Building a loyal patient base can mean distinguishing between a run-of-the-mill and successful dental clinic practice. Unfortunately, patient retention is not a natural occurrence—you need methodical strategies.
Before racking your brains on how to improve your bottom line, first look at your biggest asset: returning patients. One study even alluded that retention rates are responsible for a 25% to 95% increase in revenue based on industry.
Why is this so? Repeated patients already have a relationship with you, fostered on a foundation of trust. So, logically, it would be more effective and cost less to sell treatments to these patients than to new leads.
Here are four patient retention strategies to help you nurture existing relationships.
Firstly, it’s essential to treat your patients as respected and valued people, not as potential sales. The best way to do this is by personalising their experience and showing them you care.
Try sending out ‘thank you’ messages to them post-visit with an immediate review request, offering follow-up support or information. That way, you convey your practice’s investment and effort in their outcomes.
Clinic staff can also reach out for patient feedback and insight to tailor the patient experience further. When patients feel like their business is valued, it increases the chance of them coming back.
Keeping in touch with patients between visits through conventional methods can be a hassle. With patients going about their lives and your staff taking so many calls daily, it’s likely to miss each other.
Well, improving the ease of communication is made possible with a cloud-based system like kumoDent, which keeps patients informed of their visit details and subsequent appointments. Online systems are one of the best patient retention strategies and are especially convenient if your clinic comprises a small staff team.
As we’ve touched on, it’s better to introduce new treatments to existing patients who you know would benefit from them. Consider offering vouchers or discounts to your current patient base for their following appointments.
For instance, you can tempt them with a free consultation for patient education on how the treatment might be suitable. Or perhaps offer a 10% discount for two treatments with upfront payment.
These deals and updates on the latest industry innovations will make your existing patients feel rewarded for their loyalty.
Special offers aside, sharing packages may also entice patients to sign on with your clinic long-term. This is one of the most effective patient retention strategies to bring in multiple repeating patients.
Not to mention, families are critical customers for dental practices to appeal to different demographics. Gaining the loyalty of families could increase the lifetime value of your patients, their satisfaction, and ultimately, your clinic’s profits.
At the end of the day, we live in a modern age where patients are well-informed and empowered. There’s more to patient retention than providing good service, so don’t hesitate to test these strategies!
The first step you can take is converting to kumoDent, a all-in-one Dental Practice Management System, and the rest is sure to come easy.
In the dental industry, the first consultation is everything. It’s where practitioners and patients feel each other out, developing a mutual understanding of goals and managing expectations. With the availability of patient video call and online consultation, booking appointments have entered a whole new ballgame. There’s no more fighting for reservations over the phone, getting through traffic, and waiting in a crowded room.
Now, practitioners can simply assess a potential client’s needs through an online consultation. Not to say that virtual consultations have never existed, but the COVID-19 pandemic has further cemented their place in the modern world.
Isn’t it crazy to think communication modalities have evolved so much that your patient is just one video call away? Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology, online patient conferencing might be the golden ticket in the dental industry.
While there is much to gain from it, three key benefits are indisputable.
When running a clinic, you always have to think bigger. Your clientele could expand beyond your immediate vicinity, and virtual consultations can help you remove these locational restrictions.
Today, dental patients can easily browse through the web for their ideal procedures and top practitioners anywhere. They are also unlikely to travel long distances for in-person appointments when there’s uncertainty about your service’s success.
Providing online consultation can allow you to address a prospective patient's needs and required treatment whilst accommodating a broader demographic. Plus, dental patients are finicky in finding the right practitioner for their procedure and may only be willing to make the trip once you’ve positioned yourself as so.
Despite our eagerness for things to return to normal, we’ve grown accustomed to certain conveniences, such as online services. We expect these day-to-day conveniences to prevail, and your patients are not exempt from such expectations.
Thus, patients who have busy work schedules or children to care for are more likely to engage your services with the ease of a patient video call. Your clinic already has a competitive advantage as long as you offer services that barely disrupt their daily existence.
Moreover, the increased convenience might even be a deciding factor for whether a client schedules the initial consultation.
Online patient conferencing tends to be cheaper than in-person consultations. Aside from the convenience, patients can also cost-effectively access your expertise.
Charging a small fee for online consultation would help weed out no-show patients or unmotivated buyers. This practice saves you valuable staff time and money to cover your overhead.
Additionally, it conveys your clinic as established and could even increase the conversion rates of potential patients. Use the consultation time to build trust and showcase your knowledge, assuring dental patients that their desired results are achievable. Your patients want to feel like their time is valued and their investment will pay off. A patient video call can be productive and remarkably telling as to whether you’re a good fit.
