Exceed Patient Expectations
Patient retention is achieved by exceeding expectations. It’s not only what you do — it’s also how you do it. It’s all the “little things” that add up to big returns. When a patient’s reasonable expectations are not exceeded by reality, disappointment often results, when reality exceeds expectations, patients are delighted and much more likely to return for care and refer their family and friends
Start with “Yes!”
Good case acceptance is when a patient says “yes” with a smile on their face. Case acceptance is a step-by-step process and critical to practice health. From diagnosis, treatment recommendation and documentation to presentation and the financial conversation, the dentist and team need to provide the patient every opportunity to engage and become excited about care. The goal is to achieve “buy-in” by giving patients a clear understanding of how recommended dentistry will benefit them and how it relates to the goals they have for their oral health and smile.
Stay on Schedule
Being able to have evenly engineered, balanced days with a variety of procedures reduces stress, and increases productivity and efficiency. Maintaining a balanced schedule is absolutely critical to the longevity of the health of the practice the dental team and the procedures they provide. Set a daily production goal based on your financial goals and then look at how it is engineered to be evenly balanced between major dentistry, basic dentistry and what’s called your tertiary dentistry of no fee.
Minimize Failed Appointments
No-shows and cancellations are a challenge for practices on a daily basis. The number one reason people say they don’t show up is they believe “it’s just a cleaning.” So the dental practice must invest in team communication and be able to confidently and clearly communicate to the patient that their oral health is the gateway to overall body wellness.
Focus on Care
When you exceed expectations, have good case acceptance and schedule appropriately, the final step is to collect for the dentistry being delivered. Dentists should not be bankers and carrying accounts over a long period of time impacts the value of the practice in the future. The goal for accounts receivable, in an assignment dental practice, is to not have the total dollars owed to the practice exceed more than four to six weeks of production, with less than 10% outstanding in over 90% of the cases. A non-assignment practice theoretically would have no accounts receivable, especially if they collect over the counter at time of service.
For more information, visit our website and to see how Transitions can help your practice, tgnapracticemanagement.com
