Keeping patients’ attention while they are in your waiting room is much more difficult than it used to be, for one very simple reason: people’s attention spans are a lot shorter than they used to be.

The BRIEF Lab has a recent survey out that shows the average attention span back in 2000 was about twelve seconds. As of last year, it’s gone down to only eight seconds! (To put that in perspective, the average goldfish has an attention span of nine seconds.)

Why? Because there’s such a bombardment of information from so many different sources that we’ve been trained not to engage with any one activity for very long.

The Waiting Room

If you want to have influence over anyone, you need to get right to the point.

And you know who really wants to get people’s attention? Business owners and professionals just like you whose livelihood depends on successful marketing!

The question is,  how can you capture someone’s attention within that eight-second window?

Let’s focus on what your patients do when they’re sitting in your waiting room.

As a dentist or orthodontist, you know that the waiting room is a prime example of a zone that could be beneficial to your practice—if your patients pay attention to the marketing messages you’re displaying on your waiting room TV.

Unfortunately, there’s a major distraction that will compete for their attention: the smartphone. Patients in the waiting room are only going to sit there for a few seconds before they decide they’re bored and pull out their phones.

Within that narrow window of opportunity, it’s up to you to craft a compelling display that makes them want to look at the TV instead of playing “Angry Birds”on their phones for the thousandth time.

The Right Content

What content can actually keep your patients engaged? Some of the best features of MyProViewer include purely informative data like the local weather or various news feeds. You can also include non-promotional information and fun facts about dentistry or orthodontics, which relate to your practice without being in-your-face marketing.

Other great content can include eye-catching images or even videos. MyProViewer supports up to 1080p high definition, which looks absolutely stunning on a flat-screen television!

All this translates to a television experience that can attract and hold your patients’ attention while they’re waiting for their appointments to begin. While you have their attention, you can subtly include information about other services you offer—such as cosmetic procedures—to gain more business.

It all starts with those first few seconds of contact. You need to capture the patient’s interest by then, or you’ll lose it altogether. To that end, don’t forget about using customizable templates to make the display your own while still retaining the professionalism that you’re looking for in your marketing efforts.

Now that you know how hard it is to get anyone’s attention these days, you can focus on using MyProViewer to display the kind of content people will tune in to.

We’re here every step of the way to make sure you get a fantastic waiting room marketing tool!

The MyProViewer Team

It’s What Your Waiting Room is Waiting For!