How to Create a Remarkable New Patient Experience Online

Narrator: This is The Thriving Dentist Show with Gary Takacs, where we help you develop your ideal dental practice—one that provides personal, professional, and financial satisfaction.

Gary Takacs: Welcome to another episode of The Thriving Dentist Show. I’m Gary Takacs, your podcast co-host. We have an episode today that we have never covered on The Thriving Dentist Show. I think you’re gonna enjoy this one. The title is How to Create a Remarkable New Patient Experience Online. Online. You’ve heard us talk a lot about the remarkable new patient experience, but now we’re gonna talk about how to incorporate that to someone visiting your website, even before they come to your practice. I think you’re gonna enjoy this episode.

Before we get to that, I have a couple announcements to make. Many of you know that regularly, Thriving Dentist puts on virtual events—webinars, panel discussions, thought leaders that we bring together, you know, for our listeners. And at any time, you can go to thrivingdentist.com/events, thrivingdentist.com/events.

And when you hit that link, you’re gonna see the next event on the calendar that’s happening. If you haven’t ever discovered that feature, I wanna encourage you to go find that—thrivingdentist.com/events—and you can see the next event that we have scheduled. I wanna encourage you to come join us. Those are all done virtually. They’re done at no tuition. The tuition is a gift from us to you in appreciation for your listenership, and it’s always gonna be useful information that you can apply in your practice. So, come join us at a Thriving Dentist virtual event—thrivingdentist.com/events.

The next announcement I have is we have a new clinician joining us today for the first time on a Thriving Dentist Top Clinical Tip. We have Dr. Manrina Rhode from London, and she’s gonna talk about how to increase patient acceptance of cosmetic dentistry by utilizing some simple technology that all of you have access to. If you wanna increase your patient acceptance of aesthetic or cosmetic dentistry, you’re gonna love what Dr. Manrina Rhode has to say.

No further ado, here’s Dr. Manrina Rhode—how to increase patient acceptance of cosmetic dentistry using easy technology.

Dr. Manrina Rhode: My name is Dr. Manrina Rhode, and my clinical tip is to use Photoshop to communicate contouring and bonding results with your patients. So this may not seem like a strictly clinical tip because perhaps it’s not something we’re clinically doing in the mouth, but it is part of patient communication, which then turns into clinical work.

We routinely use Photoshop software. People will often buy Photoshop and use it for photography outside of dentistry, but actually, once you master Photoshop skills, they’re very useful for communicating with patients within dentistry too. Although there are many smile design softwares out there, most of them will take a perfect smile and place it inside the patient’s mouth, and it may not give an authentic or a very movable result for you to be able to communicate exactly the result that you would expect. I think this is most prevalent in dental contouring—cosmetic contouring.

Dr. Manrina Rhode: When we do that for a patient—perhaps they’ve got slightly longer centrals, and you’d like to shorten them slightly—by logging onto Photoshop, you use a rectangular marquee tool. You highlight the edges of the teeth, you create a new layer—layer via copy. Then you click "free transform," and from there, you can click "shift," and you can extend or shorten the marquee to lengthen the teeth with bonding or to shorten them as you would with contouring. Then you take the eraser tool, and you can erase around it and tidy it up. And then the patient can see in their own mouth what they might look like with a bit of edge bonding or a bit of contouring, and make sure that that’s exactly what it was that they were looking for.

Dr. Manrina Rhode: The last thing any one of us want to be is that dentist that the patient says, "Oh, I went to a dentist, they shortened my teeth, and now my teeth are too short." You know, I feel like so many patients have that story. So this way, you can really communicate beforehand what it is that you’re intending to do and make sure the patient understands and they’re happy with it.

So how about bringing Photoshop expertise into your clinical practice? If it’s something you want to learn more about, then it’s something that we teach on our courses. But if not, then it’s straightforward to pick up anyway. So, good luck.

Gary Takacs: Well, I hope you enjoyed that Thriving Dentist Top Clinical Tip from Dr. Manrina Rhode. She’s got some great advice. We’re gonna invite her to come back on the podcast episode with more of those clinical tips.

Well, let me shift gears. On today’s topic—How to Create a Remarkable New Patient Experience Online—this is going to be a conversation between Naren and myself about how to translate this to an online experience. And we’re gonna do this as a conversation. I’ve got some great questions that relate to that topic, and we’re gonna go through this in kind of a Q&A conversation.

So to begin with, you’ve all heard me talk about the importance of a remarkable new patient experience. And we literally coined that phrase, remarkable.

What is remarkable? Remarkable means two things to me.

Gary Takacs: It means it’s an exceptional experience, but it’s also one that people would like to remark to others about—what they experienced in the office.

