One of the main goals of every dental practice is to increase patient visits by providing quality service and care. This doesn’t have to be an overcomplicated process and often starts with simple gestures such as a smile.
Below are 4 of the most effective ways to increase the number of patient appointments at your dental clinic:
Make a Good First Impression
When you gain a new patient, you should have their dentist call them for a casual chat to welcome them to the practice. This helps patients feel valued and will encourage them to return for future appointments and will make them feel less apprehensive about visiting the dentist. What’s more, when they come in for their first appointment, you should offer them a tour of your clinic so that they quickly become familiar with the surroundings. Little things like this really make your patients feel like you’re going above and beyond for them, which will encourage them to make regular appointments.
Stay in Touch
Today it’s important to keep in contact with your patients. We aren’t suggesting that you should constantly bother your patients and flood their inboxes with spam- in fact, you definitely shouldn’t do that. However, when a patient joins your practice, you should find out what their preferred method of contact is; text, email or phone call. When they have an appointment scheduled, send them on or two reminders, perhaps a week before and a day earlier. This will help to reduce last-minute cancellations and no-shows. Also, when you haven’t heard from a patient in a while, you can send them a text or email to check up on them in a way that’s polite and not too pushy. This shows your patients that you care about them and will also act as a gentle reminder to book an appointment.
Ensure that your Practice is Patient-Centric
Get your staff together and make sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of patient service. Ensure that everyone is making their patients feel comfortable and perhaps introduce a policy of explaining procedures and treatments to your patients so that they feel more involved and less intimidated. Encourage each of your dentists to take notes about their patients so that when they return, you can talk to them on more of a personal level. For example, if a patient mentions that they will be attending a wedding soon, you can ask them next time how the wedding was. Your patients will be impressed and flattered that you remember them, and it’s the little things like this that can really give your practice the edge over other dental practices.
Keep your Equipment up to Date
Keeping your equipment updated will help you to provide the most comfortable and streamlined patient experience possible. The more smoothly each appointment goes, the less likely it is that patients will avoid making another appointment or want to move to a different practice. While patients may not be familiar with the technical details of your equipment, consumers in 2020 most definitely know the difference between a modern clinic and one that feels out of date. Maintaining and updating your equipment and tools will help you to instil a sense of confidence in your patients that is crucial when it comes to running a dental practice.
At Dental Depot, we’re experts in helping you to make sure that your practice fulfils its full potential. We make it our business to stay up to date with the latest in cutting edge dental technology and equipment to ensure that our customers and their practices can run as efficiently and successfully as possible. To learn more about how we can help your clinic, head to our website or get in touch with us today!