I Secret Shopped 5 Dental Practices, Here’s What I Found

You may be surprised where the issues were.

Author

Kyle OConnor
May 28, 2025

Read Time: 1 Minute, 37 Seconds

Before we start this week, a gift for you! 🎁 Completely free and no-strings attached!

Let’s say a potential new patient searches for a dentist near them.

They find your ad. They click your site. They fill out a form or call the number.

That’s where most dental marketing ends. But that’s where the real patient experience starts.

So I decided to test it.

🕵️‍♂️ I secret shopped 5 random dental practices online. Below is what I found.

❌ 2 Out Of 5 Didn’t Answer The Phone

No one picked up. No call back. No follow-up text. Just silence.

We talk a lot about lead generation. But what happens after the lead hits your system is just as important.

❌ 3 Out Of 5 Websites Had Broken Relays Or Clunky Flow

On mobile, one form wouldn’t even load.

Another let me hit submit with no confirmation, no follow-up, and no message saying it worked.

You’d be shocked how many practices spend thousands on traffic…

Only to lose the patient because of this.

❌ 1 Office Didn’t Even Link In Google Maps

How do you expect people to find you if you’re not even findable?

✅ But 1 Office Absolutely Nailed It

They answered the phone. Spoke like a human. Offered me two appointment options. Followed up with a text.

If I had actually been looking for an appointment, it would’ve been pretty hard to say no to this practice.

This is where we’re auditing our practices currently. The capture and follow-up have to be dialed in. There are just too many options, too easily found, to drop the ball here.

What’s The Point?

A lot practices don’t have a marketing problem. They have a follow-up problem. An ops problem. And the truth is, no amount of traffic can fix a broken patient experience.

🤫 PS: Do you want help fixing the post-click part of your funnel? Hit reply.

— Kyle

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