That said, consider converting to kumoDent’s all-in-one Patient & Practice Management System, where the benefits are limitless for dental industries. Schedule appointments and track your patients’ footprints with ease.
Professionals in the dental industry know all too well the intricacies that go into coordination and organisation. Luckily, technology has provided the privilege to improve your clinic and reap the benefits of an online booking system.
Allowing patients to make appointments online can propound a competitive advantage for your clinic. Not only would you streamline administrative tasks, but you’d also be setting higher customer service standards in the market.
So, if your dental clinic is due for a facelift, here are some enticing results to which you can look forward.
There are periods in the dental business when the influx of clients becomes overwhelming. At such times, you don’t want to be stuck answering calls and emails about bookings or cancellations the traditional way.
With kumoDent’s all-in-one system, you can
Did you know that the majority of patients prefer to book appointments online? Plus, with everything moving to the internet nowadays, patients naturally gravitate towards businesses that offer the ease of online bookings.
An online booking system offers convenience and freedom like no other, including the benefits of controlling the available timings and dates, entering personal information, etc. Not having to fail miserably struggling with articulation over the phone? Yes, please.
Client no-shows are a real headache, except a heating pad can’t remedy the lost costs. Consequently, an online booking system like kumoDent sends automated messages and calendar reminders to ensure patients never miss an appointment.
These systems also digitalise your cancellation policy in terms and conditions, saving you yet another awkward phone conversation. Since clients make appointments online, they agree to the T&C through the system and establish a mutual understanding upfront.
Using an appointment book restricts you from recognising trends in your business, while online bookings provide concrete data and analytics. That way, you have all the information needed to understand your patient base — who is or isn’t booking, when, etc.
kumoDent’s system lets clinic managers track their business performance and activities effectively. All your patients’ contact details would be there, making it more accessible to generate future marketing campaigns.
Your patients are working adults with busy schedules, and the only time they may find to make appointments is after hours. However, this common occurrence can get annoying when you’re the one who’s off work.
Online booking solutions are available 24/7, and you can check new appointments whenever you please.
The first contact with patients is not your clinic's signage but your online portal. A confusing website where navigation is impossible could turn prospective patients away with just one click. On the other hand, a beautifully-built app would definitely WOW your patients.
Therefore, it is vital to leave visitors with a positive first impression. Who knows? They might be so drawn to your business that they schedule a booking right away!
Overall, kumoDent’s online booking system promises multiple benefits to enjoy on the website AND the well-developed MeTIME Wellness app for customers. Discover more about kumoDent, a cloud based clinic management software for dental clinics.
Working in a dental clinic, you’d be familiar with the nightmare that is seasonality. This business experience high and low periods, and peak seasons can be nothing short of frantic, especially around the holidays.
Whenever your high periods are, it’s essential to prepare for the upsurge in patients. A cardinal rule for clinic owners and managers is to ensure patient experience does not take a dive.
Many businesses lose loyal clients during peak seasons because they fail to deliver the same experience as during slow seasons. Thus, what you do ahead of such times will impact your business tremendously.
Here, we offer you some tips on how to ready yourself for the busy weeks to come!
It should not come as news that patients prefer to do business with those who make the process trouble-free. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case during peak seasons.
As stated, patient service tends to decline as staff members become overwhelmed with the record-high influx of patients. Patients are bound to get angry and search for alternatives when their calls aren’t answered.
To avoid this, you can consider equipping your clinic with a mobile app to help simplify the contact process. Your patients would be able to book, pay, and set reminders for appointments digitally without waiting time.
You should always consider incentivising new patient to come back, even before the peak period hits. After all, having returning patient during low periods would only benefit your clinic and business success.
Clinic owners can accomplish this by offering tempting rewards, such as loyalty points, package redemptions and more.
Understandably, schedules can get disorganised when staff are already in a frenzy. Be sure to utilise a full-featured and convenient scheduling system to manage your appointments effectively
kumoDent’s clinic management software allows you to allocate distinct colours for daily appointments. Now you can easily manage your appointments without overbooking.
Our cloud based clinic management is perfectly designed for the dental clinics to achieve all of the above. Once you’ve converted to our navigable module, rest assured it will keep your patients and staff alike happy.
More importantly, your business can run smoothly even during the busiest of times. Your patient’ data, transactions and appointments will be live, alongside automated reminders on their smartphones, so they never miss appointments.
Find out more about kumoDent’s digital solution for clinic and get your business ready sooner rather than later!
B. Malaysia