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Have you thought about how to best utilize the minutes your patients/parents spend in your reception room? If not, you’re wasting an opportunity to both educate and engage. Orthodontic Products spoke to Charis Santillie, founder and president of Kaleidoscope, a company that offers in-office digital marketing displays. She talks to us about how in-office digital marketing can help patients/parents discover new things about your practice and build lasting relationships. Moreover, she offers insight into what kinds of content really connect with today’s patient/parent.

Orthodontic Products: What’s Kaleidoscope’s focus?

Charis Santillie: Kaleidoscope is stunning digital marketing displayed on a TV in your reception area that engages patients and parents to build lasting relationships. Our goal is to market your practice with personalized content that highlights you and your team, patients, social media, contests, events, etc. Our commitment is to provide you with an exceptional quality product, outstanding service, and professional content.

OP: How can in-office digital marketing displays help a practice?

Santillie: I’ve had an insider viewpoint of the orthodontic industry for 20 years, including being involved in my husband’s practice as well as working with hundreds of doctors to promote their practices in a variety of ways. One of the primary benefits of in-office digital marketing is providing key educational moments. For example, in our industry, we are challenged to get important messages out to parents, such as the importance of seeing kids at age 7. Digital marketing can accomplish this and much more. It immediately grabs attention to make a solid first impression prior to exams, it builds relationships, and it offers a beautiful way to have patients/parents discover new things about your practice.

OP: How has in-office marketing changed in the last decade?

Santillie: Years ago, doctors showed too much clinical and office-focused information, which didn’t successfully engage patients/parents. Subtle marketing has become the new norm in advertising. By showing a mix of fun facts and interesting tidbits of information, imagery, and short video clips, along with personalized content, practices are more effectively grabbing the attention of patients/parents. I am seeing more and more offices move away from showing standard TV news or programs that only appeal to some people. We’ve seen that there is an inherent perception of a practice with digital marketing as being more cutting-edge and more appealing. Practices also want something very simple to use that automatically updates.

OP: What kind of content best connects with patients/parents?

Santillie: Having something interesting on the screen that is not always related to the practice (trivia, sports, travel, fun facts, etc) is crucial. That’s what intrigues people to watch, and then they come to learn a few things here and there about your practice. We’ve also found that simplicity of what is showing on the screen at one time is more impactful than busy messaging. People really want something to watch that is relaxing and entertaining, with quick visual bites they can grasp.

OP: Can you tell us about Kaleidoscope’s new relationship with Henry Schein.

Santillie: Kaleidoscope is part of Henry Schein Orthodontics’ (HSO) Practice Solutions offerings. This exclusive alliance offers special pricing to HSO clients to promote their practices with Kaleidoscope. HSO sees Kaleidoscope as a valuable in-office marketing solution to support their doctors’ success while educating patients/parents on cutting-edge technologies. We’re proud to be working with HSO, who follows a principle of “Doing well by doing good.” Their culture of caring makes it a great fit for Kaleidoscope.

OP: What trends are you seeing in digital marketing?

Santillie: The digital signage market is expected to grow nearly 50% by 2023; digital marketing is effective and here to stay. It is constantly evolving which is why this year we’ve launched our new, enhanced edition that includes numerous innovative features. Dynamic content is in demand, leading us to expand our social media feeds and include options to incorporate videos from sites like Facebook and YouTube. Advanced users have also let us know what’s important to them is more flexibility, so we’ve added new capabilities where they can create totally custom content with ease at no additional cost.

OP: What’s next for Kaleidoscope?

Santillie: You can count on us to listen to our customers and consistently evolve Kaleidoscope to improve the waiting room experience. We will also continue to provide free initial account customization and 50+ monthly automatic updates of fresh content to our clients, while growing our library of 3,500+ professionally-designed layouts and thousands of hand-selected high definition photos. OP