Reduce Appointment 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

Creating Dental Patient Loyalty

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

May 3, 2023

Dental practices can begin by evaluating their current patient retention and new patient acquisition strategies and identify areas for improvement. From here you will develop a patient loyalty program that aligns with your practice goals and values as well as the needs and preferences of your patient base.

How to Design a Patient Loyalty Program May Include:

Rewards: What rewards or incentives will be offered to patients for their loyalty and engagement with your dental practice? How will these rewards be communicated and distributed to your patients?
Eligibility: Which patients will be eligible to participate in your patient loyalty program? Will it be open to all patients, or will certain criteria need to be met (For example: Pre-scheduling routine dental hygiene appointments, calling 24+ hours ahead to change a dental appointment, referring new patients)?
Communication: How will the loyalty program be communicated to patients? Will it be promoted through email newsletters, social media, or in-office signage? How will patients be reminded of their rewards and encouraged to schedule appointments?
Tracking and Reporting: How will the practice track and report on the success of a loyalty program? What metrics will be used to evaluate its effectiveness (For example: patient retention rates, referral rates, new patient, and revenue growth)?

By taking these factors into account and designing a patient loyalty program that meets the needs of both the dental practice and its patients, dental practices can improve patient retention, attract new patients, and ultimately grow their dental practice.

Get More Patients to Ask for Your Care

Ask your patients this one question, “What is one thing we can do for you today that will create your most beautiful smile, what would that be?”

Most patients will respond by saying, “I want whiter teeth!”

Yes, some patients will report they want straight teeth and many patients will have a variety of other answers. Start asking this question of your patients and see for yourself how your patients respond.

The worst thing that can happen is that you may have more patients enroll into Invisalign, veneers and even more teeth whitening services.

Rewards to Your Dental Office & Patients

The latest data shows that only 17% of dental offices actively offer teeth whitening services to their patients. Why is that?

Are we too busy cleaning teeth and trying to get patients to schedule their next dental appointment? What’s wrong with this picture?!

One simple system that will not only keep your schedule full but this patient reward system called Celebrity Smiles Club. The club has proven for many years to get more new patients call your office and schedule a New Patient Appointment.

The Celebrity Smiles Club is similar to offering your patients a membership program such as a COSTCO or NETFLIX membership. When patients are part of “The Club” they know what is expected to reap their reward, i.e., One Free Teeth Whitening Pen. Your patients enroll in the Celebrity Smiles Club and they understand the expectation to get their reward.

These expectations are:

Enroll in The Club
Pre-schedule routine dental hygiene appointments,
Call (X days) in advance to change an appointment.

When patients keep their dental appointment they are rewarded at their dental hygiene appointment with a free whitening pen.

Most patients will buy another one or two pens which adds huge net production to your revenue.
You buy your whitening products at wholesale prices and in return you offer patients a free pen and a discount to buy other whitening products. Think of a patient paying $15-$20 for one whitening pen and you paid a wholesale price of $4.50 per pen.

Celebrity Smiles Whitening System means no more messy impressions, no models to pour up, trays to make and patients returning to get their whitening trays.

Your patients never need to sit for an hour under a blue light to whiten their teeth. You can still provide ZOOM teeth whitening but for touch-ups you have your patients return for a whitening tray. Using Celebrity Smiles System means you send your patients home with their whitening kit.

Teeth whitening is a six-billion-dollar business in North American and why should your patients buy their teeth whitening products at AMAZON or WALMART, etc.?

Using the Celebrity Smiles Club reward system will not only gain more new patients but will keep your schedule full. When patients enroll in your rewards program they are less likely to call last minute and change their dental appointment.

Think of using The Celebrity Smiles Club as a “Carrot”. It’s that adage, WIIFM that works very well to keep your practice highly profitable with patients showing up for their dental appointments!

Once you partner and implement the Celebrity Smiles Club, you gain access to a web portal of information (No added cost to you!) that will reduce cancellations, provide scripts to keep patients on the schedule when they do call to cancel, how to enroll your patients into the club, a smile evaluation and how to get patients to want more than JUST a clean, plus a lot more.

Check out everything included in Celebrity Smiles Club here.

Ready to get started offering The Club? Send me an email (debbie@dentalpracticesolutions.com) and in the subject line write, “The Smile Club.”

In the body of your email provide your office name and I will respond with the order form and information about The Club.

Not sure if this is right for your dental office?

Schedule a quick demo and learn more about how to grow your new patient numbers, reduce cancellations and keep patients returning to your dental office using Celebrity Smiles Club teeth whitening system.

Schedule a Call

Creating Dental Patient Loyalty

By: Debbie Seidel-Bittke, RDH, BS

March 17, 2023

Dental practices can begin by evaluating their current patient retention and new patient acquisition strategies and by identifying areas for improvement. From here, you will develop a patient loyalty program that aligns with your practice goals and values as well as the needs and preferences of your patient base.

Some key considerations when designing a patient loyalty program may include:

Rewards: What rewards or incentives will be offered to patients for their loyalty and engagement with your dental practice? How will these rewards be communicated and distributed to your patients?
Eligibility: Which patients will be eligible to participate in your patient loyalty program? Will it be open to all patients, or will certain criteria need to be met (for example: Pre-scheduling routine dental hygiene appointments, calling 24+ hours ahead to change a dental appointment, referring new patients)?
Communication: How will the loyalty program be communicated to patients? Will it be promoted through email newsletters, social media, or in-office signage? How will patients be reminded of their rewards and encouraged to schedule appointments?
Tracking and Reporting: How will the practice track and report on the success of the loyalty program? What metrics will be used to evaluate its effectiveness (for example: patient retention rates, referral rates, new patient and revenue growth)?

Ask your patients this one question, “What is one thing we can do for you today that will create your most beautiful smile?”

Most patients will respond by saying, “I want whiter teeth!”

Yes, some will report that they want straight teeth, and many patients will have a variety of other answers. Start asking this question of your patients and see for yourself how your patients respond.

The worst thing that can happen is you may have more patients enroll into Invisalign, veneers and even more teeth whitening.

The latest data shows that only 17% of dental offices actively offer teeth whitening services to their patients. Why is that?

Are we too busy cleaning teeth and trying to get patients to schedule their next dental appointment?

Celebrity Smiles Club is a simple system that will not only keep your schedule full but also this patient reward system has proven to have more new patients call an office and schedule an appointment.

The Celebrity Smiles Club is similar to offering your patients a membership program similar to a COSTCO or NETFLIX membership. When patients are part of “the Club,” they know what is expected to reap their reward: free teeth whitening. Your patients enroll in the Celebrity Smiles Club and know the expectations such as pre-scheduling routine dental hygiene appointments and calling in advance when they need to change an appointment.

When they keep their dental appointments, they are rewarded at their dental hygiene appointments with a free teeth whitening pen!

Teeth whitening is a six-billion-dollar business. Why should your patients buy their teeth whitening products at AMAZON or WALMART?

Using the Celebrity Smiles Club reward system will not only gain more new patients but will keep your schedule full, and when patients enroll in your whitening program, they are less likely to call last minute to change their dental appointment.

Think of using Celebrity Smiles Club as a “Carrot.” It’s that old adage, What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM) that works very well to keep your practice highly profitable!

SCHEDULE HERE