Dental Benefit (Use it or Lose it) Reminders, Tips, and Ideas
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Dental Benefit (Use it or Lose it) Reminders, Tips, and Ideas

Hello Friends,

The month of September is a great month to get your “Use it or Lose it!” letters and emails out to your patients. This is for all of your patients that have dental benefits that renew on January 1st .and patients with FSA or HSA dollars that expire at the end of the year. Especially helpful for your patients that are /pastdue/due/or due this year for their hygiene visit and/or with treatment that is yet to be started or needs to be completed and their remaining dental insurance maximums are getting ready to expire.

 

remaining dental max letter

Time to remind them to Use it or Lose it! – Get your letters, emails and text messages out to your patients reminding them to use any insurance benefits they have remaining for the year to complete any needed treatment or for their continuing care hygiene appointment before they lose them.

Some offices choose to mail these letters out in early September. I think October works well too.  Remember, the closer it gets to the end of the year the more difficult it becomes to get them to schedule and you may not even have room in your schedule to accommodate them.

Your goal is to get them from the filing cabinet/computer to the schedule!

Personalize  – When mailing out remaining maximum letters, be sure to customize for each patient according to their treatment plan. This will help to re-create the urgency and value for treatment.  For some patients, it will take some type of additional incentive to get them to act. Perhaps, include a gift certificate for $ off of their treatment if it’s completed and paid for by December 31st. Not redeemable for cash. Or the opportunity to enter a raffle for a really great prize!

Here is a scripting idea for your “Use it or Lose it! letters:

2018 is just around the corner! We want to remind you to take advantage of any unused dental insurance benefits. Make sure to use all available benefits to complete any outstanding treatment or for your all important preventive dental hygiene appointment. Almost all plans do not let you rollover unused dollars to the next benefit year. So, Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em!

If you have funds set aside in a flexible spending account (FSA) or healthcare saving account (HSA), now is the time to schedule treatment so your co-payment amounts can be applied to this year’s deductions.

Call us today to schedule your appointment. We find that the holiday season is always our “busy time” and we are certain it is a very busy time for you too. 

Beat the end of year rushes and get in early, our phone number is ………

We’re ready to help you smile healthier & happier in 2018!

Take this opportunity to add a P.S. message to the end of your letter, telling your patients all about your specials on teeth whitening. Many people at this time of year are looking to whiten their teeth for their end of year celebration family photos, or to buy gifts for family and friends.

For example… 

P.S. Now is a great time to whiten & brighten your smile for your end of year celebration photos. We have some fantastic whitening specials! Teeth whitening gift cards also make a wonderful gift.

P.P.S. Did you know we are on Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter? “Like” us on Facebook at … and “follow” us on Instagram, and Twitter at …- This way you can stay up to date with all our office events & news plus have a chance at exclusive offers & contests.

Mailing Tip –  Use a bright-colored envelope and neatly hand-write the name and address. Use a “live” stamp. This will take a little more time to do but your patients are more likely to open an envelope that looks like it’s  from a friend and not their dentist.

Phone Calls – About a week after you mail out your letters, go ahead and start calling them to see if they received the letter and to schedule them an appointment.

Document – Be sure to document that a letter was mailed, phone calls were made and what type of response you received from each patient.

Important Reminder – Before sending out these letters and making calls to your patients be sure to review your upcoming appointment schedule… Where is your open chair time? Will pre-blocking some open time be helpful? Also, before scheduling last minute appointments that require lab work, be sure to communicate with your lab guy/gal that they can, in fact, get these cases back to you in time.

Wishing you all a full schedule for the end of the year!

Please comment below to share your ideas or to give this post a like.

Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea!

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

P.S. Please stop by and say hello to me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest

Dental Tips and Ideas for National Apple Month
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Dental Tips and Ideas for National Apple Month

Hello Friends,

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” – Martin Luther

This post isn’t about planting apple trees, it is, however, about planting dental marketing seeds during October’s National Apple Month. We’re going to use apples as our dental marketing seeds.

Here are some dental tips and ideas to help your dental office celebrate apple month!

fall dental marketing ideas

 

Exceed Patient Expectations – 

Give-Away – Set out a nice bowl/basket of apples to give to your patients’ and delivery people.

Gift Basket Drawing – Make an Apple tree and every time a patient comes in for an appointment during the month you add an apple with their first name on it (full name on the back) and use it for a drawing to win an apple themed gift basket filled with goodies.

You could even promote that via your social media sites. (Perhaps extend the drawing to new office Facebook likes.)

Events in the Community – Create a hand-out for your patients listing the best local cider mills and apple orchards. Include any fall-themed events taking place in your community.

Marketing to local businesses –

Who will you visit in the community?

  • Schools
  • Salons
  • City Hall / Police Station / Fire Department
  • Library

And anywhere else you think might be a good place to bring in new patients from. At the very least, you’ll be building healthy & fun relationships with the folks in your community.

What will you bring?

