Your practice appears in Google. People view the profile, visit the website or press the bell button. However, fewer suitable new patient enquiries arrive at the reception desk than you expect.
The first reaction is often: we have to be higher up or get more visitors. But the leak can also be later. A potential patient can drop out on the Google profile, on the website, at the contact form, during a missed call or in the first conversation with reception.
More visibility only has value if the route to an enquiry also works.
Short answer
New patient inquiries are usually lost when the search query does not match the offer, the Google profile does not provide sufficient clarity, the website leaves important choice questions unanswered, contacting the company is too difficult or the follow-up is not well organized.
Therefore, do not only check how many people find your practice. Follow the entire route:
- Is the practice found with the right search query?
- Does the profile give enough reason to look further?
- Does anyone end up on the right page?
- Is calling or applying easy?
- Is the contact being picked up well?
- Does the enquiry match the available location, chair or treatment?
- Is it recorded where the enquiry came from?
That is the difference between simply attracting traffic and deliberately working towards more suitable patient enquiries for your dental practice.
Do not automatically start with more traffic
If something is broken or unclear along the way, extra traffic will especially increase the number of people who stop at the same place.
Therefore, start with a simple question:
Can someone who is now looking for appropriate treatment without hesitation come to a first appointment from Google?
To answer that question honestly, you first need to know where there is really room for it. Perhaps the practice does not accept unlimited new regular patients, but there is room:
- with a specific practitioner
- at a certain location
- for oral hygiene
- for implantology or cosmetic dentistry
- on specific days
- for a first consultation or second opinion
“We are accepting new patients” is too general here. So is “We are fully booked”. Good patient growth starts with a clear picture of the enquiries the practice can and wants to handle. Read how to grow your dental practice selectively when the schedule is already full.
Leak 1: you are found with the wrong question
A display in Google is not yet a relevant opportunity.
Someone looking for a dentist for a routine checkup has a different need than someone looking for help with anxiety, implants or a broken front tooth. If the profile and website mainly provide general information, the searcher may not understand that your practice is suitable for the question.
Therefore, check for each important treatment:
- on which search queries the practice is visible
- which location is shown
- which profile categories and services are visible
- to which page the website button leads
- whether the offer on that page matches the search query
The goal is not to appear on every conceivable term. The goal is to be clearly present in questions that fit the capacity and expertise of the practice.
To set up the first step, use the checklist for a dental practice's Google Business Profile.
Leak 2: the Google profile makes choosing difficult
A potential patient often first sees your name, location, opening hours, photos and reviews. Only then does the website appear.
At that moment, small ambiguities can be enough to look further:
- deviating opening hours
- an outdated phone number
- a general website button without a clear next step
- few recent photos
- ambiguity about the location or entrance
- cannot see if new patients are welcome
- services that are offered but are not listed in the profile
Therefore, do not only view the profile as the owner. View it as if you do not yet know the practice and have to decide within a minute whether to contact them.
Leak 3: the website does not answer the choice question
Many practice websites provide extensive information on who works there and what treatments are available. However, the practical choice question of a new patient is sometimes left unanswered.
Think of:
- Can I register here?
- For which treatments can I go?
- Which branch should I be at?
- Do I need a referral?
- How do I contact you?
- What happens after I send the form?
- When can I expect an approximate response?
Not every answer needs to be on the homepage. However, someone from Google should be able to quickly get to the page where the question is answered.
A general button to the homepage is not always the best route. Someone who is specifically looking for implantology, anxiety counseling or a dental hygienist wants to first confirm that they are in the right place.
Leak 4: contacting is too much trouble
The patient has confidence, but then he still has to act. That is exactly where unnecessary friction can arise.
Check on a mobile phone:
- is the phone number directly clickable?
- does the appointment or registration link work?
- is it clear which form someone needs?
- does the form only ask for information that is currently needed?
- does it say what happens after shipping?
- does the applicant receive a clear confirmation?
- does everything also work outside of business hours?
