How Grand Street Dental Converts New Patients Right From Their Instagram

There are roughly 10 dental clinics in a one-mile radius around Bedford Avenue Subway Station in Brooklyn. It’s the kind of place where the competition between dental offices is fierce, and practices need to stand out if they hope to survive. To give herself an edge, Dr. Jennifer Plotnick at Grand Street Dental turned to technology to transform her practice, source leads, and convert them into new patients.

Her solution was to embrace social media, making it easier for potential patients to find her dental office and book an appointment. Her strategy began with investing in Instagram outreach, which allowed her to build a following, engage her current patients, and reach new people unfamiliar with her practice. Next, she linked Grand Street’s Instagram to an intuitive real time online scheduling system (NexHealth) that allowed leads to convert and become patients.

Grand Street Dental’s year-long foray into Instagram marketing and digital appointment booking netted them a 22% increase in patient volume. The success of Grand Street Dental’s strategy illustrates that dental patients are looking for modern ways of finding and booking dental appointments, and ignoring these avenues could mean losing business to more tech-savvy dental clinics in the future.

Grand Street Dental’s Instagram Strategy

Grand Street Dental’s Instagram account brings in leads because they have good content, are active on the account, and have a specific strategy to build leads. By managing to succeed in these core areas, they’ve amassed 11k followers who help them continue to spread the word about their brand and business.

Good content drives people to engage with your account, but deciding what content your account needs can be difficult for any business. Grand Street Dental splits its content between personal posts and dental posts. Their personal posts help humanize their business, and they’re often more engaging for casual viewers. Grand Street’s personal posts usually highlight their employees, showing them having fun on the job or in the community. Their dental posts, however, are more traditional. They show before-and-after images of the veneer work they do, showcasing the results patients can expect.

It’s not enough to just post good content; Instagram accounts need to be actively managed for them to succeed. Grand Street Dental’s account consistently posts new content every week, and they interact with their community to boost engagement. Often, this is simply taking the time to reply to comments on their posts in a friendly way to help build trust between themselves and their patients.

Finally, Grand Street Dental has a clear strategy when it comes to its Instagram account. The goal is to book more appointments by finding local leads. They accomplish this goal by using a clear bio that explains what they do (“Cosmetic and Restorative Dentistry”), why you can trust them (“Profiled in Forbes, NY Mag, Wired, and Esquire”), and how to book an appointment, with a link to their booking portal. By being direct and straightforward, potential patients easily understand Grand Street’s value prop so they can take that next step and book an appointment.

Convenient Booking for Increased Conversions

When people click on the “book an appointment” CTA in Grand Street’s Instagram bio, they’re taken to a modern, convenient booking portal more akin to what you’d expect from a tech startup than a dentist. Grand Street’s NexHealth booking process makes the patient’s booking experience frictionless by using the simplest and fewest steps possible.

The whole process of booking an appointment on Grand Street’s site should only take a minute or so from start to finish. When a user enters the portal, they simply have to choose the purpose for their visit, pick a time slot that works for them with one of the specialists, and then fill in some basic information like name, date of birth, and contact details. As well, the portal shows patients the soonest available time, so they don’t have to hunt through Grand Street’s calendar. For patients, there should be no confusion, frustration, or time wasted, which means a better patient experience overall and a higher likelihood of conversion.

The NexHealth Patient Experience Platform isn’t just a booking portal; it also includes other features that make it easier for patients to make the journey from Instagram to the dentist. This includes the ASAP list, where patients are put on a virtual waitlist to fill any appointment slots that open up unexpectedly. The ASAP list gets patients in to see the dentist quicker, and it helps maximize Grand Street’s revenue as well. Grand Street also took advantage of NexHealth’s online payment integrations, two-way SMS messaging, and automated appointment reminders to boost customer experience. With these tools, Grand Street gives patients the customer service and convenience they’ve come to expect from other industries like food delivery and ride hailing.

The Results

After just under a year of using Instagram with NexHealth’s real-time online scheduling tool, Grand Street Dental saw a 22% increase in patient volume powered by a 157% increase in online appointments. Other features also saw improved use, including a 120% increase in appointment reminders, further showing how patients will take advantage of modern conveniences when businesses offer them.

Grand Street Dental’s successes have garnered media attention as well. Forbes and New York Magazine both ran features that highlighted Dr. Plotnick’s use of Instagram and digital tools as a sign of where modern dentistry is going. For her own part, Dr. Plotnick sees NexHealth and their digital strategy as a way of “keeping up with patients and appointments” because her clientele is looking for fast, convenient services to match their busy lifestyles.

Harness Digital Solutions in Your Dental Practice

Improving patient experience is an effective way of making your dental practice stand out in even the most crowded markets. Digital platforms like NexHealth make it more convenient for patients to book and interact with your business while helping you save time by automating and streamlining certain administrative tasks. If you’re interested in seeing how NexHealth can help your business grow, book a demo online to get started.