An Interview with Sesame Communications
Diana P. Friedman
President and Chief Executive Officer
INSIDE DENTISTRY (ID): Sesame Communications uses online tools to help dental practices. For dentists who are not familiar with your company, what makes it unique?
Diana P. Friedman (DPF): Sesame is unique for two reasons. First of all, we only service the dental industry. Dentistry is a highly specialized area. Our sole focus is helping practices within this industry drive new patient acquisition and a loyal patient community that adheres to schedules, pays bills on time, and refers friends and family to the practices.
Secondly, we provide a complete online solution for dental practices. Sesame 24-7™ is the only solution today that helps dental practices effectively manage every aspect of patient engagement. We understand the patient engagement life cycle for dentistry in its entirety and ensure that all practice-to-patient (prospective and existing) online communication touch points are optimized to present a consistent online brand that drives sustained growth and profitability.
Sesame has a proven track record of sustained success with practices and a long history of innovation championing best-of-class solutions in the dental market.
ID: What does Sesame Communications offer to help dental practices grow?
DPF: We have helped thousands of dentists build and maintain highly profitable practices year after year, through strong and lean years in our economy. The success of Sesame is driven by the results we are able to secure for our Members. We have a team dedicated exclusively to researching the impact all of our solutions have and proving their return on investment (ROI). We help our Members identify this impact by providing comprehensive analytical dashboard with metrics such as website traffic, new patient calls, appointment confirmations, online payments, and much more. This practice dashboard is accessible 24-7 from any device, be it a smartphone, iPad, or computer.
For instance, a comprehensive research study proved that Members utilizing three Sesame online solutions (such as SEO, Social Media Management and Pay per Click Advertising) received an average of 21 self-identified new patient calls per month. In another study, we documented that our Members who switched from a previous automated appointment reminder system to Dental Sesame experienced, on average, 21.31% fewer no-shows in one year after activating our solution. These are just two examples of the kind of ROI data points and results we provide our Members.
ID: What inspires the forward motion of Sesame in today’s marketplace?
DPF: Innovation is what has made Sesame successful in the past and is what will continue to inspire and contribute to our growth in the future. We have found that innovation does not cannibalize what we already offer. It adds incremental practice value.
ID: Can you give us an example of a recent innovation?
DPF: A perfect example of this is the newly launched partnership with Healthgrades (the leading online resource that helps consumers search, compare, and connect with physicians, healthcare providers, and hospitals). A Healthgrades Enhanced Profile is only available from Sesame and offers dental practices featured provider placement and unparalleled access to more than 20 million searches from prospective patients looking to make an appointment with a new dental care provider. For the first time, we are able to take the reviews and post appointment feedback that we get from patients, populate them into preferred profiles on Healthgrades, and make sure that those preferred profiles are top and center when a consumer goes online. Our innovations are all strategic and built to deliver success to the practice. We ask ourselves what the issues are, what challenges a dental practice faces, and how we can leverage technology to address those in an effective manner.
