New patients are important for any dental practice, but remember, your practice’s real lifeblood is your existing patients. Because potential patients trust you to take care of them year after year and they refer more great patients to your practice.
Do you know?
Annually, an average dental practice loses almost 18% of their patients due to attrition. If your active patient base is 2000 patients, that means you are losing nearly 300 active patients every year! Yes, it may be shocking news for you! But, believe us, it’s harsh truth!
According to recent reports, the average value of a dental patient is $533 per year. At this rate, due to attrition, you are losing nearly $138K annually. Always remember, unless your practice attracts over 20 new patients every month, then it indicates that your practice is not growing in a proper way…it is just shrinking.
As we know, recall is very important. In fact, it’s a bit tough to attract potential patients than new patients. And with an average broken appointment rate of 20%, you may lose another sixty thousand dollars annually due to broken hygiene appointments. So, filling last-minute cancellations and reappointing patients is also critical.
But the problem is that most dental practices don’t have a well-defined software system to prevent patients from falling through the cracks, and there is never enough time to work the recall. There are several disruptions with the phones constantly ringing and patients checking in and out.
And to be honest, dental staff never likes to work on the recall section since it is a time-consuming process.
Recall Solution
Let’s explore the three key steps to ensure that your practice’s schedule is full and your patients keep coming back.
1. Schedule patients while they are still in your dental practice!
Some practices strive to pre-schedule 100% of their patients. But never pre-schedule patients who frequently waste your precious time by breaking their appointments. Only pre-appoint your loyal patients, and let others know that they will receive a reminder from your practice when it is time to schedule. In this case, Interphase can streamline this by automatically identifying patients who frequently break appointments using KPI metrics and a visual dashboard, which saves a lot of your time.
2. Automate your outreach efforts
Appointment Automation helps you schedule your patients, who want to come in. It often takes multiple approaches to connect with patients before they make an appointment. Your automated follow-up system must be consistent but not overbearing. Interphase helps practices fill their schedule and last-minute cancellations with a powerful and fully customizable sequence of follow-up messages to reach every patient. Your staff can fill last-minute appointment holes in your schedule with minimal effort by using the online appointment system.
3. Schedule your patients’ appointments, which are not far in advance
The longer they wait, the more likely the patients may cancel as their motivation subsides. Allow patients to text your practice using two-way text, and start utilizing Online Scheduling to make it easy for your patients to schedule their appointments. Using Online Scheduling by Interphase, patients will be able to schedule appointments even when your practice is closed. It will save your staff time to focus on patients and create a personalized experience for everyone who calls or comes to the practice.
The Bottom Line: A strong and seamless recall system is required!
Don’t put your recall on auto-pilot. You can keep your patients coming back to you like clock-work year after year, and gain more great patients to your practice by automating some tasks to save your staff’s time. Click here to learn more about Interphase.
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