dental practice – Page 2

How to Get Word of Mouth Referrals for Your Dental Office

While your dental office can make great headway marketing through digital media, it\’92s hard to beat a good word of mouth referral. We see ads and receive newsletters all the time with enticing images and catchy slogans, but nothing beats your best friend telling you that they had a great experience with any given product or service. Why? Because we can trust our friends. In fact, 92% of people say a word of mouth recommendation is the reason they buy a product or service.

So how do we increase the number of word of mouth referrals we get? It\’92s certainly not something you can buy like traditional marketing or advertising services. But there are a few things you can do to get those word of mouth referrals flowing.

Try these 3 tips to get more word of mouth referrals for your dental office.

Incentivize Your Current Patients

If you want your patients to start making word of mouth referrals, offer referral bonuses. For instance, if a current patient refers a new patient, send them a $5 gift card. The reward can be whatever you want it to be, but making it worth their while will encourage patients to start referring you to their friends.

Give Them Something to Refer

Your patients aren\’92t going refer their friends to you for no reason. Ensure that every patient\’92s experience is a great one so they have a reason to make a word of mouth referral. Going the extra mile by following up with patients after procedures, or even just making their overall experience an amazing one can go a long way in getting people to speak highly of your dental office.

Just Ask!

If a patient is leaving the office after having a good visit, kindly ask that they spread the word about your practice. More often than not they will be willing to help out. It never hurts to ask!

Word of mouth referrals are very effective. Try these 3 tips to increase the number of word of mouth referrals for your dental office.

With all the new patients you\’92ll be getting from the word of mouth referrals your practice will be very busy. Improve productivity in your dental office with these three tips!

5 Easy Business Tips to Improve Your Dental Clinic Today

Success is a difficult word to define. Everyone has a different interpretation based on what their own goals are. Dental clinics are no exception. Whether you\’92re trying to increase the number of patients you have, or just trying to improve the overall patient experience at your clinic, there is always room for improvement.

Try these 5 easy business tips to improve your dental clinic and reap the rewards of running a successful business.

Focus on the Patient

It\’92s easy to forget about the patient when you\’92re marketing your business. We often find the words \’93At our clinic we\’85\’94 But when you\’92re trying to attract new patients and keep old ones, focus on them! Use words like \’91you\’92 and \’91your\’92, and talk about what they want to know. This could include how their procedure might go, and what their results will look like. Get into the mind of the patient in order to successfully market your dental clinic.

Perfect Your Scheduling Process

While it\’92s important to focus on the patients and their experiences, your dental clinic is still a business. Maximize your profitability by scheduling your appointments strategically. There are a variety of scheduling techniques that will keep your chairs full so you\’92re never losing money with an empty schedule.

Create a Friendly Environment

Many people get nervous when they have to go to the dentist. Whether they\’92re anxious about the procedure they need or they just find it uncomfortable, a welcoming and friendly staff can go a long way to improve their experience. Make sure your staff treats your patients with respect and compassion.

Provide Flexible Financing Options

Offering a wide range of financing options is a great way to help out patients who may only receive partial or supplementary coverage from insurance. There are many financing options you can offer that can help take away a little bit of the stress a patient feels when it comes to paying for procedures.

Outsource Your Dental Recall Services

Dental recall duties are generally assigned to office staff who may not have the right training or enough time to get the best results. In fact, dental patient recall can actually be counter-productive in most situations for dental office staff. To super streamline your patient scheduling process, outsource your dental recall services with a company like Patient Focus to help increase your practice profitability and overall revenues. Patient Focus will help you reach those overdue patients and maximize all of your revenues. Contact Patient Focus today to improve your dental clinic.

Making small changes can be very effective in improving your dental clinic. Remember these 5 simple business tips to help you run a more successful practice.

Want to improve your business? Patient Focus can help your dental clinic find success through dental recall. Contact Patient Focus now to get more appointments.

4 Traits to Look for in the Best Dental Receptionist

Your dental receptionist is often the very first impression that your patients\’97both new and existing\’97have of your dental office. This initial interaction and experience with the front desk needs to be on point, and nothing short of extraordinary.

So how do you find the dental receptionist who will be the best fit for your office? We broke down some of the top traits successful practices look for when hiring a dental receptionist.

4 Traits Your Dental Receptionist Should Possess

Multi-Tasking Master

A dental receptionist should be able to wear many different hats and take on numerous tasks efficiently. While research shows that multi-tasking is impossible, they must be able to manage multiple tasks throughout the day. From maintaining patient records, processing payments and billing insurance agencies\’97all while being the face of your dental office\’97there are many balls to juggle each day. Most dental offices are an extremely fast-paced environment\’97be sure your dental receptionist is ready to hit the ground running and tackle each task effectively and independently.

