hygiene appointments

Quick Fix Tips to Fill Unexpected Holes in the Dental Hygiene Schedule
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Quick Fix Tips to Fill Unexpected Holes in the Dental Hygiene Schedule

Hello Friends,

Holes in the dental hygiene schedule, why do we dread this so much? Because, unfilled appointments, canceled, or missed appointments all kill profitability.

So what do you do? You probably are desperate for a quick fix to fill the holes in the schedule. Right? Well, I’ll help you out by sharing some ideas to fill the hygiene schedule as a quick fix. However, I must say a quick fix is typically only a temporary fix. If holes in the schedule are becoming the norm around your office you need something more than a quick fix to figure out why this is happening and work to prevent your hygiene schedule from looking like Swiss cheese every week.

Doctors, if you’re struggling to reach your practice goals or want to enjoy healthier and more productive schedules – feel free to contact me for a complimentary, no-obligation 30-minute telephone consultation at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com to see if a coaching relationship is right for you.

Note, this isn’t the time to point fingers or start blaming someone for having holes in the schedule. Work together, as a team to fill these holes. Ideally, the hygienist should be involved in making these calls to patients, etc. Patients are more likely to respond when it’s their beloved hygienist calling them. Besides, the hygienist(s) are obviously the one(s) with the extra time. So the ideas I share are directed to the hygiene department with the goal of them becoming productive, happy, and profitable.  (Again, you will want to at a later date, work together as a team to determine why this is happening and create solutions to repair the breakdown.) Here are some tips for creating healthier hygiene schedules: https://bettyhaydenconsulting.com/2020/09/01/ten-steps-to-create-healthy-and-productive-fall-dental-hygiene-schedules/

On to the ideas for a quick (temporary) fix:

how to fill holes in dental hygiene schedule
  • Priority List – Do you have any patients that would like to come in at an earlier date for their hygiene appointment?  Call them and let them know you have an unexpected change in the schedule (Refrain from saying you had a cancelation) and can see them sooner.
  • Cancellation/Missed Appt List – Do you have any patients on these lists that can be called? (BTW: If you’re not looking at this report each week, you should be!)
  • Family Members – Check for other family members due for their hygiene appt. Is there someone coming in with hygiene that has family members that are also due in hygiene that may want to take one of those open slots?
  • Doctors Schedule – Check the doctors’ schedule for any patients that may be due for their hygiene appt and are coming in around the time that needs to be filled in hygiene. Invite them to take care of their hygiene wellness appointment at the same time.
  • Incentives – Offer an Incentive for accepting a last-minute appointment. For example, complimentary fluoride, teeth whitening, small gift, or gift card. Use your social media platforms to announce this awesome today (or tomorrow) only opportunity.
  • Continuing care/past-due List – Get on the phone and with an enthusiastic and positive voice make some calls to your patients that are due or past due in hygiene. (Vary the times you make these calls. You’ll reach more patients this way.)
  • Social Media – Engage with your patients, potential patients, and local businesses on Facebook, Instagram, etc. For ideas see: https://bettyhaydenconsulting.com/2020/11/05/dental-office-social-media-platform-tips-and-content-ideas/
  • Spend more time with your patients. If you have open time that couldn’t be filled, take this opportunity to discuss better home care tools, update their information and medical history, do full perio charting, talk about cosmetic services, any recent continuing education courses, place sealants, apply desensitizing agent to any sensitive teeth, take impressions for whitening trays, review incomplete treatment with them, ask them if they’ll kindly leave a review on Google or Facebook, mention how dental gift certificates make great gifts, etc.

Just a reminder before making any calls, it would be a good idea to check your patient’s account balance, remaining insurance benefits/any frequency limitations, and review their clinical notes. Also, be sure to document all calls, conversations, and correspondence made to or with the patient.

Note: If at all possible, try to avoid moving patients’ appointments around to fill in gaps. It can aggravate the patient. It’s always best to keep their appointment as scheduled – they reserved that time for a reason.

If the holes in your schedule are a few weeks out you can try these ideas:

  • Reactivate Patients – Send out “We Miss You” letters to your patients that haven’t been in for a year or more.
  • Special Offers – Focus on a particular service or group of patients to target with special offers or prizes on a day that has a lot of holes. For example, Mouthguards  / Teeth Whitening / Sealants / Desensitizing Agents / Back to School / Spring Cleaning / Kids day / Senior day.
  • Fun Themed days – Superhero, Luau, BBQ, Western, Decades Day, Disney, Sports, etc.

Don’t miss out on any of the ideas that I share each month! Are you receiving my complimentary Practice Management and Marketing Ideas in your email each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address (to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog.

Despite your best efforts to fill the schedule, you may still end up with some holes that just couldn’t be filled. No worries, there is plenty to do to remain productive during this time.

