“LOL. I’m not a Dr.”
Yes, this was a text I actually received from a stranger recently.
A friend of mine requested a referral from a specialist I’d seen in the past. For the sake of this example, we’ll call it a referral for a “Smelly Foot Disease Specialist.”*
I did not have the contact information for this specialist in my phone, so I googled “Smelly Foot Specialist Dallas Texas” and found his name. I called the number.
Ring, ring, ring, ring. No answer.
So I texted:
“I saw you years ago…thought you were amazing, you fixed my “smelly feet”….I want to refer you to my friend….blah, blah, blah.”
My chest was like a peacock. I had connected my friend to the best Smelly Foot Physician in town!
Seconds later, it came….
“LOL. I’m not a Dr.”
Embarrassed, but undeterred, I searched my emails for 10 minutes and this time I found the Smelly Foot Specialist’s real number and shared it with my friend.
If you’re old enough to remember the Yellow Pages, imagine if your number was printed wrong in the phone directory. It would be a year of lost business.
The same is true in the digital age.
At some point, my Smelly Foot Specialist’s number was published incorrectly in an online directory, and it ended up in his Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business, or GMB result).
When your info is wrong in your Google Business Profile, it can take forever to fix it. In the interim, all the other online directories begin copying and publishing that same bad info.
Getting it all corrected can be a lengthy, confusing process. Just try finding a “customer service number for Google,” calling it, and actually getting a human representative to help. I’ll wait…
It’s not as simple as you may initially think.
This is why Directory Management is a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. The term might sound like digital agency hocus-pocus, but without it, you could lose valuable time. On your own, it could easily take you a year to correct all the directories across the internet that published bad information on your practice.
Moral of the story
If your dental practice has a waitlist of several months—as many practices do today—and you believe that will last forever, there is no need to ensure that a google search on your practice will yield the correct contact information. In other words, if you have enough ravings fans who will come upon the incorrect information, and
- call you…
- text you…
- get “LOL. I’m not a Dr.”
- and then search emails to find your correct number and share it with a friend…
You’re all set.
If you’re not in that boat, then you should consider an investment in Directory Management.
Contact us if you’d like more information on how to ensure your practice’s details across the internet are correct.
*The referral was for a mental health professional who helped me through a very difficult time, so I’d have searched for days to find the correct info for my friend. Seeking mental health help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Still, my experience did remind me how important it is to protect the reputation of your business and take back control of the information that is shared publicly on the internet. Had my friend’s request not been such an important one, I’d have done a google search, found bad info, and called it a day.