at significant expense. This resulted in a new, expensive website, monthly SEO services and outsourced social media.

Unfortunately what wasn’t done was an in-depth study of the need and type of digital marketing services required for the business. Without going into detail, the SEO was inappropriate and ineffective (albeit expensive!) and the outsourced social media was simply a generic regurgitation of content that was neither interesting or engaging. The end result was that the dentist was several thousands of pounds out-of-pocket with very little to show for it.

One of the other cases I mentioned was actually much worse and has left a much bigger mess to clean up. Here, a dental plan supplier actually recommended a video company to re-design their client’s website. This was done and followed up with “SEO”. Unfortunately for the dentist concerned, the video company simply off-shored all of the requirements and took no responsibility for the work. The website which was produced was built on a $35 dollar template and could not be maintained properly. The SEO, if you can call it that, used techniques which Google started penalising back in 2010 and unsurprisingly the website was quite quickly deleted from the search results. Anyone who knows about this will understand that cleaning up this type of situation is far from trivial!

Summary

Whilst we all look to recommendations when purchasing goods and services, we also need to be aware that some of the advice we are given may not be as impartial as we’d have liked. So when it comes to an important investment like a website and marketing for your dental practice, don’t just rely on the recommendation of your payment plan provider or business coach. Take the opportunity to look around and ask lots of questions before you jump in. Also seek recommendations from your peers and friends within the industry – this way you will gain a much more impartial view and be able to make an informed choice without any bias.

If you’d like to hear impartial reviews of our services here at Dental Media, please let us know on 01332 672548 and we’ll put you in direct contact with some of our clients.