Start Utilizing Text Communication

Communication with patients is one of the most crucial things the administrative staff undertakes. They remind patients about booked appointments, notify them when they are due for treatment, and communicate office closures or schedule changes. Because many patients do not answer the phone, staff employees are forced to leave the same message repeatedly.

That is not the ideal way to spend anyone’s time. Instead, send SMS messages to your patients! Because that is how many people like to interact, you will reach more patients while saving time by not leaving phone messages.

So Why Consider Text Communication?

Every year, dental technology advances at an exponential rate, and people expect a more forward-thinking experience when they see the dentist. Text messaging can assist improve your practice’s strategy and streamline internal operations.

Today’s culture is mostly centered on text-based communication. If the phone number is not recognized, calls are frequently filtered or even totally ignored. Sending a text message to your patients is a non-threatening approach for them to contact your clinic swiftly and conveniently. Text messages are another approach to demonstrate to your patients that you care about their comfort and convenience.

Text Message Reminders

We’re all busy, and things like dentist check ups are easy to overlook. When patients miss appointments, you wind up with no-shows and gaps in your calendar. Your administrative staff spends so much time calling patients to remind them of their appointments.

There must be a better way! Send out automatic text messages to patients to remind them of upcoming appointments. You may even allow patients to confirm their appointments electronically and add them to their calendars while the administrative team handles other chores. Patients may simply text back a Y or a N in response to your confirmation of their future dental appointment, and the software will put the N replies to a call list where your staff will later contact them to reschedule.

Patient communication systems can be used by practices to deliver automatic SMS reminders to patients who have impending appointments. Most patient communication tools will immediately update your calendar in your practice management system if patients respond with a confirmation. Texting appointment reminders to your patients is an efficient strategy to prevent patient no-shows, which are the scourge of any dental business.

Text Message Reschedule

What happens if a patient misses an appointment despite receiving a text message reminder? The straightforward option is to text the person again. If you have a no-show or cancellation, why not text the patient right away to reschedule the appointment? Texting patients is a quick and easy approach to getting them back on your schedule.

To improve patient engagement, make it easy for people to reschedule appointments. Consider this scenario: your patient receives an SMS and is instructed to call your office to reschedule. Consider this: your patient receives a text and may promptly reschedule by clicking a link in that text. The second approach is more convenient and gives an easy way to reschedule patients.

Two-way messaging

Patients expect more from their healthcare professionals than ever before. Excellent dental care is insufficient. Patients want a positive experience from start to finish when they see you, and if there are any hiccups, they will be outspoken about it on social media. Offering a two-way text messaging platform is one method to go above and above and guarantee that your patients have a positive experience.

Perhaps a patient has a basic inquiry regarding a forthcoming surgery. Perhaps they want to know if they can eat after having a cavity filling done. In any event, giving your patients the opportunity to text with your office is a terrific, patient-focused product that you should be implementing in order to provide your patients with a better experience.

Increase Patient Reviews

Positive patient feedback is critical to your brand’s reputation in your service region. Furthermore, this useful feedback is another statistic you may use to assess your patients’ satisfaction with your dental clinic. Reminding them to visit your Google My Business page to post a review, on the other hand, may be difficult, and it’s frequently all about convenience.

Text messaging for your dental clinic might assist to speed up the process and make posting a review even easier. Adit allows you to build an automatic review request that includes a link integrated into the text message that directs patients to your favorite feedback site.

Newsletter

Any notification you send out via newsletters risks being buried in an inbox among every other unread email or being sent to spam. However, because SMS has a far greater delivery and open rate, you may send a link to the newsletter to your patients instead.

This is a terrific approach to guarantee that any critical announcements or upgrades to your clinic are seen by the bulk of your patients.

Billing Reminder

Patients frequently fail to pay their bills on time because they simply forget. While there may be no malicious intent, it can have a significant impact on your productivity.

This is beneficial to both you and your patient. Rather than mailing your invoice and waiting for your patient to call or mail a check back, patients may check their bill on their phone and contact the clinic to pay.

Communicating With Patients Who Just Had an Appointment

If someone has had all four wisdom teeth pulled, dental surgery, or even a simple filling and has a pressing question, it is difficult for them to pick up the phone and call you. Talking may aggravate discomfort, and understanding what they’re saying may be difficult, especially if they’re still numb. Two-way texting addresses a slew of issues in this circumstance.

A patient may seek clarification on when to take specific drugs, how to care for their mouth, or whether a certain food or beverage is safe. Rather than enabling them to browse the internet for solutions or making assumptions, a two-way SMS discussion might clear things up.

Improvements in Services

As previously noted, excellent patient communication in dentistry practice helps you to recognize their difficulties and personalize your services to their specific requirements. For example, if your appointment method is overly long or clumsy, your patients will let you know if you keep a consistent contact frequency. This approach has been embraced and widely used by prominent corporations all around the world, and it may be useful in clinics as well.

Work with The Dental Engine 

Bringing in and keeping new patients necessitates knowledge and skill in marketing, patient communication, accountability measures, processes/procedures, and other areas. In brief, practice growth necessitates the implementation of an effective growth system that can be leveraged to perform the essential activities that result in the intended outcomes. At The Dental Engine, we can help your dental practice implement an SMS system to communicate with your patients. Contact us today, to get started.