It's no secret that dentistry is one of the most competitive businesses around. Each and every one of your patients is hard-won – but are you making each patient relationship as profitable for your practice as possible? Check out these three tips to help you increase the lifetime value from the patients you already have (and ensure they get the best possible long-term care).
Most dentist don't realize how lucrative the records they already have in their database can be. But they don't call dentists "file cabinet millionaires" for nothing – there's serious production hiding in the average practice's existing files. And it isn't hard to reclaim that revenue. Start by looking at patients who have gone dormant, or are behind on their recall – getting those patients to come back regularly adds thousands to your bottom line. Best of all, you can reach out to them automatically with your patient communication software without adding hours of work for your front desk. You can read more about the benefits of patient reactivation for dental patients here.
Let's face it: manually sending appointment, confirmations, recall reminders and treatment plan reminders is a thing of the past. In 2016, it's essential to have a patient communication system that can streamline scheduling and communications via email, phone, mail and two-way text. Not only will your front desk be much more efficient, they'll also have more time for other important tasks like soliciting patient reviews, reactivating dormant patients, and sending out birthday/holiday greetings. You can learn more about automating your dental practice communications here.
While most dentists dream of having staff that regularly sell additional services to your patients, sales is a skill that requires a degree of training. Invest some time to prepare your staff with some strategies, charts, and offers so that they'll feel confident enough to up-sell. If you're finding that your front desk is hesitant or uncomfortable, remind them that encouraging patients to take better care of their oral health and accept treatments is one of the best things they can do for themselves – and one of the best long-term investments they can make! Get your staff out of the mindset that selling = bad – that should unstick the wheels!
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