I would say this is a signature element of our coaching across our client base. We have clients all over the country, and I would say that our clients are all in the process of putting together a remarkable new patient experience. It’s different. It’s not a generic way to do it. It’s not just a one-size-fits-all. It’s adapted to each and every practice. But I can confidently say they’ve all been able to do that, and it’s making a big difference in their practice.

Well, we’re gonna shift the discussion and talk about doing this online.

Naren, we talk a lot about the in-office patient experience, but what about the online experience?

Naren Arulrajah: That is such an important question, Gary, because the truth is, new patient experience starts long before they walk into the door, right? You know, think about the way we used to buy cars—pre-internet, pre-iPhone, pre, you know, us living on the internet and iPhones, right?

We would go to the car dealership—I’m thinking, I’m thinking late 1995, ’97, ’98—and then a lot of times we didn’t know what car we liked, we didn’t know what model we liked. And over a multiple-hour period, the salesperson helps us learn about cars, different features, options, maybe even test drive a few. And then we not only learn about cars, we also make our decision on which car we’re gonna go home with.

All of that has changed today in the online world, right? We live online. All our decisions are made online. So the remarkable new patient experience, I would challenge you—when it comes to a dental practice—doesn’t happen only after they come into your office, but rather happens on the internet. So that’s where everything starts getting—

Gary Takacs: Well, you know, I—

Naren Arulrajah: For example—

Gary Takacs: I can absolutely second those comments, Naren. I can stick in my thumb up—yes—because it wasn’t that long ago when we said our first interaction with the patient was likely when they called the office to make an appointment. That was our first impression, right?

That’s not the first impression anymore. I mean, it could be, but it’s likely that they had a couple of other first impressions before they picked up the phone to call.

So what does it actually mean to create a remarkable new patient experience before the first visit? What does that mean?

Naren Arulrajah: That’s a great, great, great question, Gary. So following up on what we both said, right—the remarkable experience starts online. It could start on the Google search page. It could start on your website. It could start on your Google profile. And today, more and more, it could start on the AI overview or AI results we start seeing on these search engines like Google. It’s called AI mode, or AI overview.

So a lot of that first impression today is being formed on these platforms—Google AI, your Google profile, or your website. And so, before they even pick up the phone and even have an opportunity to talk to a human being, they are starting to make opinions. They’re starting to make judgments about whether you’re good, whether you’re a right fit for them, and so forth, right?

So I’ll focus in on a website for a minute.

Naren Arulrajah: So a remarkable online patient experience feels easy. It feels fast. It feels personable, right? It answers simple questions like: Is this the right office for me? Do I like them? Do I trust them? Can I see myself being happy here?

Those are the concerns they have in the back of their mind. And if those concerns are not alleviated when they are learning about you online, then the chances of them calling you goes down. And of course, now that they call you, that’s a totally different conversation for another day. You have to also influence them on that phone call as well. So today, remarkable patient experience starts online, Gary.

Gary Takacs: You know, I think about the consumer journey—the patient journey—in dentistry. And what I’m gonna describe is one that I think is replicated many, many, many thousands of times every day.

A potential patient does a search. Yes, they type something into search, and then search results come up on Google. Although we’re gonna talk about AI—because there are other places that people are doing search today besides Google—so we’ll talk about that in a minute.

But they do a search, it comes up, they’re going to look at the search page. At the top of the page, they’ll have sponsored links or ads. Then on the right-hand side, they’ll have the maps section. And then they’ll have the organic section. And all of that, I think, can go into decision-making.

Gary Takacs: Where are you? Are they gonna pick the first office in organic, or are they gonna pick the 10th office in organic?

But luckily, they find an office, they click on it, it goes to the website. So your first impression was actually what came up on Google search. The second impression was the website. Now, they may pick up the phone and call you at that point. But I think there’s a possible third possibility before they do that—and that’s, they’re gonna pull up some reviews.

They won’t read all 400 of your reviews, but they’ll read two or three of them. Now we’re into the third impression. Finally, the fourth impression is they call.

Does that seem to be an accurate chronology of search today?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, Gary, you described it perfectly.

You know, Google alone is used 12 billion times a day. I’m just talking about Google Search. Google Maps alone is used 5 billion times a day. So we don’t—even realize—the reason Google is a verb, and the reason Google is worth $3 trillion, is because Google is how we go about finding information, learning about things, making decisions.

And Google has a 95% market share. The steps you described—the Google reviews, the search page, the website, the Google Business Profile, even AI—these are all part of our experience. So all the information we get in all these places either creates an awesome, positive patient experience or doesn’t.

The question is: are you leaning in and creating that experience and stacking the decks in your favor, or stacking—

Gary Takacs: So let’s pivot. Let’s pivot to the 5,000-pound neon elephant in the room—yes—which is AI.