During downtime:

  • Get on the phone and make continuing care calls.
  • Pull Incomplete hygiene treatment reports and call, send postcards, emails, texts, or letters to your patients.
  • Make calls, send emails, postcards, letters, etc. to your patients that are due, past due, or almost due in hygiene.
  • Create some fun and educational Videos – (how to brush, how to floss, what to do in a dental emergency? how much sugar is in your drink? What type of mouthwash should you use? Manual vs Electric Toothbrush, Healthy vs Unhealthy Snacks, Why wear a mouthguard, what type of toothpaste is best? etc.)
  • Thoroughly clean and stock treatment rooms.
  • Get out and visit area businesses. Introduce the office, take them a small gift and a “let’s get acquainted” special offer.
  • Discuss some marketing (practice growth) ideas for the office.
  • Continuing Education. Watch a webinar or video, read a manual, etc. Improve your clinical skills, knowledge of new technology and procedures, telephone scripting, office protocols, etc.
  • Take a tour of the office and look for any areas that could use some improvements, cleaning, and changes.

I hope these ideas provide you with a quick fix to fill those holes in your schedule.

Here are some tips for reducing last-minute changes to the hygiene schedule: https://bettyhaydenconsulting.com/2021/03/31/dental-office-tips-and-ideas-to-reduce-same-day-broken-appointments/

It always brightens my day to hear from you! If you appreciated these complimentary ideas I  would love for you to please take a minute to leave me a review/recommendation here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK.  Thank you!!

Yours for Greater Success!

~Betty

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

Dental Patient Reappointment and Reactivation Tips and Ideas
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Dental Patient Reappointment and Reactivation Tips and Ideas

Hello Friends,

Where are your dental patients? Have they been reappointed to come back for another visit? Or have they been left unscheduled? Whether or schedule is light or jammed packed with patients the answers to these questions matter greatly to the success of your practice.

Friends, do you know how many of your active patients are scheduled for a future visit and how many are unscheduled? You need to know where you’re at currently to know what your potential for growth is. To help you get that data quickly, like within minutes – if your PMS is either Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental you can request a complimentary, no-obligation practice data snapshot here: Game-Changing Awareness from Dental Intelligence  – Within minutes we’ll identify your practice’s strengths and uncover hidden opportunities.

Why is this so important? Because when your patients are healthy – your practice is healthy.  For your patients to smile healthy they need to schedule the treatment you’ve diagnosed and to come in regularly for their hygiene continuing care appointments.

Are you struggling with any of the following?

  • Low treatment plan acceptance from your patients.
  • The schedule is so full that you have no available appointments for several months.
  • Not knowing your active and inactive patient numbers.
  • Hygiene continuing care reports are a nightmare.
  • Too many holes in the schedule.
  • Poor treatment presentation skills.
  • Too many patients left the practice and you don’t know why.
  • Not enough time to keep your office social media sites current.
  • Very few patient reviews and recommendations on Google and Facebook
  • Unengaged Employees

Plan now to end 2021 as your BEST year yet! Get whatever help and training you need and want to make the necessary improvements. Feel free to contact me for a complimentary, no-obligation consultation at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com to see if a coaching relationship is right for you.

Please stop by and follow me on  Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest

Today, I’d like to help you tackle one of those struggles… your inactive and unscheduled patients. Let’s reactivate all of your patients that haven’t been in for one year or longer and schedule your active patients that are currently unscheduled.

What is your plan and system for reactivating and reappointing your patients…. (attack that File Cabinet…or computer patient database!)

Ideally, daily, weekly, and monthly efforts should be made to develop and maintain relationships with your patients in order to keep them active. This is true even when you’re so busy you have no time to reach out to your unscheduled patients and/or no available appointments. Why?

The best way to keep your patients active is to be sure to reappoint them for their next hygiene continuing care visit when they are there at the office. Also, help more of your patients say yes to your treatment recommendations and have them reserve their appointment at the time treatment is diagnosed and presented to them. You should be tracking both your pre-appointments and your re-appointments.  This is important if you want to reduce patient attrition and reduce the amount of money and time spent trying to reach these patients later on down the road.

Control the Schedule – Same-day cancelations attempts and broken appointments must be handled effectively. The goal is to greatly reduce the number of same-day schedule changes and for the appointments that you can’t save be sure to reschedule them while the patient is still on the phone. (Unless of course, they’re a habitual offender!) See more tips here: How to Reduce Same Day Dental Appointment Cancellations and No Shows

However, if for whatever reason your inactive patient database is growing (you are tracking this, right?) – take steps now to welcome those patients back into the schedule. You can start by reaching out to them with a We Miss You reactivation letter and email.

