The goal is for a dental practice is to have more new patients in numbers that exceed the number of inactive patients or the patients that the practice loses.
This way, the practice continues to grow over time.
So keeping relationships with as many existing patients as possible is just as important long-term for the growth of the practice as bringing in new patients.
3 Tips for reactivating patients
Reactivating patients who don’t have appointments is important for dental practices. Here are some strategies to help bring in those patients who have not had a recent visit and who are not scheduled for an appointment.
1. Pick the right method for contacting patients
First is finding the best method to connect with them for a personalized approach.
Phone calls: You can generate a list of names of patients who have not had a visit in a certain timeframe and who don’t have an appointment.
Make a phone call to that patient to try to get them in for a cleaning or a checkup that’s overdue.
Text messages: send them a text message in a friendly tone with a link to schedule online.
Emails: Send emails to the patients highlighting the importance of regular visits and include some easy scheduling options.
Other options: use technology to help reach more patients with less staff time. Certain practice management softwares may have automated recall systems that help identify and send reminders to overdue patients.
We can also look at the messages that we use when we communicate with the patients.
2. Insurance benefits and membership plans
- Have a call to action when we communicate with the patient, maybe reminding them that it’s the end of the year and they have insurance benefits they need to use or they lose it.
- If it’s been six months since the last cleaning. You may remind them that a lot of insurances have benefits for twice a year, cleanings that may be lost if they don’t come in.
- If the patient doesn’t have insurance you might discuss any membership plans your office offers to help get the patient in for a cleaning more easily.
- Creating a sense of urgency is good, certainly if there’s a limited number of available appointments for cleanings. It is good to let patients know we want to get them in because these tend to book up.
- Just remind the patient how important routine cleanings are for their overall health and wellbeing. Missing dental checkups may lead to bigger issues for undetected gum disease or cavities.
- It’s always important to try to build and maintain those relationships.
3. Stay connected with personalized notes
You can always send personalized notes, birthday greetings, things like that to stay connected with the patient. You may have a special appreciation day with special giveaways or raffles for patients who schedule.
Track your reactivation efforts
Tracking your efforts is always important just to monitor which strategies are working best for patients' responses, and then you can refine your approach to get the best results.
By following one or more of these tips, you will give your practice the best chance to reactive more patients.