Patient falloff is one of the most significant challenges faced by dental practices. The dental industry is competitive and patients often visit your practice only once. Other leads call your practice after hours and hang up when they can't reach anyone. 75% of these leads will not leave a voicemail and 85% of them will not call your practice again. How do you capture these leads instead of losing them? Another challenge is balancing time management with great customer service. How much of your dental staff's time is spent just booking appointments, calling patients to remind them of appointments, and rescheduling and cancelling appointments? A dental reminder tool and marketing automation might be just what you need.
The infographic below helps illustrate the challenges dental practices face. Revenue loss, in many cases, is caused when patients are not able to interact with dental staff. A telephone answering service and automated dental marketing tools help solve this problem and contributes to an increase in consistent revenue. This infographic was originally posted by DentalMarketing.net in "Why Your Practice is Losing Money." Read more below to learn how automated communication reduces no-shows and brings in more business.
Increase repeat business and build loyalty
Customers appreciate businesses that take the time to connect with them. Often, the best way to get patients back into your practice is also the simplest: give them a call! Keeping up with every patient's checkup and cleaning schedule is a lot of work for your staff.
Simplify the process and boost efficiency by automating dental service reminder calls. An automated voicemail solution tracks each customer's dental schedule and provides timely calls when it's time to make an appointment. When the call reaches the patient, they can simply press a number to be transferred through to your receptionist for appointment booking.
Automation saves staff time while still providing high-quality service for your patients.
Reduce no-shows using a dental reminder tool
Once an appointment is booked, a patient's schedule may change or they may simply lose track of the appointment date. A dental reminder tool such as an automated voicemail solution also keeps patients updated by providing automated reminders. You can set up automated reminders for whatever intervals are best for your patients. Automated reminders may be sent out a week before, a day before, or even the day of the appointment.
Automated reminders reduce the amount of patients who will forget the time or not show up at all. With a reminder, the patient will remember to cancel their appointment if their schedule changes. Then you can reschedule other patients to fill the empty appointment slot. This prevents lost revenue due to last minute cancellations.
Reduce patient falloff after hours
When patients call your practice after your normal hours of operation, ensure that someone is there to answer their calls. The receptionist is able to engage patients instead of having them simply hang up. Talking with a real person encourages the patient to book an appointment. The receptionist will answer any questions that the patient has, provide additional information and schedule a convenient appointment time for patients.
Having an after-hours receptionist is also important for connecting with current patients. When a patient needs to reschedule their appointment but can't get in touch with a receptionist, they often just leave a voicemail cancelling their appointment. If a receptionist answers, however, they may easily reschedule the patient's appointment based on availability.
You can either schedule a staff member to answer phones for your practice after hours or use a telephone answering service. A telephone answering service provides receptionist services for your practice as needed. Look for an affordable service with a reliable and trustworthy reputation.
Try automated dental marketing tools today!
Contact the SimplyCast sales team for more information about our platform and all the ways you can save time, increase patient loyalty, and increase staff efficiency using dental marketing tools like automation!