Good Listening Skills

While listening may often be considered a lost art these days, your dental receptionist should not be lacking in their listening skills! They should always take the time to listen closely to patients to be efficient in solving their problems and answering their questions.

Vibrant Verbal Skills

Your dental receptionist\’92s verbal skills need to be on point in order to skillfully answer dental patient\’92s questions while at the same time building a rapport and relationship. They should see every patient conversation, in person and over the phone, as an opportunity to build trust. These conversations should reassure patients that they\’92ve made the right choice by choosing your clinic and have found their new dental home. They must be personable, inviting and friendly. Most patients have anxiety about going to the dentist. Interacting with a dental receptionist that possesses amazing verbal skills can put their minds at ease and make them feel important.

Over-the-top Organizational Skills

You can never be too organized\’97especially in a hectic dental office. An organized dental receptionist makes everyone\’92s jobs easier. They should be able to find files and phone numbers with ease and maintain a tidy work space.

Your dental receptionist plays a critical role at your office. Be on the lookout for all of these 4 traits to find the ideal candidate to man your front desk for dental practice success!

Are you ready to simplify and streamline your efforts to grow you dental practice? Follow this link to request a consultation with one of our call experts, or call us today at 888.978.2615 and get started in only three simple steps!

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3 Tips on How to Run a Successful Dental Practice

If you own a dental practice you know it\’92s no easy task. You may be the best at providing your patients with exceptional dental care, but it can be easy to get caught up in the hectic day-to-day operations that you can fall behind on practice management. Constantly balancing your clinical and practice management skills is essential to every successful dental office. If you are wondering how to run a successful dental practice, don\’92t isolate the two\’97instead synthesize these all-encompassing aspects of your dental practice for a stress-free, happier and more productive work environment for the entire dental team.

If you\’92re on a search to learn how to run a successful dental practice look no further. We have 3 tips for you to make your dental practice more profitable and organized all while keeping your dental patients at heart.

How to Run a Successful Dental Practice – 3 Simple Tips

Identify What Makes Your Dental Practice Unique

You want to identify what sets you apart from the rest\’97what makes you the best and unique. It could be that you offer a wide array of oral health services or focus on a certain specialty. Are you the best at crowns or focused on preventative healthcare services? Let everyone know! You will reach a niche audience looking for that specific service and gain a marketing advantage by creating brand awareness. Your marketing materials should be tailored to highlight your unique competitive advantage to increase new patients and word of mouth from your existing satisfied dental patients!

Set the Tone Up Front

A lot of people have a fear of the dentist. One way to alleviate these fears is having a friendly smile and warm words from the welcoming front desk. The first interaction your dental patients receive should be nothing but welcoming\’97whether in person at the front desk or when on the phone scheduling appointments. You are in the business of smiles after all\’97be sure everyone in your office has a smile in person and when speaking on the phone. Leaving a lasting impression on your dental patients will impact your retention rate significantly. The attitude, communication and professionalism of your staff leave a lasting impression on patients\’97one that can make or break your dental practice.

Take Advantage of Outsourcing

Outsourcing some of the day-to-day business aspects of the dental practice is not only economical, but allows for more time and enhanced business efficiency. If dentists or the dental staff is running the business side of the practice, it can place additional time demands on them pulling them away from the ever important patient-related tasks. An effective alternative is to use an outsourced partner to take over those labor-intensive business functions to free up your time to make your business more successful. Patient Focus offers innovative solutions making it seamless for dental providers to manage relationships with active and inactive patients.

If having a successful and full schedule is important to your practice, you owe it to yourself to get a solid recall system in place. Patient Focus delivers exceptional service and effective calls, ensuring your schedule is full. Revolutionize your practice and request your complimentary consultation here today.

Make Dental Patients Smile with These 3 Tips on Improving Patient Satisfaction

Are your patient\’92s satisfied? Are you doing everything possible to create a positive experience for your patients? Your answers to these questions will reveal whether you are growing or declining in today\’92s dental economy. If your practice doesn\’92t deliver on improving patient satisfaction, they will either become the dreaded inactive or dormant patient, or worse, someone else\’92s patients.

Excellent customer service isn\’92t just about smiling and being nice. To create the ultimate experience for your patients, you need to impress them the moment they first make contact with your practice to the moment they walk out your door.

We have 3 surefire tips to improve patient satisfaction in your dental office.

Hire Happy People

You can train an employee to do just about anything you need done at your dental office, but you can\’92t train an employee to have a sunny disposition and exude positivity. Staff your office with personable and positive people to interact with your patients. This will ensure that your office morale will be high, and you work towards improving patient satisfaction with every interaction.

Outsource Your Dental Recall System

Satisfied patients become loyal patients. Loyal patients spend more, refer their family and friends and increase your bottom line. With recall duties often assigned to an already busy office staff, all efforts aren\’92t always maximized to their fullest potential. With patients falling through the cracks each month, you can outsource your dental recall system to Patient Focus to see real growth and a healthier bottom line.

