During clinical practice, many of us might have experienced cancellation of appointments and no-shows. Cancellation of appointments at the last moment or no-shows can be distressing at times. On the contrary, a sound recall system in dental practices aids growth in your practice. So, a dental practitioner needs to focus on maintaining a proper recall procedure to ascertain an increase in practice production and revenues.
In the pursuit of getting new patients, we often forget to manage our existing patients adequately. Thus, to establish a steady inflow of revenue, a dentist should practise recall.
To maintain a sustainable practice, we need to strengthen our recall system. By opting a few changes, you can enhance the recall system. The suggestions include:
Make sure to book the next appointment before the patient leaves
This is a fundamental recall protocol performed mostly by all dental practitioners. Pre-booking an appointment enables you to contact your patient to remind them of their appointment. Make sure to take a note of the next appointment in your Calendar before the patient leaves.
If the patients are not sure about their availability, you can encourage them to reschedule the appointment later.
Send reminders a few days before the date of appointment
Many patients tend to forget their appointments. It is our responsibility to remind them. It is best to drop a text or a mail; alternately you can even call them. Text messages are considered the best way to send a reminder for the appointment.
Make it easy for the patients to respond
While you send a reminder to your patients kindly provide them with the necessary details. Attach your online booking link or phone number to make it easier for the patients to respond.
Request the patient to save the phone number
With an increase in spam calls, many people refuse to pick-up calls from an unknown number. Make sure your patients save your number so that they do not miss your calls.
Let the patient know the benefits of regular check-ups
It is essential to make your patients aware about the benefits of regular check-ups. A regular visit to the dentist ensures good dental health. Irregular visits to the dentist may sometimes lead to complications, and you end up paying a considerable amount of money to get that sorted. Thus, visit your dentist so as to avoid any dental/oral complications.
Develop an advanced dental recall system
Sometimes even after taking care to book the next appointment for all the patients, we yet miss a few. One should proactively look for any patient whom you missed to book for their next appointment. Also, actively take the initiative to approach them either through calls or mail and schedule their next appointment thereby.
Automate your recall system
Sometimes we forget to drop mails to our prospective patients before their next appointment. Failing to send mails can cause cancellation of appointments or no-show for, as many of the patients forget their next appointment. To avoid any failure in delivering mails, you must automate your recall system. The automated recall system generates mail to patients based on their recall date. Thus, ensuring that the patients are aware of their appointment well in advance.
Dedicate a person for recall
Assign one person to ascertain efficient re-calling of patients. Set realistic goals for the person who manages the recall system. Try encouraging them to be more productive. Other than recalling for appointments, build a relationship with your clients. Do convey your wishes on special days, birthdays and on other important life events.
Look for the convenience of the patient
While booking an appointment, please check the convenience of the patients. Try booking an appointment for family members on the same day as commuting every time to the dental office may be taxing. Also booking the appointments for the whole family on the same day decreases the risk of no-show or cancellation of the appointment.
Apart from the above tips and suggestions, there are a few more points that you can inculcate to ensure better recall of patients. The points include:
Lastly, there is no fixed set of rules to ensure success. Every dental office has a different formula for success based on their location and people. However, consistent effort guarantees success So work hard to improve production.