AI is permeating every part of our lives. Whether we like it or not, it is permeating everything. So I’m gonna be very direct, Naren.

How does the proper use of AI create—or help create—a remarkable new patient experience before they come into your office?

Naren Arulrajah: Great, great, great question, Gary. Let me start by level-setting on what’s going on with AI. And I agree with you—AI is gonna change our lives. You and I wake up, let’s say, 20 years from now, we probably will have flying taxis that just take us from place to place—no humans.

Gary Takacs: That’s not gonna be 20 years, Naren. That might be 20 minutes from now!

Naren Arulrajah: I know, I know—the speed at which things are going, right? Robots everywhere: homes, factories, cars that take us places. Even a lot of jobs could be done by computers. I’m talking about white-collar jobs. So things are gonna change—I don’t think anybody disputes that.

The question is how fast, and what change comes first and second.

So the same thing has been going on when it comes to this process we talked about in how people learn information and make decisions. ChatGPT came online in 2023, and what ChatGPT did is it made AI a common thing for the common man, right?

So everyone started understanding that they can use AI in their day-to-day lives. Whether you are creating social media banners, or whether you are having AI help you edit an email, right? You can use it day-to-day as if you’re talking to a friend, and it’ll give you all the answers you want.

Naren Arulrajah: Google has been one of the oldest companies when it comes to AI, but they were a little behind the ball when it came to launching a product like ChatGPT, where you get paragraph answers to a question.

I’ll give you an example. If I were to type in "dentist near me" or "dental implants [zip code]," Google will give me the Google Maps listings or Google Search listings, right?

But if I were to type in "dental implant cost in Chicago," Google will give me a paragraph answer. They’ll say something like, "Hey, dental implant in the city of Chicago, you know, for a full-arch might be this much to this much. For one tooth, it could be this much to this much," and it’ll give me three websites where I can click. And these could be dental websites saying, "Hey, this is where I got the information from."

Gary Takacs: It’s more thorough information. It’s not just a quick range of information. It becomes more thorough. More tailored.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly. And the thing to remember is—Google is going all-in. All the companies are going all-in on AI. I mean, they’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year just because they don’t want to miss out to the competition.

Now, based on what they call search intent, Google is trying to decide if the person is looking for a website, or a phone number, or looking for sort of a summary. You know what I mean?

Gary Takacs: Looking for a specific answer—yeah.

Naren Arulrajah: For a specific answer. In other words, they don’t want to go to four websites in Chicago and figure out the cost of dental implants. They want Google to tell them the cost of dental implants. You know what I mean? They want Google to do the job for them—figuring all the stuff out and giving them a summary.

Of course, if they’re interested, they want to be able to click on the link and go to those three websites so they know where this information came from, right? So Google has really been user-focused. That’s what’s going on.

So today, these 12 billion people who see Google Search and 5 billion people who see Google Maps see AI automatically. So depending on the kind of question, Google will either give you an AI Overview answer—which is this paragraph answer—or will give you a regular listing.

Naren Arulrajah: You know, if I’m typing in “dentists near me,” they just want—Google doesn’t want to give me a lecture on “dentists near me”—it just wants to show me dentists who are close to where I am or who have offices near me, right?

So Google is incorporating AI Overview—this is called AI Overview. And then there is a tab that says AI Mode, and if you click on it, it’ll give you full depth—almost like a ChatGPT experience. It’ll go through 75 documents and give you a summary of everything it went through.

The AI Overview is like maybe the executive summary—the one-page version. AI Mode is like the five-page answer.

Gary Takacs: It’s literally doing the research for you. Yeah.

So we all know about ChatGPT, but obviously there are many other search engines—just a few. There’s Bard, yes, there’s Gemini, there’s others. What are your thoughts on the brand of AI?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, so people have been studying—and the fundamental question I get asked is: Is ChatGPT going to replace Google when it comes to search and how people find information?

And the studies are showing: ChatGPT is getting 200 million people using it every day. And Google is used 12 billion times a day. So Google already is 60 times bigger. And of the 200 million people who are using ChatGPT, only one-third are using it for search—in other words, they’re asking questions like dental implants or whatever, you know, local business.

And the reason they’re not using it for search is twofold. One is, all these other new platforms—they don’t have real-time information of every single business.

So for example, I was talking to a client of mine, and he used ChatGPT—and one of the answers he got was for a dentist who hasn’t been in business for three years. So they’re not updating the information the way Google can because of all the servers.

So after a while, people are like, “I’m not gonna go to…” You know, the same thing happened to me.