A form does not have to be as short as possible. It should mainly feel logical. Ask what is needed to properly take up the contact, but avoid that a new patient has to fill out half an intake first before it is clear whether the practice can help.
Leak 5: clicking on 'call' does not result in a conversation
A bell click in a report does not automatically mean that someone has spoken to reception. The line may be busy, the patient may hang up during the waiting time or call outside business hours.
Therefore, look beyond just the number of calls:
- how many calls are answered?
- when are most calls missed?
- is there a clear voicemail message?
- Are missed calls returned?
- who is responsible for calling back?
- is it recorded whether the contact led to an appointment?
This allows you to distinguish between interest, actual contact and a planned first appointment.
Leak 6: reception does not have a clear picture of the desired enquiry
The counter does not have to become a sales department. However, it is helpful if employees know where there is space and what the correct next step is for each type of enquiry.
Without that overview, two unwanted situations can arise:
- a suitable patient is told too quickly that the practice is full
- an enquiry is accepted while the relevant location or practitioner does not have space
Therefore, create a simple and up-to-date overview for the team:
- which locations do new patients take on?
- for which treatments is there space?
- which enquiries require evaluation first?
- what waiting time can be communicated?
- when will someone be called back?
- to whom is a specific question forwarded?
This way, the message better aligns with what reception can actually offer.
Leak 7: no one knows where the request came from
Once a new patient has been registered, the origin often disappears from view. Then the practice knows how many registrations there were, but not which visibility contributed to it.
At least record the following for each new contact:
- how someone found the practice
- with which general question or treatment someone contacted
- for which location
- through which channel the contact came in
- whether a first appointment has been scheduled
- what according to the patient gave the decisive factor
Use fixed answer options for this. This makes monthly comparison possible without the cashier having to write long notes.
To assess the specific role of reviews, use the separate measurement approach for Google reviews and new patients.
This is how you test the route in thirty minutes
You don't need an extensive dashboard to find the first errors.
- Choose one treatment or type of patient for which there is really room.
- Search on a mobile phone like a potential patient would do.
- See what someone sees first about the practice.
- Follow the route from the Google profile to the website.
- Test the bell button and the form with recognizable internal test data.
- Check the confirmation and internal follow-up.
- Ask reception what step they would take with this enquiry.
This test does not yet tell how many real patients drop out at each location. It does make broken links, contradictory information and unnecessary steps visible.
Measure the route step by step
Make a monthly overview of:
- relevant visibility in Google
- actions from the Google profile
- visits to the main landing pages
- started and completed forms
- answered and missed calls
- new contacts
- booked first appointments
- enquiries that fit the available capacity
- origin and mentioned breakthrough
Evaluate these figures as one route. An increase at the top says little if the number of suitable appointments remains the same. Conversely, a small amount of traffic can be valuable if it produces exactly the right requests.
What should you improve first?
First, address the earliest leak that is demonstrably preventing a suitable patient from receiving treatment.
The practical order is:
- broken left and accessibility
- ambiguity about offer, location or available space
- a cumbersome contact route
- slow or unclear succession
- only then additional visibility and traffic
This prevents you from sending more people to a route that is not working properly yet.
FAQ
How do I know if new patients come through Google?
Ask at the first contact how someone found the practice and what made the difference. Combine that with profile actions, website visits, phone data and scheduled first appointments. One source rarely gives the full answer.
Does more phone calls automatically mean more patient growth?
No. A phone call is first a sign of interest. Also check whether the conversation has been answered, whether the enquiry fits the practice and whether a first appointment follows.
Does each treatment require a separate landing page?
Not automatically. A separate page is logical when the treatment has its own search query and you can provide enough concrete information. Do not create an extra page if it gives almost the same answer as an existing page.
What must reception record about the origin?
Keep it simple: source, contact channel, general enquiry category, location and whether or not an appointment is made. Only record what the practice actually needs and process patient data in accordance with existing privacy agreements.
