Kerry Bonamico, office manager for Steven Talerman, DDS, has worked in the dental field for 20 years. As office manager, she relies on PatientPop to attract patients to the practice, manage appointment requests, and answer patient questions.
Steven Talerman, DDS is an independent dental practice offering cosmetic and implant dentistry in Roslyn, NY. As a single-provider office, the practice aims to make every patient feel welcomed and like family.
With PatientPop, the practice provides an exceptional patient experience before and after the office visit. We interviewed Kerry about how she uses PatientPop to engage with patients, manage online activity, and support the practice’s daily workflow. Watch the video interview and see the expanded transcript below.
How has patient behavior shifted over recent years and how has it affected the practice?
Now more than ever before, people are going on Google to look for things they need. We noticed people started taking their health more seriously due to the pandemic. Now patients are coming out, and they’re saying, “I need to do this,” and “I need to take care of this.” So they’re going on Google, and they’re deciding which provider is the best based on the reviews. If you’re not on the first page of Google, you’re not going to get called.
Why is your website so important to the new patients who find you online?
When patients search on Google, the first thing they do is look at your website. If your website is not up to date, and it’s not pleasing to them, they’ll go to the next one. That’s why the website is so important. They need to be able to navigate it easily. They need to like what they see, and they need to be able to click a button to call. Those are the three big things.
How are you using PatientPop each day?
I like to look at the stats to see if anyone left a review, how our SEO is, if we’ve risen anywhere, if we had any new requests, any text messages, or any appointments first. And I’ll periodically look through the day. I’m on PatientPop throughout the day to make sure there isn’t anything new going on. I also use the digital insights dashboard, which I love.
Which features do you love most about the PatientPop platform?
What I particularly love is the ability for patients to go onto our website and book appointments. That was intriguing to me because if I’m not available, then they have an option to make their own appointments. And then, I was given the opportunity to change up my phone system. Now, patients are given the option to text to make their appointments. This was even better because if they can do something through text, it’s just so much easier.
Do you find that patients are utilizing the PatientPop text messaging feature?
They love it. They would rather text me than call me. I have patients that only text, and you couldn’t get them by phone. I have patients that strictly ask me to text them. Can you text me this? Can you text me the address? Can you text me all the information? And that’s how we communicate.
Which text messaging features do your patients like most?
They really love the reminder requests because they don’t have to think about it. It’s automatically there. Nobody is calling them. It pops up, and a lot of people say, “You know, I would forget if I didn’t get that reminder.”
Do you use patient surveys to get immediate feedback from patients?
Absolutely. I always look for ways to improve, so if there’s ever anything negative said, or anywhere I can improve the practice, I’m always welcome to it. You don’t want to let those opportunities slip by because if one person is saying it, 10 people feel it.
How do you see PatientPop helping the practice manage the business in the long term?
What I like about PatientPop is that it’s continuously evolving. There are always new things coming out. I’m excited to see the new things that will come out that can help the practice continue to evolve.
What would you tell another practice that is considering using PatientPop?
Number one, we went from not even mentioned on the pages of Google to being second or third right now. I watched that climb. I watched every day to see exactly where we are, and I’m not a person to just look at numbers and say, oh, that’s cool. I actually went on Google to look where we were every day. I would go back and forth to make sure we were growing. When I walked into the practice five years ago, we had three reviews. I think we’re at 60 reviews now, and they’re all five stars. We don’t have anything less than a five-star review, which is amazing. I don’t think many practices can say that. And without PatientPop’s help, we wouldn’t have any of that.
What should you do next?
1. Schedule a free PatientPop demo.
2. Measure your online performance using our free scanner.
3. Refine your marketing strategy by reading a modern guide to dental advertising.
4. Check out this dentist case study about a San Francisco practice that grew patient bookings with PatientPop.
