You don’t understand it—for the number of patients you have on record, your practice should be making more revenue. Sure, you could invest more time and money in trying to bring in new patients, but you already have a pretty decent list of patients to work with. What’s the answer to help your practice succeed and have more rewarding scheduling? Following up with the patients who have cancelled appointments and have treatment plans still needing to be completed. Keep reading the post below to learn how to follow up with these patients and maximize your existing patient base.
Find the Right Patients
There’s no point in wasting time contacting patients who are current with their hygiene appointments and have no outstanding treatment to complete. You only need to focus on those patients who have cancelled and still haven’t scheduled their treatment. Identifying these patients helps your team make the best use of their time and zero in on the patients who need to be reminded of their dental procedures.
Maintain a Friendly Tone
Perhaps they need to talk about the procedure with their partner first. Maybe they have a busy schedule they need to consult before committing to an appointment time. There are many reasons why a patient may not move forward with treatment right away, and it’s always beneficial to give them the benefit of the doubt. Your call isn’t meant to guilt them into treatment but to offer a gracious reminder and encouragement to get the work done as planned.
Although the situation may be frustrating for you and your team to have incomplete treatment plans, you need to continue to have a friendly, compassionate attitude when talking to patients about their incomplete treatment plans. Find or train your front desk team to be professional, yet accessible while calling up these patients. Being understanding and reaching out to them with patience will help your patients feel like you truly care about them personally, not just the money they bring to the practice.
Turn to Dental Support Specialties
If you’re thinking that your front desk team doesn’t have the time to devote to following up with patients, if you want outgoing professionals who will represent your practice well, if you want to rebuild trust and loyalty with your inactive patients, then working with Dental Support Specialties may be the right move for your to make!
Instead of spending money needlessly on attracting new patients, take the opportunity to reconnect with patients who may have fallen through the cracks. Invite them to return and finish their treatment, so you can see better results.
About Dental Support Specialties
For more than a decade, Dental Support Specialties has excelled at providing remote administrative support to dental practices throughout the country. When it comes to following up with patients, we can provide chart auditing to identify those who have become inactive and contact them for you. We can also work in your practice’s scheduling software and actually book appointments, which you rarely find with other dental answering service companies. To talk with a Dental Support Specialties team member, you can contact us on the website here.