Gary Takacs: It becomes untrustworthy.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah. I went to Ireland and, you know, I had ChatGPT plan my trip—and it sent me to restaurants that don’t even exist, right? Just because the information is not current. They don’t have servers.

So anyway, what’s happening is: Google already is 300 times bigger than ChatGPT when it comes to people looking for local businesses—local information.

Now, even if ChatGPT were to grow five times, it still is going to be 1/60th the size of Google.

So I think Google has a lock on the market, just because of the usage, the data—like, Google is a habit, right?

Gary Takacs: Massive head start.

Naren Arulrajah: Massive head start—just because of who they are. Like, 60 times—300 times bigger.

But in our company with EKWA, we don’t ignore ChatGPT or Gemini or, you know, any of these. We check our clients’ rankings on these platforms, and we also check: is the information accurate?

Because if they don’t have real-time data—that’s a problem. Like, they might have office hours from two years ago, and we need to go fix it.

So we are really looking at it very closely—all the other platforms. Because even if there’s a 2% chance that ChatGPT replaces Google—which I don’t think, given that they’re 300 times bigger, is gonna happen—but I do think we don’t want to take that chance.

So we want to make sure—if I were you—I would show up everywhere. I would show up on Maps, I would show up on Google, AI Overview, ChatGPT, Gemini—everywhere.

That would be my approach, Gary.

Gary Takacs: It’s kind of like I’ve said about payment options. What payment options should you accept?

Naren Arulrajah: All of them.

Gary Takacs: All of the above—whichever the patient has. Yeah, exactly.

So, speaking of which, I’m gonna ask you to be concise here, Naren. I would say “a sentence,” but it’s probably not fair—maybe a paragraph.

What are the keys for dentists for the successful use of AI in their marketing?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, we—I mean, you are a client, Gary. I mean, LifeSmiles is a client. And we have been revamping our entire company around AI because it’s here to stay.

I’ll give you two key nuggets because I don’t want to go into the whole, long answer.

One is—you may have heard me talk about Google Lighthouse code. Think of it as the old technology with the do’s and don’ts on what to do on your website. Right now, it’s replaced by something called CRUX—C-R stands for Chrome, UX stands for user experience.

So Google is looking at everything from a Chrome browser’s point of view—on a desktop, on a mobile device—and it’s telling us to do certain things and not do certain things.

The big shift Google is making is twofold:

One is—Google doesn’t like people targeting a particular keyword. Like, people trying to pull a fast one on Google for that one keyword. It hates people—

Gary Takacs: Trying to game—the system.

Naren Arulrajah: Game, game the system. Google is saying: do everything you need to do to be a good actor. Meaning: look at the whole website. Do everything we tell you to do across the website. It’s painful and time-consuming, but we don’t care.

You want to be in the 5% that gets all the free traffic? Play by our rules—or too bad, right?

So people who are gaming the system—less and less.

The other thing I want to mention is—visitors to the website is becoming less and less. Why? Because I can get you information from Google AI Overview, Google AI Mode, Google Maps, Google Search. Like, I can get you information directly from Google—I don’t need to go to your website to get information.

So start looking at ROI metrics only. Meaning: have a tracking number. How many calls am I getting? Doesn’t matter whether it came from AI Overview, or Google Maps, or whatever—you want to know how many calls are coming in collectively through Google. That’s what you want to know.

Naren Arulrajah: So look at metrics like that.

And the last point I want to make is—Google is helping big-name brands.

What I mean is, there’s something called E-E-A-T. It was always there, but in the world of AI, it’s now critical.

One of the things Google realized is—writing content is easy. You can ask ChatGPT or Google to write a book for you in two minutes, right?

Now, the problem is—that book could be hallucinating and giving you B.S.

In healthcare, that becomes a huge problem. Because what if you use some AI content, you publish it, somebody dies or gets sick? Then people are gonna blame Google for sending them to that page.

So:

• You want to have original content written by real people.
• But more importantly, Google cares about your qualifications.

So having your E-E-A-T—you’ve heard me talk about this, Gary—especially like, if it’s a university degree, include that. Google knows every university in the U.S.

As opposed to a certificate provided by “Dr. James Smith”—okay? I don’t know if Dr. James Smith knows what he’s doing. He’s not accredited. He’s not controlled by any kind of governing body.

So those kinds of degrees—affiliated with universities, big brands—are becoming useful.

So if you’re gonna spend money in the age of Google, and you want whatever money you’re spending to help you on Google—go after those big-name universities and so forth for clinical training. Because it means something.

And of course, every one of you has a degree. Every one of you has qualifications that you spent 10 years getting. Make sure those are highlighted.

Again—Google has to be spoon-fed. So do the things that Google wants you to do, so Google sees your content as written by—or linked to—that expert doctor.

