April 11, 2022 by bettyhayden

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

June 30, 2021 by bettyhayden

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.

January 22, 2020 by bettyhayden

Dentist Office Tips and Ideas for February 2020

Hello Friends,

How is your first quarter looking so far? Are you happy with your YTD production, collection, and new patient totals? Are you making your best month ever?

My wish is that you have your “best month ever” every month, all year long!

To help you do just that, I’m sharing some Marketing, Leadership, and Practice Management Tips & Ideas that you can use during the month of February.

(Note: If you’re looking for ideas to promote February’s Children’s Dental Health Month and Give Kids A Smile Day please look to these posts:

Dental Office School Field Trip Ideas

and Children’s Dental Health Month & GKAS Day)

Leadership Tips ~

February is International Boost Self Esteem Month. For your team: Negative people are the greatest destroyers of self-confidence and self-esteem. Avoid office negativity, it’s toxic and will infect your team – Rather, focus on and share positive experiences. See: How to Have a Happier Team

Practice Management Tips and Ideas ~

National Time Management Month: When was the last time you reviewed all of your office systems and protocols to ensure that you’re using your time efficiently and effectively?

“Either run the day or the day runs you.” – Jim Rohn

Dental Marketing Tips and Ideas ~

February is American Heart Month so Our focus this month is Heart Health.

Heart Health Talking Points:
Dental Health and Heart Disease Are Related -Dental health and heart disease are intricately linked and the cost for avoiding advanced periodontal disease or even something as mild as gingivitis may very well prove to be the cause of serious medical problems in the future.
Be good to your heart beginning with good oral health.

Special Days:
Women’s Heart Week: 1-7 – Focus this week on Women’s Heart Health. Have a special gift for your female patients. Hand out heart-healthy tips for your patients to share w/their friends and family.

Tip: If you’re not currently taking your patients’ blood pressure at their appointments… make it a goal to start during the month of February.
Many people see their dentist more regularly than a physician and could get an early warning about high blood pressure when getting their teeth cleaned or having other dental treatment done.

Have fun with this heart theme!

Here are 3 More Ways To Help Your Team and Patients Smile in February!

Pet Dental Health Month – Share pet dental health tips on your social media sites, ask people to share pictures of their pets on social media, hand out dog treats packaged with your office information. Even if the patient doesn’t have a dog surely they know someone who does…great way to get your office name out there!

Random Acts of Kindness Day – Think about your boss, your employees, your patients, and the people in your community. What acts of kindness will you do to make someone(s) day? Go ahead… Spread kindness like confetti!

Educational Opportunity – National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: 23rd – 29th – Share on your website and on your social media pages the impact eating disorders have on your oral health.

Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement during the month of February:
Groundhog Day: 2nd
Bubblegum Day: 7th
Toothache Day: 9th
Through with The Chew: 17th – 21st
Forget Me Not Day: 24th (Hygiene Recare Opportunity) International Tongue Twister Day: 29th

Message me please to tell me what you have planned to make the month of February special for your patients and the community.

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

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 inbox each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog.

Yours for Greater Success,
~Betty (AKA Dental Coach)

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

July 16, 2018 by bettyhayden

Tips and Ideas to Fill Holes In Dental Hygiene Schedules

Hello Dental 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. Please email me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com or comment here if this is becoming an issue with your schedule. I can help you prevent these holes from happening.

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

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.

Also, 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.)

Call 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 a rare unexpected change in the schedule 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 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 advertise this awesome today (or tomorrow) only opportunity.

Continuing care/past-due List – Get on the phone and with an enthusiastic and positive tone 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, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. For ideas see: Social Media Content

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 some 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, Facebook or Yelp, 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, insurance benefits and review their clinical notes. Also, be sure to document all calls, conversations, and correspondence made to or with the patient.

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. See Reactivation/ We Miss You Letter

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 / Kids day / Senior day.

Fun Themed days – Superhero, Luau, BBQ, Disney, Sports, etc.

Despite your best efforts to fill the schedule, you may still end up with some holes that just couldn’t be filled. That’s alright, 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 report 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.

Thoroughly clean and stock treatment rooms.

Get out and visit with area businesses. Introduce the office, take them a small gift and a “let’s get acquainted” special offer.

Discuss some marketing 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. See Clean your Dental Office for ideas.

I hope these ideas provide you with a quick fix to fill those holes in your schedule. Let me know how they work for you. If you enjoy the complimentary ideas that I share each month, I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review on GOOGLE or FACEBOOK

If you are not yet receiving my free dental marketing ideas every month to your email inbox, PLEASE take a second and subscribe today. This way, you won’t miss a single idea. Feel free to share my blog with your dental friends. ~ Thank you!

Yours for Greater Success!

~Betty

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