I WAS RECENTLY AT a dental conference and heard the saying “A goal not written down is just a wish.” It’s a fitting sentiment as we roll into 2025 with goal setting in mind. The dental industry is way ahead of us when it comes to utilizing technology to grow their practices and make them more efficient and effective.
Finding my own local dentist and their texts for appointment reminders and follow-ups was what got me thinking and innovating for our practice. It’s when I realized what we were doing was inefficient, wasting our team’s time and taking away from forward-facing patient care. At our practice, a team member was still calling patients with appointment reminders. We immediately implemented a service to automate reminders, which led to a two-way texting platform and much more, so we could better take care of our patients. It improved our no-show rate, as well as freed up hours for higher profit-generating tasks.
When the technology became available, we started sending links for patient forms which uploaded into our EHR system pre-visit. Then we started offering live online appointment scheduling, cutting down on data entry and back-and-forth phone calls. We now also send payment links with itemized invoices so patients can understand their benefits and balance. Remember the goal is to relieve phone calls, not create phone calls with questions that aren’t about appointments.
Patients can pre-shop glasses online, and order contacts from us after hours or during lunch. We added a chatbot to our site for FAQs like “What vision plans do we take,” “Can I make an appointment,” “Can I order my contacts,” and “What are your hours?” These are easily answered by the chatbot while freeing up our phonelines and allowing patients to do business with us on their time.
Some team members loved the progress and others who were not up for the evolution are no longer with us. Evolution is one of the core values in our practice, and we now train and hire accordingly.
Did you know if a new patient calls your suburban practice and you miss the call, you only have a 5% chance of that patient calling back? This is why we have to make the most of every phone call.
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Our phones ring with patients wanting to do business with us! This is golden. How can you continue to help patients more effectively and efficiently? This question will help you uncover the inefficiencies in your practice and better enable you to grow it. What are you going to implement to free up your team’s time, better take care of your patients, and see your practice grow in 2025?
