NDA Journal 10 If you’re asking patients to provide a video testimonial, it may feel like an unnecessary step, but consider initially asking them, “What do you enjoy about the practice? What might you share about this practice on camera?” Your goal in asking them this question is to learn ahead of time what they’ll say on camera and to get them to start thinking about what they’ll say. All too often, well-intentioned patients blurt things out on camera like, “I love this practice because they are so cheap,” or “Dr. Smith is great because I can call them on their mobile phone over the weekend and they respond!” Yikes, both statements might be true, but they should be kept on the DL and not included in the final edit of the video. Of course, statements like this can be easily edited out, but you want to ensure you don’t invest time in having a patient provide a testimonial that is bland, flat, or even one you can’t use. Gently suggest to patients offering a testimonial that they do a little thinking about what they’ll say before the cameras start rolling—maybe even practice what they’ll say in front of a mirror or a friend/family member just a little bit. Patients, dentists, and just about everyone who hasn’t been on camera before assume that they can just “wing it.” And in truth, some can. However, for most of us, doing a little preparation and visualizing what we’re going to say ahead of time will help tremendously. You don’t need to give patients the third degree about what they’ll say on camera—let it come from their heart but guiding them a little and helping to clarify what they’ll say might make a mediocre video testimonial a great one. Just asking them ahead of time, “What do you think you’ll share/say?” is enough to get them to do a little don’t ask friends and family members to provide fake patient testimonials). Friends and family members usually are more willing to help, and they don’t often require any compensation! Nevertheless, it might be nice to provide anyone outside of the dental team with a gift card, free whitening, or some small token of appreciation for taking time out of their day to help you. BONUS TIP: Consider bringing in a veggie/fruit plate or some doughnuts for people to nosh on while they are not on camera. BEING PREPARED ON THE DAY OF FILMING It usually takes a film crew about an hour or so to set up, so if you’re filming first thing in the morning, perhaps plan on having at least one person arrive an hour early to let the crew in to move their gear in and set up. Note: expect the video crew to need 20–40 minutes to pack up their gear after the shoot has wrapped up. Building off this first point, video crews typically have a lot of gear, so they must find a safe out-of-theway place in the practice to store it. Before the video crew arrives, consider a lower-traffic area of the office where they could store their gear. Make certain there isn’t any printed/ digital sensitive information (or valuables) lying about. It might be tempting to squeeze a few patients in, perhaps schedule a prophy or two, during the shoot, but it’s not recommended. You won’t be able to give your full attention to your patients or to your video crew, so outside of an emergency patient, avoid scheduling appointments during the video shoot. If you are conducting interviews (often called “aRoll”) or patient testimonials, make sure you can thinking before they get on camera, and that often results in a better testimonial. If you do ask patients to appear on camera, ask them to sign a media release form. Yes, every patient who appears on camera should sign one of these forms. Your video professionals should provide you with one to hand out. If they don’t, ask for one. More important, provide these to patients BEFORE the day of the shoot so they have time to review, sign, and then return them via email. Having patients sign one of these forms right before they jump in front of a camera just adds a layer of stress, so it’s best to have them sign the form before the day of the shoot. It’s important to note that if you don’t acquire signed media releases, anyone who is not an employee of the practice could potentially change their mind about being in the video long after it’s been uploaded and on your website. They can request that you remove them from the video, which means you’ll need to contact the video professionals and pay to have the video edited without the person who no longer wants to be in the video. Having non-employees sign a release form can help guard against this, so it’s worth the bother. As a last note about who is and isn’t in your video, many practices don’t recruit actual patients to come in. Instead, they opt for friends and family members to pose as patients while bRoll footage is filmed (no, they Featured Article » Ensuring everyone shows up on time is like oral care: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
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