You’re good, but it doesn’t show on Google. Your profile has few photos, outdated hours or the wrong category, and the map shows another practice down the street first.
AI assistants don’t mention you. More and more people ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Mode “which dentist do you recommend near me?”. If your information isn’t clear and consistent across your website, the map and directories, you don’t get named.
The front desk lives on WhatsApp. “Do you take my insurance?”, “any openings on Thursday?”, “where are you?”. The same questions, all day long. And the messages that arrive at night get answered the next morning.
Appointments slip through the cracks. Patients who forget, gaps in the schedule nobody gets round to offering, a spreadsheet only one person understands.
Typical situation: a two-chair dental practice where the receptionist spends the first hour of the day confirming tomorrow’s appointments on WhatsApp, one by one.