Cancellations | Dental Practice Solutions

Reduce Cancellations Using This One Thing

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

September 3, 2024

Nothing is more stressful for a dentist or dental practice owner than discovering an unexpected hole in the schedule. Whether it’s the result of a no-show or a last-minute cancellation, that open hole in your schedule means lost revenue, an employee scrambles to fill the hole, and you have a missed opportunity to treat a patient in need.

Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS, founder of Dental Practice Solutions, reminds us, “A no-show isn’t just a break-even situation—it results in a loss.” This is why it’s essential to take proactive steps to prevent these disruptions and protect your practice’s success.

Fortunately, there’s a straightforward strategy you can implement that will make a significant difference.

Reduce Cancellations Using This One Thing:

Think about this, the most significant financial setbacks in your practice often stem from cancellations of high-value appointments such as crown, bridge and implant procedures, etc. Implementing a reward system such as The Smile Club encourages patients to commit to their scheduled dental appointments.

Human nature creates a WIIFM attitude. People want to understand what they get in return for X, Y, or Z. Not many dental patients arrive at a dental office excited to be there so let’s flip this anxiety and the stress around dental appointments into something patients look forward to!

The Smile Club is a patient reward/loyalty system that not only encourages patient commitment to show up for their dental appointments but it also identifies patients who want cosmetic dentistry. If the system is properly implemented it will grow your new patient numbers.

How The Smile Club Works

When patients enroll as a member of The Smile Club they receive their take home whitening kit and in the future get a free whitening pen at future routine dental hygiene appointments. They also receive discounts on teeth whitening products when they buy more in the future.

Patients expect a toothbrush at dental hygiene appointments but what if you could give them a whitening pen and/or that expected toothbrush? Now you have a patient who is more likely to respect and value their dental appointments. Give people what they want!

If you begin asking your patients about their smile goals you will discover most want whiter teeth. The reason why dental offices don’t have more patients buy whitening from their office is the high cost and time in the chair. Many patients also fear tooth sensitivity.

We have you covered on all of these aspects. Why shouldn’t your patients want to buy their teeth whitening from your office?

Teeth Whitening Dental Practice Growth Potential

Teeth whitening is scheduled to be an 11 billion dollar industry by 2030 but it’s not because people are flocking to their dental office to buy their whitening products.1 This huge growth is because of AMAZON and WALMART sales since the pandemic. More people are working at home and they are on ZOOM video meetings. This makes people more focused on their appearance than ever before.

Benefits of The Smile Club

Reduce Cancellations

A huge benefit to this patient reward system benefit is to plug the holes in your schedule.

Less last minute cancellations
Good-bye to voice messages with patients canceling
Less time spend plugging holes
Grow New Patient Numbers

With our website partner, Med Rank Interactive, we work to bring more new patients to your website. We understand that millions of people are searching the internet for whiter teeth so why not get them to your website?

Your website should be optimized to attract these millions of people searching the internet 24/7 for whiter teeth.

More Cosmetic Cases

Dental offices using The Smile Club also understand the value of an annual smile evaluation. This is a simple process that happens in the first 5 minutes of the dental hygiene appointment.

Make it simple to complete a smile evaluation annually and learn about your patients smile goals.

If you never ask, the answer is “No.”

Increase Hygiene Department Per- Patient Production

When your dental hygienist takes a few minutes to complete a smile evaluation, they will learn that most patients want a whiter-brighter smile.

The Smile Club utilizes Celebrity Smiles teeth whitening products. Founder of Dental Practice Solutions, Debbie Seidel Bittke, created this product. Our whitening formula is FDA approved and includes all regulated certifications to provide efficacy and patient safety.

Our proprietary ingredients whiten teeth fast (in the comfort of the patients home), without tooth sensitivity and includes blue/red LED Lights. We’ve included Carbamide Peroxide with Potassium Nitrate which whitens teeth fast and without tooth sensitivity.

We included an option to use red LED Lights for post-op care. These red LED Lights soothe, heal and comfort various mouth sores and the photobiomodulation process supports post-op care after gum treatment and surgical procedures.

The Dental Practice Growth Strategy

For a more comprehensive approach to grow your dental practice without running on a treadmill or increasing your overhead, consider integrating The Smile Club into your dental practice.

This solution, offered by Dental Practice Solutions, is designed to enhance your patients smile with more cosmetic cases scheduled. Utilizing The Smile Club patient reward system dramatically reduces cancellations. This practice growth system will grow new patient numbers.

The Smile Club provides a much easier way to have more patients say “Yes!” to paying for and scheduling more cosmetic cases.

