maximum renewal letters

Dental Office Tips and Ideas for November 2018
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Dental Office Tips and Ideas for November 2018

Hello Friends,

There is still time to make your final quarter for the year your best one yet. To help make that happen, here are a few dental marketing & practice management tips & ideas…

Betty Hayden Consulting Dental Office Coach Marketing Ideas

World Kindness Week: 12-18 – Have Gift of Health Certificates for your patients to share with their friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family. What about handing out special surprise gifts for your patients or deliver gifts to local businesses this week?  Perhaps there is a patient coming in this week for treatment that is experiencing serious financial hardship and would benefit from some extra kindness by you donating some of their dental treatment.

Dental Education Opportunity:

 November is American & National Diabetes Month

Over 30 million Americans have diabetes.
People with diabetes are 2 times more likely to develop serious gum disease.
Use this month-to educate your patients about the connections between diabetes and gum disease while they are in the chair and or via email, office newsletters, and your social media sites.

International Stress Awareness Day: 7th    – Share tips on how to reduce stress & the relationship between stress and oral health. Service/Treatment Feature: Mouthguards.

Great American Smokeout: 16th   – Wonderful Educational Opportunity to help your patients Kick the Tobacco Habit! As well as encourage youths to remain tobacco-free. (BTW my son just started high school and I am shocked at the number of high school CHILDREN I see smoking and vaping to and from school each day. So sad.)

Hygiene Continuing Care Opportunity:

Give Up Your Shoulds Day: Nov. 1st – The dictionary defines “should” as a word used to indicate obligation, duty, or correctness, typically when criticizing someone’s actions. Help your patients to give up some “shoulds” in their lives that often lead to guilt and stress. Such as: “I should schedule my dentist appointment” or “I should floss every day”; encourage them to turn these shoulds into something positive by seeing the value and personal benefit to flossing every day and/or being able to say they scheduled their dental appointment. It’s not something they “should” do but what they “want” to do to stay healthy.

Cosmetic Dentistry Opportunity:

Many of your patients will soon be attending holiday parties/events and typically with these special occasions come a lot of picture-taking. Now is a great time to help them see how they can easily get their smile ready for the camera with teeth whitening and other cosmetic treatment/procedures. Be sure to make available Dental Gift Cards/Certificates for purchase.

November Reminders: (I know I sound like a broken record with this first reminder, but it is too important to your success to ignore…)

Incomplete Treatment & Insurance Maximum Renewals – Do you have any patients with incomplete treatment or ones that are due/past due in hygiene with remaining insurance benefits that are going to run out at the end of this year? Do what you can to help them see the need and value in scheduling an appointment this month before the end of the year rush really shifts into high gear! See Dental Benefit (Use it or Lose it) Reminders, Tips, and Ideas

Candy Buy Back – Many of you will be starting off the month of November hosting and celebrating your office Candy Buy Back events. Consider doing a Facebook Live Video to promote your event. Be sure to alert the local TV news, online & print newspapers and social media sites about these events.

National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day: 15th – Time to clean out the office refrigerator.

Social Media Post Ideas to Boost and Encourage Engagement

Daylight Savings Time Ends: 4th

 X-ray Day: 8th(Share why you take/need x-rays)

Red Lipstick Day: 11th

Black Friday – Offer Special Pricing on Teeth Whitening & Electric Toothbrushes, Ortho Consultations or a New Patient Visit.

Flossing day: 23rd – Post fun floss facts & tips on your social media sites. Make a video and share on Facebook, YouTube & Pinterest demonstrating proper flossing techniques. And if you’re not totally sick of seeing videos of people doing the floss dance…well, go ahead and incorporate a little dancing into your educational videos. Because, why not? 😉

Did you enjoy these tips and ideas?   I would love and truly appreciate for you to please leave a review/recommendation for me on GOOGLE and/or FACEBOOK

If these ideas weren’t enough for you, here is one more! Join me at TBSE (The Best Seminar Ever) on November 9th & 10th in Vegas. YOU WILL HAVE SO MUCH FUN!

As always, I would love to hear your ideas for making November a great month! Should you need any help implementing these ideas or have any other questions that I can help you answer…I’m ready to help! Contact me today at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

Are you receiving my free dental marketing and practice management ideas every month to your inbox? If not, PLEASE take a second and follow today or send me your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow. 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

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Remaining Dental Insurance Maximum Letter – Use It or Lose It Reminders

Hello Friends,  (this is an updated version of some idea’s I shared last year)

hayden consulting insurance maximum renewal letter

Do you have any patients due 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?

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 September. I think October works very well too.  The closer it gets to the end of the year the more difficult it becomes to get them to schedule.  Don’t worry if you haven’t yet mailed out letters, there is still some time…but, I would do it asap 😉

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.

Here is a Scripting Idea:

2016 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 rush and get in early, our phone number is ………

We’re ready to help you smile healthier & happier in 2016!

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 also makes a wonderful gift.

P.P.S. Did you know we are on Facebook & twitter? “Like” us on Facebook at … and “follow” us on 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.

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. Thank you!

If you haven’t yet subscribed to receive free dental marketing ideas via your email each month, please do so today. Feel free to share these posts with all of your dental friends!

Yours for greater success,

~Betty