Your patients drive your business and practice. In the dental industry, we’re lucky to have a steady stream of recurring clients. But while this is a great thing, it also comes with two major risks.
The Risks: Why Clinics Don’t Invest In Recall Management
The first risk is that many dental clinics fall into the trap of becoming complacent. They assume that their clients will continue to come back to them without needing any kind of push. What they don’t realize is that they are missing out on a huge amount of potential business. This is mainly because they’re not following up.
If your clinic currently has its own established recall protocol, you may be familiar with the second risk: how much time it takes to actually do it. Recalling patients and scheduling appointments may seem like a simple enough task. However, it’s oftentimes a time-consuming and burdensome process that requires a large amount of time and staff resources to carry out. If a clinic has a small staff pool, it might not have the manpower to devote to patient relations. This can be especially hard in a coronavirus era. A larger part of the staff’s time is taken up with regularly sanitizing all surfaces. More than ever, a clinic and its staff may be prevented from operating at its full potential. This means a negative effect on overall operations and lost potential revenue.
The Data: How Patients Prefer to Interact with Their Healthcare Providers
This is where automated software programs come in to save the day—right? You might be thinking: I have a program to deal with exactly this problem! However, historical data suggests that only 5% of bookings are made through automation. In 2015, a patient preference study showed that 30% of patients preferred booking their next appointment over the phone. This was beaten only by 60% of people preferring to schedule an appointment at the dentist’s office right after their procedure (you just can’t beat that convenience!).
However, according to dental practice consultant Jason Siruchek, pre-booking is not the perfect solution either. Despite its popularity and convenience, it is not always an effective way to reduce missed or canceled appointments. Circumstances change and we know this to be truer than ever post-COVID. If patients need to cancel their appointments and are not sure when they’ll next be available, you don’t want the trail to end right there.
The Solution: How Recall Management Services Can Help Your Business
That’s where a recall service like U R DU can help. Straddling the gap between a cold but efficient online booking system and a personal but time-consuming call from your office, U R DUE’s recall services are the best of both worlds. A recall service like U R DUE also provides top-of-the-line service with little to no impact on your clinic’s daily operations.
When it comes to maintaining good customer relations, the most important thing is consistency. The more we get to know a long-term patient, the more we’re able to form a true connection with them and this leads to not only a healthy bond between clinic and patient but also better customer loyalty. However, in order to get the best results, patient contacts and recalls must be done every day, every month.
This can seem like a behemoth task that’s much too big to undertake alone, but luckily you’re not alone. Let us help your business reach its full potential. At U R DUE, our passion for patient relations and recall management is second to none and we want to help you improve office efficiency and get the most out of your client base. Contact us today and let us know how we can help!