BOOK a quick ZOOM meeting and find out how this will grow your dental practice starting today!

Reference.

Teeth Whitening Market Forecast. https://bit.ly/10BILby2026

Fill Openings on the Doctors & Hygienists Schedule

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

June 13, 2024

In today’s fast-paced dental industry, maintaining a full schedule is crucial for the success and profitability of your practice. Open holes in your schedule leads to significant revenue losses and disrupts the workflow in your dental practice.

This blog will guide you through effective strategies to fill openings on the doctor’s & hygienist’s schedule, ensuring that your practice runs smoothly and efficiently. From leveraging modern technology to implementing proactive patient communication, discover the best ways to keep your dental chairs filled with patients who want your care and keep your business thriving.

Preventing cancellations helps keep your patients remain healthy! The problem is that people think they have more important things to do than see their dentist!

Why Do You See Cancellations?

Let’s look at common reasons cancellations occur and how to mitigate them.

Legitimate Reasons for Cancelling

Life happens, and sometimes patients have valid reasons for cancelling:

Illness
Car troubles
Family emergencies
Work meeting

These reasons are understandable, and there’s little you can do to prevent them. Let’s also be aware that sometimes these last minute cancellations might be a cover-up for other issues.

Patients Forget Their Appointments

When patients claim they forgot their appointment, the real issue might be elsewhere. Genuine forgetfulness isn’t the problem, implementation of reminders is the problem.

Do you implement any of all of the following?

Calls
Texts
Emails

Overbooking Far in Advance

While being booked months in advance may seem like a good problem to have, it often indicates a shortage of providers and missed production opportunities.

This can be a good problem to have and offers opportunities to grow your dental practice. If you find yourself in a bottleneck with patients waiting weeks or months to see a provider plan to book a quick call so we can help redirect this situation which is costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars annually!

This is a different challenge than we will focus on in this blog.

When patients have to wait for weeks or months to get an appointment, you increase the likelihood of cancellations due to:

Changes in personal schedules
Financial shifts
Illness
Forgetting the importance of their treatment

Aim to schedule restorative and perio patients within 2-7 days. This will to minimize the above mentioned risks and keep your schedule running smoothly.

The real reason patients fail to keep their dental appointments is because they do not value their oral health.

It’s our role as a dental professional to help our patients understand that “Prevention costs a little money, and treating disease costs a lot of money.”

Urgency is key.

Think about the words you use when speaking to your patients.

Do you use words like “tooth decay and cleaning?”

Use words that paint a picture in your patients mind.

Change your words to these, for example: “hole in your tooth,” or “preventive care” or “gum disease.”

Make it easy for your patients to understand what they need. Never think patients truly understand the urgency of completing dental treatment. Imagine telling your patient their out-of-pocket payment will be $1500 a tooth with decay and a “deep cleaning” when they are thinking, “my gums always bleed”.

Now flip this conversation around a hole in their tooth and bacteria is sneaking in. Show patients the hole in their tooth and bleeding gums. Talk about health and saving money on treating disease. Explain that you are helping them put a halt to inflammation in their mouth and explain how inflammation (over the next five, ten yrs.) will cause other systemic problems. Know what systemic diseases are related or oral inflammation.

You must speak with passion about the topic and show enthusiasm in your voice as you talk about saving them money and putting a halt to disease!

If you don’t feel passionate about changing your patients life, neither will they.

Most patients will sit up, listen, and take action when you talk about helping them live a longer, healthier life, and explain how they will save money once they focus on prevention of disease.

Everything you say and do must benefit the patient.

Make it easy for your patients to “own their disease.”

Take away the stress of getting patients to “pay” for something. Guide your patients to make wise decisions that benefit them.

Once patients understand how your care will save them money, create a healthier, longer life and/or eliminate pain, they most likely “want” what they need.

It doesn’t matter what insurance pays for, maybe they are on state-aid, and they arrived to their appointment with a Gucci purse and maybe they drove to your office in a Mercedes! They most likely have an iPhone or mobile device that cost them a few hundred dollars.

You know this is a true fact, yet your patients do not want to accept your care!

Use words that create a picture.

Speak about benefits to them. Understand their values and know what their objections may be before they even have a chance to object to accepting care.

People will buy what they want, not what they need so get your patients to want your care! Motivate your patients to want a healthy mouth and a body that is healthy.

Patients who value their oral health, are far less likely to cancel or change their appointments last minute.