Gary Takacs: So being a fellow in the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry—

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly.

Gary Takacs: —is something Google recognizes, and that’s a worthwhile investment, first of all.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly.

Gary Takacs: Get that anyway—exactly. To be an accredited member of the AACD—to be accredited…

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, as opposed to, like, a weekend course you took on XYZ—that may not be that valuable in Google’s eyes.

Gary Takacs: Alright, let’s go back to the exceptional patient experience online—and specifically about the website, Naren. What are some of the most common website mistakes that cause patients to leave—they bounce off the website before they ever schedule?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I’ll just rattle through some of them. It often comes down to friction and frustration, right?

So—slow load times. If your website takes more than one second to load, many of us are not patient, right? We just click on the next website and move on. And this becomes really tricky on a mobile device—because I might have a bad connection to begin with depending on where I am in the network—versus on a desktop, where we all have, you know, fast internet and a lot of data flowing through.

Another one is confusing navigation—almost like you have to hunt to get the information. I go there and I don’t see the phone number, and I have to click around to get the phone number. Or I Googled Invisalign and I don’t see any pictures about Invisalign, or testimonials about Invisalign. Now I have to go hunt and find—have you done Invisalign cases, and so forth?

You are making it hard for me to say yes to you—don’t do that. People today are so impatient. You have to literally give them—like on a silver platter—exactly what they want on that page.

Naren Arulrajah: And of course, missing key information.

For example—if I’m on the Invisalign page, you should give me the before and after. You should give me the phone number. You should give me the testimonials—all related to Invisalign—so I know what I need to do.

A couple of other things: If you’re not showing up—meaning, remember, they can’t even go to your website if you don’t rank on Maps, or on SEO, or on AI.

So, are you ranking? Are you showing up organically?

If you’re not ranking organically and you depend on ads—they’re clicking on an ad, and they know they clicked on an ad. So they’re thinking, “Why is this guy advertising? He’s supposed to be a doctor.” I mean, doctors—aren’t they supposed to be good enough that they don’t need to advertise?

So, the minute they think that—“he’s a quack,” or “he’s not good,” or something like that—the chances of them converting goes down even further.

Are you ranking on Maps? Are you ranking on AI? Are you ranking on SEO?

Naren Arulrajah: So these are some of the reasons. Of course, ranking is a step before website. But obviously, if they don’t even go to the website, then—no point fixing the website.

Gary Takacs: You never get ’em there.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly. So these are some of the mistakes, Gary, I see people making.

So once you fix these mistakes—have clear buttons, clear phone numbers. Make your website easy to read. If I’m on a smartphone, it should be like—I don’t have to squint my eyes and try to read information.

These are all simple mistakes I see people make—time and again, Gary.

Gary Takacs: Well, let’s shift to one of my favorite topics, which is psychology. What’s going on in a typical patient’s mind when they’re trying to book online—when they’re trying to find a source online? What’s going on in their mind?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I think the number one thing that defines human beings in 2025 is convenience. Convenience, convenience, convenience.

I remember the days when I used to go to Blockbuster on a Friday and, you know, drive 45 minutes to rent a movie and then bring it back. And they wouldn’t have the movie I like, so I end up with the second-best movie. And then I forget to take it back, and I pay the fines and all that nonsense, right? Just to watch a movie on the weekend.

Today, you know, we do that on Amazon or Prime. I can do it on my phone. I can do it anywhere, anytime—even when I’m on vacation.

So convenience is the number one currency to be successful in 2025. And I think companies like Amazon and DoorDash have mastered this, right?

I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase one-click buying, right? I mean, literally—I click on the product I want, and I say “Buy Now.” That’s all. I don’t enter my card, I don’t confirm the price, I don’t do anything. Why? Because they’ve found out through research that if you ask them to do four steps instead of one, the number of people buying that product goes down by 80%.

So are you making it easy for people to buy?

Gary Takacs: What’s your opinion about online real-time appointments?

Naren Arulrajah: That’s a great question, Gary. I think it depends on the use case.

So—if I’m an existing patient and I know I need a cleaning, I don’t want to talk to somebody. I don’t want to go through a whole conversation—I just want to be able to schedule it, right?

Why? Because I know it’s a cleaning, it takes an hour, and you know which hygienists are available in your patient management system. So you just connect the two bits of information, and I can book it.

But what we are finding—at least in dentistry—when it comes to new patients, they have a lot of questions. They’re not totally sold yet. They see all this information, but we still don’t trust computers. We trust humans—human to human.

I want to talk to somebody and get some answers. Feel good about the place. And yeah, I read all those wonderful reviews, yeah, I like your website—but what if the people I’m going to see aren’t the kind of people I’m going to like and enjoy working with, right?

