reappoint dental patients

Dental Office Management and Leadership Ideas for July 2022
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Dental Office Management and Leadership Ideas for July 2022

Hello Friends,

July starts your third quarter for the year! Now, is your opportunity to really make the rest of this year count. Make it your BEST year yet!

Here you’ll find some tips and ideas for how you can enjoy healthier, more productive schedules during the month of July and beyond.

Office Yearly Goals – Where are you at with your Production, Collection, Patient Retention, and New Patient Goals for 2022? Are you growing and improving? If not, take some time to evaluate what you can do differently to exceed your goals. Remember, what you’re not changing you’re choosing. And what you allow, you encourage.

Reactivation and Reappointment – How many of your “active” patients have their next appt scheduled and how many do not?  Make sure 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.

Doctors, I would love the opportunity to work along with you and your team to help you set and exceed your practice goals. If you would like to schedule a no-obligation, complimentary consultation to learn how my coaching program works, please email me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

Employee Appreciation – July 7th is chocolate day. Surprise your team with a special chocolatey treat.

Reduce Cancellations – With the awesome summer sun and fun activities, patients can sometimes be tempted or inclined to want to last-minute cancel (or miss) their dental appointments. What can you do to reduce last-minute changes to the schedule?

  • Send appointment reminders well in advance of their appointment and be sure to send same-day “looking forward to seeing you” friendly reminders even to patients that “confirmed” their appointment. People often get distracted and can easily forget their confirmed appointments. Your appointment reminders should say that this time has been reserved exclusively for you.
  • Create and take advantage of Same-Day Dentistry opportunities. While you have the patient there, if your schedule allows, and they are agreeable go ahead and take care of those sealants, fillings, or ortho scans instead of re-appointing them.
  • Encourage them to keep their scheduled appointments by having a drawing/contest for a great prize (gift basket, tickets, gift cards, etc). When they come in for their appointment they’ll be entered into a drawing to win a prize.

Family Friendly Offices – July is Get Ready for Kindergarten Month. During the month of July share dental health tips for parents of school-aged children on your office’s social media platforms. Depending on your schedules’ opening availability, consider setting aside one or two days for “Get Ready for Kindergarten with Healthy Smiles” visits. Make it a fun experience for the children.

If you’re looking for dental marketing and practice growth tips & ideas check these out: July 2022 Marketing Ideas

It would be AWESOME to hear from you! If you appreciate and enjoy the complimentary ideas and content that I share each month  – I would LOVE for you to PLEASE leave me a review/recommendation on Google or Facebook. Simply click the following links.    GOOGLE   and/or  FACEBOOK Thank you so much!!

Are you receiving 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. This way, you won’t miss a single idea! Feel free to email me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and I will make sure you receive an invitation to follow my monthly ideas.

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty – Dental Coach

Before you go, would you please do something for me? If you appreciate and enjoy the complimentary ideas and content that I share each month  – I would LOVE for you to PLEASE leave me a review/recommendation on Google or Facebook. Simply click the following links.    GOOGLE   and/or  FACEBOOK Thank you so much!!

February 2022 Dental Practice Management and Leadership Tips and Ideas
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February 2022 Dental Practice Management and Leadership Tips and Ideas

Hello Friends,

I hope that this year is off to a happy and healthy start for you and your team. Are you on track to meet or exceed your first quarter goals? Today, I am sharing some office management and leadership tips and ideas to help you enjoy a fantastic February.

Are you looking for marketing and practice growth tips and ideas for February 2022? Check these out: February’s Children’s Dental Health Month and Marketing and Practice Growth Tips & Ideas for February

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

February 2022 Management and Leadership Tips and Ideas

Team Building – National Chili Day 24th – Have an in-office chili cook-off lunch. Everyone brings in a crockpot of chili. Have prizes for the best tasting, most unique, etc.

Random Acts of Kindness Week: 13-19 – Do something special for your employees this week. Bring in an unexpected sweet treat or small gift to let them know just how much you appreciate them. (By the way, your doctor would also appreciate an unexpected act of kindness this week!)

Reappointments and Reactivation – Now is a great time to reach out to your unscheduled patients both active and inactive patients. Do you know how many of your active patients are unscheduled? (If your practice management software is Dentrix, Eaglesoft, or Open Dental I can help you quickly get those numbers. Just send me an email to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and let me know that you’d like to get the FREE data analysis.)

Make a plan to reach out to your unscheduled patients. Rather than just calling to ask if they would like to schedule an appointment, use this occasion to simply check-in to see how they’re doing and let them know you’re thinking about them. This is about building and strengthening relationships. 

Take advantage of all the different communication methods to reach your patients – telephone, text, email, letter/cards, and your social media pages.  You’re planting little reminder seeds that you are still here for them during these crazy times.

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

Insurance Claims – Send out “clean” insurance claims with the correct information, provider, date of service, Xrays, attachments, and documentation.  Your goal is to not have any unpaid claims sitting out there past 30-60 days.  (Did you know that your collection percentage drops significantly after 90 days past due? Over 120 days past due it drops to about 30% – you lose a lot of your money the longer these claims sit out there. Worse yet, you run the risk of the claim not being paid at all!)

What does your insurance aging report look like? How often are you checking on outstanding insurance claims? Who is monitoring and working on your aging reports, daily?

February is National Time Management Month –  “Respect others time and your time will be respected“

Review your office systems and protocols to ensure that everyone is using their time efficiently and effectively. Arriving at the office with plenty of time before the first scheduled patient, expecting your patients to arrive on time, never waiting on hygiene exams, calculate the actual amount of time it takes to do procedures, control the schedules, these things will help you stay on time.

If you’re often running behind schedule, investigate the reason(s) why. If you know the why… change whatever it is causing you to stray from the schedule. Running behind schedule sends a message to your patients AND your team that you don’t respect their time. Respect your team by sticking to the scheduled work hours. Be sure that they are not habitually working through their lunch or having to work late. They need breaks to refresh and refuel. Give them that.

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 to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and I will send you an invite to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea.

I would love the opportunity to work along with you and your team to help you set and exceed your practice goals. If you would like to schedule a no-obligation, complimentary consultation to learn how our coaching program works, please email me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com.

As always, wishing you a happy, healthy, and productive month!

Yours for Greater Success,

~Betty (Dental Coach)

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.