Filling Last-Minute Openings

Use these strategies to fill the holes:

Maintain a Short-Notice / ASAP List: Keep a list of patients willing to come in on short notice. Reach out to them as soon as an opening occurs.
Leverage Technology: Use automated systems to notify patients of last-minute availability. This can be done via text, email, or through your patient portal.
Optimize Your Recare System: Ensure your recre system is robust , dynamic, and up-to-date. Patients due for their routine hygiene appoihntments (“preventive care” NOT a “cleaning”!) may appreciate the opportunity to come in sooner. Ask us how to implement a cost-effective “engagement system to reach out to patients fast. Let us show you how to reach patients who need a hygiene appointment and another type of appointment such as an implant or bridge. We will show you how to quickly fill open holes with the best per patient production. Book a 15 min ZOOM call so we can show you howt this works.
Offer Incentives: Provide small incentives for patients who fill last-minute holes, such as your Smile Club membership, a discount on “INVISALIGN,” etc, or a free whitening pen.
Engage Your Team: Train your front desk staff to handle cancellations proactively and to efficiently manage the short-notice list.

Understand the reasons patients cancel and have a recare and cancellation strategy in place to keep your practice running efficiently.

We have solutions at your fingertips and offer white glove implementation. Check out the SMILE CLUB which is a proven strategy to keep patients on your schedule.

BOOK a quick no-cost opportunity call.

Take your hygiene department to the next level. Enroll in our course.

10 Strategies to Plug the Holes in Your Schedule

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

May 13, 2024

Managing a dental office can be challenging, especially when faced with last-minute cancellations or openings in the hygiene and doctors schedule.

These unexpected gaps can disrupt workflow and impact productivity. However, with strategic planning and proactive measures, and a system in place, you can minimize these open holes and keep your schedule running smoothly.

Here are 10 effective strategies to help you plug the holes in your schedule and maintain a productive schedule:

1. Patient Audits: Encourage each team member to review and audit their patient list before the day begins. Identify patients due for hygiene appointments or those who have family members who need restorative or hygiene appointments.
2. ASAP List: Maintain an “ASAP” list with contact information for patients willing to fill last-minute openings. Utilize text messages for quick communication when a slot becomes available.
3. Utilize KPI’s: Consider using an app that your team can quickly log-in and view specific metrics. Each team member needs to have specific metrics that have nsights into your practice’s opportunities and scheduling gaps.
4. Daily Opportunity Sharing: Dedicate 10 minutes each day for the team to share specific opportunities, such as patients who need hygiene appointments or related family appointments, etc, etc.
5. Health History Updates: Ensure patients update their health histories and understand your appointment change procedures, minimizing last-minute cancellations. Make sure you also ask about the patients SMILE GOALS on your medical history or a separte Smile Evaluation (takes 60 seconds for the patient to complete).
6. Voicemail Message/Instructions: Update your voicemail message to inform patients about notification for scheduling changes. Your voicemail needs to let them know they must call during business hours to “Change” an appointment. Dedicate a specific number for them to contact the doctor when they must change an appointment last minute. FYI: These voice messages to change or cancel an appointment last minute are usually a “Scape Goat” and if they are told to call doctors mobile number, you will see these cancellation voicemail messages disappear!
7. Schedule Optimization: It works well to have one team member oversee your schedule. This is your go-to person when the schedule falls apart and they will notify the team in your morning 10-mins opportunity meeting about next hygiene openings, etc.
8. Recall List Outreach: Automate your outreach to patients with outstanding hygiene appointments.
9. Offer specials to your patients: During the times of year when you know patients are more likely to cancel, offer for example, an INVISALIGN Day or WHITENING DAY. Let patients know that when they come to your office on these specific days they receve a special discount.
10. Reward Loyal Patients/The Smile Club: Consider using this Dental Practice Growth System by Dental Practice Solutions. The Smile Club is a proven rewards program used by dental offices around the world.

The Smile Club is a patient loyalty, rewards system and it’s proven to:

Reduce last-minute cancellations
Grow New Patient Numbers
BOOST scheduled cosmetic cases
Increase per-patient hygiene production
Build a 100k profit center without adding to your overhead or patient chair time

By implementing these strategies, you can enhance scheduling efficiency, reduce last-minute cancellations, and maintain a productive workflow in your dental office.

Consistent communication, proactive planning, using a proven strategy and leveraging available resources are key to optimizing your schedule and enhancing patient care.

For further training and insights into practice success strategies, use the Dental Practice Growth System and/or consider attending one or all of our bi-monthly Dentist Power Hours.

BOOK a quick call to learn who we can support your growth without adding more patient chair time or increasing your overhead.

Together, we can achieve fuller and more productive schedules while delivering exceptional dental care to our patients!