So that’s part of it.

Naren Arulrajah: I think still, 90–95% of new patients come through the phone. And the keys to success there are:

1. Answer your phone—nobody leaves voicemails today.
2. Get good at influencing people.

And the second part of it is—depending on the situation, you might need a 30-minute appointment, you might have to fit in somebody for an emergency. These are all things that computers can’t do because they’re not smart enough, and you don’t have all that information in a PMS system for them to figure it out.

So I still think when it comes to new patients, the phone is key. Answer the call. Train your team.

And that’s why, Gary, I would recommend you as an expert in this. I know you have trained more people than—I think—anybody that I know of in dentistry on how to master that part of the new patient experience.

Gary Takacs: Yeah. So I’m hearing a qualified support of online scheduling, but more for existing patients to schedule hygiene appointments as opposed to new patients scheduling their first visit.

Naren Arulrajah: Agree—exactly.

Gary Takacs: Got it. I would agree. So let’s talk about social proof. How much does social proof—reviews, testimonials, before and after photos—really affect whether a patient makes a new patient appointment or not? How much is that?

Naren Arulrajah: Great, great question, Gary. It’s massive. In fact, reviews are one of the key deciding factors. Study after study after study says: a practice that has at least 200 reviews, ideally 4.5 stars, and is getting 10 or more—what I call love letter reviews—every single month, wins.

Meaning—they have an 80% chance of the person trusting the practice and calling that office. Of course, you still have to do a good job on the phone, but at least the phone is ringing.

The thing I want you to remember as far as reviews are concerned—and Gary and I have talked about this for at least five years now—is: get 10 or more five-star paragraph (or what we call love letter) reviews. Just make it a habit.

Again, Gary teaches this, and there’s a whole methodology. If anyone is interested, go to thrivingdentist.com and just contact us, and we’ll send you that episode where Gary goes in depth on that.

Gary Takacs: Just to emphasize reviews for a minute on that—and that’s that you always want to stay on the gas, with your foot on the accelerator, about reviews. Because velocity—the velocity of the reviews—is a very important criteria.

Velocity is a Google term. That means: how frequently are new reviews coming in?

You could literally have a thousand historic Google reviews—but if you haven’t gotten a Google review recently, your ranking is gonna drop like a lead balloon. Because Google is looking at that and interpreting it and saying, “You aren’t what you used to be.”

Exactly. You consistently want to get more reviews.

So, I think sometimes—I’ve noticed this—that doctors will get a little bit lazy with it. They’ll say, “Well, we got it—you know, we got 500, we got 600, we got 700,” and then they’re not continuing to cultivate new reviews. And their ranking is dropping, and they don’t understand why.

It’s because they’re not meeting the velocity quotient.

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely correct. 100% correct.

And the other thing I want to mention when it comes to building trust is before and after photos, especially for those high-value cases.

So for example—I’m on your Invisalign page or smile makeover page—show me full cases. Like:

• The before picture
• The after picture
• A small write-up
• And the money shot—the full-face after picture.

Nobody likes to not share their beautiful smile. Of course, some may not like to share their ugly smile full-face—I get it—so they do the close-up. But the beautiful after smile—we all like to brag. So take advantage of it.

And use different people—different ages, male vs. female, different skin colors—so I find someone who is kind of like me. And when I find someone that’s similar to me, I’m like, “Oh, I was thinking of buying that car… but now I’m gonna invest in this beautiful smile, and I wanna look like that guy that I see on that page.”

Naren Arulrajah: And they kind of relate to them—maybe similar age, maybe similar skin color, whatever it is. They find something in common, and they think: you’re gonna help them.

It’s called “similar others”—it’s a form of social proof that Dr. Cialdini talks about, and it’s really powerful.

So those are the two tips, Gary:

1. Get 10 or more Google love-letter reviews per month.
2. Add before and afters to every landing page that’s important to you—every high-value service.

Just keep adding them—like one a month, two a month. Before you know it, you’ll have a lot.

Gary Takacs: I’m going to—you know—we’re gonna stick to some controversial topics today, Naren.

Naren Arulrajah: Yes.

Gary Takacs: You know, we’re not shy about dealing with questions that might have a range of opinions. I’m gonna talk about online forms.

My experience with dentists all over the country is—there’s a love-hate relationship with online forms. Some doctors love them. Other offices say, “I had a horrible experience with it.” So I’ve seen some practices successfully add online forms and new patient portal forms.

But, you know—what’s your opinion about forms? Do they help? Or do they perhaps present a hurdle regarding new patient acquisition?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I think—like I said—it’s not a simple answer and there are a lot of caveats. I’m just gonna tell you my thoughts, and I would love to hear your thoughts, Gary.

If your form is short, mobile-friendly, and clearly labeled, and you educate your current—let’s say a patient calls, books an appointment, and you say, “Oh, by the way, just to save you some time, go to this website and fill out XYZ form”—and you do that education as part of that first phone call, then I think it can become an asset.

Remember: short, mobile-friendly, clearly labeled, and it’s part of the new patient conversation you have when the patient calls you for the first time.

But if they’re long, clunky, require downloading PDFs, then work on some devices and not on others—again, remember the magic word in 2025: convenience—and it violates the “convenience first” rule, then don’t do it.

It’s just gonna be—it’s gonna, like—they’re gonna have such a miserable experience by the time they come in, they’re gonna be grouchy. Or they may not even come in, because you just made their life hard.

Gary Takacs: Yeah, yeah. Great, great tip. So, I mean, it really needs to be convenient first on the form.

I have a personal experience with this right now, Naren. Most of our listeners know I’m a distance runner. And recently, I’ve experienced a torn posterior tib tendon in my ankle. And I’m being treated by my sports medicine doc.

And he had the most seamless, easy online forms. It was so easy to do that—I just dove right into it. And I had a good experience with that. Where in other cases—I didn’t have that same level of experience.

Alright, Naren, for a dentist listening right now who wants to improve their online new patient experience—what’s one small fix they could do right now to make a big difference this week?

Naren Arulrajah: This is a great, great, great question, Gary. I would start by looking at your own site and your own online experience—both on a mobile device and on a desktop.

So for example, does it load quickly? If you find it frustrating because it takes too long to load, your patients are going to find it frustrating.

Gary Takacs: Well, and—

Naren Arulrajah: Can I find the phone number—especially on a mobile device?

Gary Takacs: It’s gonna load quickest on your device because of the way your software works.

Naren Arulrajah: That’s true.

Gary Takacs: So if you’re experiencing a clunky experience on your laptop, on your computer, on your tablet, on your phone—it’s gonna be worse for the patient. Is that accurate?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, Gary. You got it. That is 100% accurate. It’s going to be a lot worse for the patient if you are not having an awesome experience.

And I would even challenge you to try it on other people’s devices—slow devices, slow connections—just to see how it feels.

And then, especially on mobile: Do I see the phone number easily accessible, regardless of what page I’m on? And if I just press it, it should call—without me having to figure out the number and dial it myself.

Again: convenience, convenience, convenience.

Does it feel warm and trustworthy? For example, the homepage should have a nice picture of the doctor and/or the team—perhaps even a welcome video. Does it feel warm and trustworthy?

And part of the way to build trust could be having personal pictures and personal stories—“Hey, the doctor loves to travel”—and having those pictures. So people feel like, “Oh yeah, I like to travel,” and, “He likes to travel,” and we have something in common.

“Oh, he has a pet and I have a pet”—we have something in common. Same thing for the team members.

Naren Arulrajah: Does it feel warm and trustworthy?

And last but not least: Does it show up? If you have to buy your traffic through ads, you’re starting in a weak spot. Because they don’t trust you—because they know you bought that traffic through ads.

So, do you show up on:

• AI Overview
• AI Mode
• Google Search
• Google Maps

All of the above?

Today it’s five choices. Five years ago, or 10 years ago, it was only search. So you have to show up everywhere—not just for one or two phrases, but hundreds—like we’ve been talking about for a long time.

Gary Takacs: Yeah. And if there’s a theme throughout this episode, it really is all about building trust before they contact you. Before contact.

I think one of the easiest ways to do that—and I know this is maybe not the answer that many of you want to hear, but I think you need to hear it anyway—I think the easiest thing you could do is create a welcome video. You, doctor, welcoming new patients to your practice.

That can be very short. It can be less than a minute. And I know right now some of you are thinking, “Oh my gosh, I hate doing those. Absolutely hate doing those.”

And I’m gonna be very blunt with you—get over it. Get over it.

I don’t care how many times you have to practice doing a 60-second welcome video. That will do more in creating trust before contact than many other things you can do.

So get good. Welcome them. Make it a short, snappy video. And you may have to do multiple takes to get it, but get that on your website, and that will go a long way towards creating trust before they ever contact you.

Agree or disagree, Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, Gary. I think the way I like to think about it—and I know I’m gonna touch on mindsets, and you and I are big fans of mindsets—the mindset that made you a successful dentist, which is being a perfectionist, works against you.

Because in your mind, that video is not perfect. So you don’t want to publish it. And it goes on, and on, and on—and 10 years later, you haven’t published a single video, right?

But in the world of the internet, you can post something today, and if you don’t like it and have a better one tomorrow—change it. You know what I mean?

But think of it this way: A video that doesn’t meet your perfectionist standard is still better than no video.

