Dental Patient Recall Tips
by Brandon Rodman
Dental recall and the hygiene department are the lifeblood of any dental practice.
Without these patients coming in regularly, business would be erratic and would essentially be an emergency practice.
Here are some valuable tips to ensure that your hygiene schedule is always kept full and productive.
1. Make Sure it Gets Done
The first goal should be to make sure that someone is in charge of making the recall phone calls. This employee must be held accountable that this task is completed each day. The size of your practice and the number of patients will determine how much time they should spend each day making these calls.
2. Do It At the Right Time
The best time to call patients and schedule them is in the evenings. More patients will answer their phones and schedule if you call them when they aren’t busy with work or hauling the kids around from one activity to the next.
3. Focus on Overdue Patients
Calling current recall patients is easy, it is the overdue recall that your staff doesn’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole. If your staff doesn’t focus on these patients, your practice will struggle to grow. Retention and reactivation efforts are critical.
4. Create Urgency in Your Scheduling
Have you ever heard, “Can I call you back later to schedule,” or, “I don’t have my schedule with me right now”? These can kill your recall efforts and make scheduling more difficult than it needs to be. Patients need to feel the urgency to schedule now instead of later.
5. Always Call Your Patients
Often times, staff members are afraid to call patients who have said “I will call when I want to schedule,” fearing that the patient may get upset. If that patient never comes into your practice, they are not really a patient. Also, it never hurts to call and ask how things are going, more often than not the patient will bring up that they need to make an appointment.
Brandon Rodman is the CEO of Recall Solutions. Brandon’s knowledge and skills advocate a personal, one-on-one dialog between individuals.
Since 2008, his company’s team has combined effective communication abilities with leading-edge technology to improve the ways dental practices interact with patients.
Recall Solutions provides dental recall services to dental practices throughout the United States and Canada. They provide virtual recall coordinators to personally contact your patients in the evenings (as one of your staff members) to answer questions, resolve concerns, and schedule your patients for their next appointment directly in your practice management software.
Dentists with questions or needing help with establishing an effective recall system, contact Recall Solutions at (888) 579-5668 or on the web at www.RecallSolutions.net.