Stick to the Schedule

Do you have a goal in place? A common schedule goal is to see patients within 15 minutes of their appointed time. One of the most common dental patient complaints is waiting for long periods of time until the dentist sees them. Fine tune and set scheduling goals and stick to them to ensure your patients can return to their busy lives.

A satisfied patient is the foundation of a growing dental practice. Improving patient satisfaction is more important than ever in a competitive economy. Put these tips into motion and start seeing some truly satisfied patients!

Worried about patients slipping through the cracks? We can help. With our focused recall system, you can begin to fill your schedule and realize increased revenue. Learn more today.

Be sure to avoid these 4 mistakes to ensure your dental treatment planning is the absolute best it can be.

How to Deal with Stress When Managing a Dental Office

Dentists and their dental staff are subject to a barrage of stress every single day. How often do you hear one of your team members mention they\’92re stressed? From patient no-shows and maintaining employee satisfaction to keeping the schedule full and supplies stocked, there are an endless number of items to be taken care of on a regular basis.

Stress can wreak havoc on your health causing cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, lower back pain, mental depression, eye strain and ulcers to name only a few. Some common stress influences at the dental office include:

Position
Amount of sleep
Hours worked
Patient demands
Time pressures
Uncooperative patients
High levels of concentration and focus
Team issues
Economic pressure
Lack of exercise

Wondering how to deal with stress at your dental office? What it boils down to is not letting stress take control\’97learn how to control your stress.

Here are 3 ways we like to highlight for how to deal with stress at the dental office.

Tweak Your Time Management

Having effective time management strategies in place will help to lower stress in the dental office. Take the time to learn and master the art of prioritization, delegation, assertiveness and decision making.

Get Some More Shut Eye

If you get at least seven hours of uninterrupted, restful sleep every night it will help to prepare your body and mind to best navigate successfully through any stressors the next day may bring.

Move Around

Exercise helps to lower stress levels significantly. Try to get moving 4-5 times a week to start seeing a decrease in stress levels. Strapped for time? You don\’92t need to hit the gym for hours on end to get positive effects of exercise. Park further away than you normally would in the parking lot at work and at the store, take the dog for a walk or take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Although stress can never be completely eliminated from your dental practice, it must be minimized as much as possible to avoid many stress-related emotional and physical problems that it can cause. Share these tips with your team so and support each other in your efforts to deal with stress

Don\’92t let dental recall add more stress to your plate. Take the stress out of your dental recall and schedule a consultation with Patient Focus. Patient Focus will simplify and streamline your efforts to grow your dental practice in just 3 simple steps!

The Patient Focus Difference for Your Dental Practice

\’93I have worked with Patient Focus for an extended period of time and have had nothing but wonderful results. My recare system has been cleaned up and my patients are getting booked on the schedule due to their hard work. The systems work well and I have and will continue to refer colleagues to Patient Focus.\’94 –Tiffanie, Patient Care Coordinator

Having an effective recall system in place at your dental practice is one of the most common concerns of dental practice owners and their practice administrators. Not having the right system or tools only adds to stress and can result in lost revenue for your practice. We want to take this unnecessary stress off of your plate! Patient Focus knows that dental recall is crucial to the health and growth of a dental practice. All dental offices not only need new patients but they must KEEP their existing patients coming back time and time again to see true and lasting success.

Patients need to be rescheduled or you risk losing in many ways. This is why having a rock-solid dental recall system is critical. We will free up time for your staff to do what they do best, boost productivity, boost confidence and improve team morale and job satisfaction.

Patient Focus is a proven dental recall system that will give your dental practice success. Patient Focus has over 12 years of appointment-scheduling experience. With one caller assigned to your office, Patient Focus will become an integrated extension of your practice. We make live calls to your existing patients to effectively schedule continuing care appointments. Check out our case study of a Tempe dental office that achieved amazing results by integrating Patient Focus\’92 recall services into their everyday operations.

Patient Focus understands that patient recall is the pulse of your practice. Our dental recall system was developed to help your patients feel that you truly care for them and want the best for their dental health. When patients trust you and feel that you have their best interest in mind, they will be more inclined to recommend you to their family and friends. You will not only improve your recall system but your bottom line through word of mouth referrals as well.

Patients are the lifeblood of your dental practice. Through an effective dental recall system in place like Patient Focus, your practice will continue to develop and thrive! Patient Focus offers your dental practice an effective dental recall system that has an impact on the dental health of your patients, restorative revenues, patient retention and practice growth.

Let\’92s simplify and streamline your efforts to grow your dental practice! In only 3 simple steps, you can begin realizing the increased revenue of a reactivated patient database.