Gary Takacs: I mean, some tips on that—you can literally say—and I’ll role-play as if I was a dentist. All of you know that I’m not a dentist, so let me make that statement right from the bat.

But, yeah—“I’m Gary Takacs, and I wanted to take a minute in this video to welcome you as a patient to our practice. You know, I love doing all kinds of dentistry—pardon my enthusiasm around dentistry—but I love helping our patients have beautiful, healthy smiles.

I love doing many aspects of dentistry, but I especially love helping patients with…”

And now—insert. You can insert whatever is true for you. It could be:

• Helping patients with dental implants
• Helping patients with cosmetic dentistry
• Helping patients that are experiencing issues with sleep apnea
• Helping patients that are experiencing TMD or TMJ issues

Fill that in—whatever is true for you.

“I love being a dentist. I love helping patients with their dental health. I especially love helping people with…” and then fill that in.

And that could be less than a minute. And, you know, the first one might not meet your approval, but hit re-record and redo it until it does.

Alright, Naren, I love that you’ve connected the dots between technology, psychology, trust. We’ve added the AI component to it.

Creating a remarkable new patient experience online is not just about fancy tools—it’s about removing friction and building confidence.

Would you say that’s accurate? Did I summarize that?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, again—it’s a marriage of technology, psychology, and trust, and it’s about removing friction and building confidence. You said it perfectly, Gary.

Gary Takacs: And if your website is getting a little bit long in the tooth—I guess I used a dental phrase there—if it’s getting a little bit long in the tooth, it’s probably time to redo it.

So, if you’re listening and wondering how to improve your online patient journey, perfect time to take a look at your marketing foundation—and the experts you use to help you with your marketing.

Our friends at EKWA Marketing—they’ve been the agency that I’ve used at my LifeSmiles practice for now eight years. They specialize in helping practices design the online experience and turn visitors into loyal patients.

If you have more interest, I would encourage you to schedule a marketing strategy meeting. Naren, what URL would you like them to use to schedule a marketing strategy meeting?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely, Gary. The URL is ekwa.com/msm. We’ll put it in the show notes: ekwa.com/msm.

It’s a 60-minute meeting—we spend six hours preparing for it. We look at you, we look at your competition, we look at your presence on Google Maps, on Search, on AI.

Step one—we’ll tell you: Are you ranking? Are you in that top 5% that is ranking for 100 or more keywords and therefore getting 95% of the free traffic?

If not—where do you stand? Where does your competition stand?

Then we’ll get into the reasons behind why you are doing well—or why you are not. Perhaps of the six areas Google cares about, four you are crushing, but two are holding you back. What are those two?

We’ll not only do that—we’ll also give you a roadmap and a plan on how to do all the things Google cares about well, so by the end of 12 months, you can be in that top 5%. You can rank for 400 or more keywords, and you can get a large number of new patients calling your office.

Naren Arulrajah: Of course, we do call tracking—we help you find out where the problems and opportunities are. Perhaps your SEO is great, but maybe your phone experience is not that great. Perhaps your phone experience is great, but your landing pages could be improved. Or perhaps it’s your Google Reviews.

So we work with you to not only make your marketing work, but also to find out: Are your new patient numbers growing? And if they’re not—what do we do to fix it?

We’d love to help. ekwa.com/msm. It’s all a gift to you. Book that meeting and if you like what you heard, write a nice review for us.

Gary Takacs: Well, as we come to the finish line here, I’ll extend an invitation to our listeners.

If you’re interested in coaching—to help you develop your ideal practice—maybe you’re interested in reducing your insurance footprint, successfully resigning from PPO plans… maybe you’re interested in really getting serious about designing an effective work-life balance…

Maybe there are areas of your practice you want to grow—you want to do more adult orthodontics, more Invisalign, more implants, more complex restorative dentistry, or maybe you want to help patients that are experiencing sleep apnea.

If any of those interest you, I’d encourage you to schedule a Coaching Strategy Meeting—a CSM—with me. That’d be with me, over Zoom.

Go to thrivingdentist.com/csm . It opens up my calendar. You can pick a time that works for you, and I’d love the opportunity to meet you online.

Gary Takacs: We’ll talk about your practice, talk about your goals. And if it’s appropriate, we will share how we might be able to help.

We are accepting new clients. We don’t always accept new clients—sometimes we have a waitlist—but we are accepting new clients.

And as you start thinking about the new year—maybe it’s time to make 2026 your best year yet.

Go to thrivingdentist.com/csm—I’d love the opportunity to meet you.

On that note, let me simply say—thank you from Naren and I. Thank you for the privilege of your time. We look forward to connecting with you on the next Thriving Dentist Show.