  • Basket of Apples
  • Donuts and Apple Cider
  • Apple Pie
  • Toothbrush or Lip Balm attached to an apple-shaped gift tag.

Be sure that when you deliver these items, your office information is visible. Maybe include some sort of call to action special offer.

Visit my Pinterest Apple board for more ideas.

An apple a day won’t keep your dental office away!

Marketing via your Social Media Sites: Here are just a few ways to utilize your social media sites during apple season.

Facebook –  

Post the dental health benefits of apples, apple recipes, & craft ideas to your office Facebook page. Solicit comments, likes, and shares.

Invite your patients to:

to post a picture of them apple picking or at a cider mill onto your office Facebook page.

(Have your team members do this as well.)

Team Building Activity – Get your team together to make apple sauce, apple pie filling, caramel sauce, or an apple/cinnamon sugar scrub. Put it in little jars with a ribbon and label with your office information. You can then give away as gifts to your new patients and or referring doctors/specialists. How fun is that?!

So many different ways to help exceed the expectations of your current patients and to hopefully, bring in many new patients just by planting little seeds every chance you get or create.

I would love to hear all about your plans to make October a great month. If you need help creating a fun & effective dental marketing campaign for your office, contact me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com to set up a complimentary consultation.

Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea

 Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

P.S. Please stop by and say hello to me on  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest

Dental Tips and Ideas for your Local School District
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Dental Tips and Ideas for your Local School District

Hello Friends,

With the back-to-school season in full swing, there is no need to wait until February’s Dental Health month to reach out to the local schools in your neighborhood, start early in the school year building relationships with school staff & the families that attend these schools.

Here are just a few easy, inexpensive & effective ways for your dental office to reach out to your local schools.

 

dental office marketing ideas for schools

Gifts for School Staff – Choose one, two, or more schools (depending on the size of the teaching staff) and deliver some treats to show your appreciation for the work they do in caring for the children in your community. Some ideas: Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Toothbrush goodie bags, Lip balm, etc. Be sure that your office information is clearly imprinted on any toothbrushes or small gifts. See my Pinterest boards for gift ideas…

and/or

Host a Favorite Teacher Contest  – Invite local students to nominate their favorite teacher. Winning teacher gets FREE teeth whitening and a certificate stating they won for the favorite teacher contest. The classroom with the winning teacher gets a gift card for school supplies or pizza/ice cream lunch.

You could easily ask for donations from local businesses to add to the winning teacher’s prize or for the classroom.

This can be promoted via your office website, newsletters, postcards, emails, office social media sites, local newspapers and signs in your office.

Have fun with it and be sure to share lots of pictures on your social media pages.

Donations – Use your office as a community donation site for school supplies or new & gently used books to be donated to local children and/or schools in need. Advertise in office, on your social media sites, to local businesses and the news media via press release that your office is collecting donations for school supplies or books.

This is a GREAT way to bring in potential new patients… when folks come into the office to drop off their donations, be sure to warmly welcome them, give a brief tour of the office, hand out small thank you gifts that are imprinted with your office information or have a raffle they can enter to win a prize.

Book Fairs – Many schools will be hosting book fairs this school year.  And if your local school(s) are anything like mine, these book fairs draw a very large crowd.

Create fun, interesting Bookmarks for your local schools that include your office contact information. Deliver these bookmarks as a gift to the local schools to use during their book fairs. Easy! Right?

Just a few more ideas…

Social Media Sites – Post school-related content to your social media sites, such as:

  • Back to School Tips
  • Healthy Lunch/Snack ideas
  • What to do in a Dental Emergency?
  • Ortho care while at school
  • Dental Health (importance of, regular check-ups, sealants, mouthguards, fluoride & braces)

Give-Away – Or have a school-themed gift that you’ll raffle off.  Promote via your social media sites. Allow for your current patients and potential patients to TAG their favorite teacher in the post for a chance to win the gift. Encourage them to share the post on their pages.

Tooth bags – Make up a little bags or boxes with a “congratulations on your lost tooth” message from your office with space to write the child’s name. Deliver these to local elementary schools for them to keep on hand for when a student loses a tooth during the school day. Both of my kids have come home with a tooth wrapped in a napkin or in a plain Ziplock bag. Why not take advantage of this opportunity to advertise your office?

For additional ideas to use with local schools see February’s Children’s Dental Health Month and October/November’s Candy Buy Back. Also, my Marketing Ideas for August have some nice ideas for you to use with students & teachers.

I have witnessed firsthand just how effective marketing to local schools can be. The opportunity to bring in many new patient families to your practice is huge. If you are interested in hiring me to help your office create a custom marketing campaign, please contact me today at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com  for a complimentary consultation.

Please feel free to share with me your ideas for marketing to local schools or if you have any dental marketing questions that I can help you answer, please comment below.

Have you signed up to receive my complimentary dental marketing and practice management ideas that are sent right to your email inbox each month? If not, take a second and sign up. Or send me your email address and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea!

We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest stop by and say hello. 

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty