Prepare your chiropractic practice for the voice search revolution

Voice recognition presents a wide variety of opportunities for chiropractors both in their work at the practice and in outreach to new patients.

All over our culture, the Internet continues to change how people work and interact with their world. You can take advantage of this trend to stand out to new patients and also to become more efficient at work than ever before.

To get in on using voice at your practice, think about where and how you want to start using it. For instance, do you plan to implement it in your marketing, or just for your own operations.

Keep reading for more information and tips on voice recognition.

Marketing your practice

Voice search is now a much more important part of using search engines for many people. Search sites and tools such as Google rank website results based in a large part on traffic to those sites and optimization for users. If you want to rank well with Google, there are strategies you can use.

Start out by thinking about how people actually use voice search. Are people in your area using voice recognition to search for the word “chiropractors,” or (more likely) are they searching “where’s the nearest Seattle chiropractor?” or “find a Boston chiropractor near me.”

Voice searches are closer to how we, as humans, actually talk and phrase our questions. You can help potential new patients find you by identifying the keywords people search for and the questions they commonly ask their search engine.

As such, some keywords probably aren’t as important to your practice, at least not by themselves. Not only is it more challenging to rank highly for “chiropractor” on Google, as you’re competing with every other chiropractic practice for the honor of a top listing in search results, but it’s also probably not as useful for your practice, anyway.

If your practice is located in Tampa and you’re looking for Tampa, Florida patients (and maybe some folks from surrounding areas who are willing to travel), then it makes much more sense to rank for keywords that pair “chiropractor” with “Tampa.” You’re not worried about missing out on business from Seattle patients-you know being successful locally is your priority when you’re trying to build foot traffic.

Efficiency at your practice

Voice recognition software has enormous practical use in the clinic as well. Dictation lends itself naturally to being paired with voice recognition and search, since you’re already speaking your notes and not simply writing them down. Voice can help you take notes more easily and at a faster rate, too.

When you speak your notes, you can create real-time updates to the patient records instead of having to type out the information later. Using search, you can quickly find the information you need.

If you’re frustrated by how busy you are and concerned about getting it all done and having enough time to devote to each patient, voice recognition can really help speed-up the process of documentation. This can help you find more time to spend during individual patient encounters, and may even help you with burnout.

Voice recognition can take more of the time-consuming effort out of updating EHR and managing your compliance issues. Plus, you have a recorded file you can refer to later. Accuracy has greatly improved on voice recognition and many EHR vendors offer systems with robust compatibility with voice, so you can probably get a system set up without too much concern about accuracy issues.

Get vocal

Ready to bring voice recognition and search to your practice? Ask your EHR vendor (or other software vendors, as applicable) how to get started. It may take a little practice and your system may need to adjust to your unique voice, but once you get started, voice software may be tremendously helpful to your practice’s growth and operations.

Sources:

1. Catley, J. “How Medical Marketers Can Optimize For Voice Search To Boost Local Search Rankings.” MD Connect. https://www.mdconnectinc.com/medical-marketing-insights/medical-marketers-voice-search-local-search-rankings. Published: September 2017. Accessed: April 2018.

2. Cryts, A. “Voice Recognition Is A Potential Tool To Use In The EHR.” Physicians Practice online. http://www.physicianspractice.com/ehr/voice-recognition-potential-tool-use-ehr. Published: March 2017. Accessed: April 2018.