If you would like a sample letter that you can customize to your practice for your patients – feel free to request one at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

Some suggestions for your letter are:

  • Include a deadline to respond.
  • Use a handwritten colored envelope (Grab their attention!).
  • Include Special Call to Action Offer
  • Make a call to the patients about a week after mailing the letter.
  • Be sure to document all attempts at contacting the patient and the response in your practice management software.
  • Include Social Media & Office Contact Information.

I hope that these tips and ideas are helpful to you.

I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK.    Thank you very much!!

Are you receiving my free Dental Leadership, Practice Management, and Marketing Ideas in your email inbox each month? If not, please follow today or send me (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea.

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty

P.S.

Dental Office Leadership, Marketing, and Management Tips and Ideas for August 2020
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Dental Office Leadership, Marketing, and Management Tips and Ideas for August 2020

Hello Friends,

For many dental practice teams, August and September can be tricky months for growth with the back to school season distractions – even more so with the COVID season “distractions”.

However, these next few months continue to bring wonderful opportunities to be productive and safe while helping your patients and community smile healthier and happier.

With some planning, enthusiasm, and implementation you have the chance to really set yourselves apart from the other offices in the community, welcome more new patients, exceed your current patients’ expectations (get them talking about how awesome you are!), have less stress and more fun as a team. We all need more of that.

 

Dental Office Leadership, Practice Management, and Marketing Tips and Ideas for the month of August…

dentist office summer marketing ideas dental coaching betty hayden

Marketing Ideas 

Even with all the uncertainty with how this school year will be changed (and be safe) now is still a great time to educate the community on the importance of good dental health for their children as well as for the teachers.

Here are some ideas to help make the back-to-school season fun for the community and profitable for your dental office.

dentist office coaching with Betty Hayden marketing ideas

Theme:  Back-to-school with Healthy Smiles!

Target Audience: Teachers and school-aged children.

Focus: Preventive Dental Services.

What: Education, Promotion, and Special Offers

  • Send a press release to local papers and news stations with “Children’s Dental Health Tips for Parents,” such as healthy snack and beverage ideas, when to visit the dentist, what-to-do in a dental emergency, brushing and flossing tips, mouthguard information, sealants information, and more.
  • Facebook (live) videos sharing the aforementioned tip and ideas.
  • Share social media and blog posts with dental health tips for children.
  • Promote special offers just for teachers and students during August.
  • August is Get Ready for Kindergarten Month – Send out a press release and promote social media posts that focus on kindergarten-aged children.
  • Send treats/snacks to your local schools along with some imprinted office items such as toothbrushes.

See more Dental ideas for teachers and schools here: Dental Marketing Ideas for your local School District

Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement during the month of August

dental social media content ideas from Betty Hayden Consulting

  • National Fresh Breath (Halitosis)  Day: 6th
  • Book Lovers Day: 9th (ask your followers to share their favorite book(s)
  • National Honey Bee Day: 17th (Our patients are sweet as honey!)

Fall Dental Marketing Ideas from Betty Hayden

Do you enjoy the complimentary ideas that I share each month?  I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave me a review/recommendation here on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK . Thank you! 🙂

Practice Management Tips & Ideas 

Hygiene Continuing Care Opportunity – August 1 -7 – Simplify Your Life Week: Simplify your life by crossing off “Schedule my all-important dental visit” from your To-Do-List by calling us today at…

Reactivation and Reappointment – How many of your “active” patients have their next appt scheduled and how many do not?  Let us work together to ensure none of your patients are slipping through any cracks. A solid reactivation and reappointment protocol is key to keeping healthy schedules and healthy patients.

Friends, if you do not know what your office numbers look like, please examine, record, and measure these and other important key practice indicators. You need to know where you’re at currently to know how to best care for your patients and what your potential for growth is. To help you get that data quickly, like within minutes – if your PMS is either Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental you can request a complimentary, no-obligation practice data snapshot here: Game-Changing Awareness from Dental Intelligence  – Within minutes we’ll identify your practice’s strengths and uncover hidden opportunities.  I am happy to assist you with this at no charge.

Leadership Tips & Ideas 

“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” – Jim Rohn

Employee Work Anniversaries – Who has work anniversaries in August that you can celebrate?

Employee Appreciation – Just Because Day – August 27th / Why not surprise the team with a small gift, gift card, or treat… just because.  They need it!

Doctors, if you would like to grow and improve your dental practice and have wondered what it might be like to work with me and what coaching is all about… please feel free to reach out to me to schedule a complimentary, no-obligation coaching call at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

Are you receiving my complimentary Dental Practice Management and Marketing Ideas via your email each month? If not, please follow today or send me (bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com) your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea. 

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty – Dental Coach