Patient NEWS
Phone Icon
Login

3 Fast Tips To Increase Production

I had a dental appointment this week and my hygienist told me that they’re experiencing a definite increase of patient cancelations at the last minute. People are making excuses, she said, and giving various reasons, but the office does feel it’s COVID-related reluctance that is causing more holes in the planned schedule than usual. We are seeing a bit of this trend across the industry. Scheduling is an issue for many. Is it for you?
BUT – could those scheduling gaps provide you with an opportunity to increase new patients into the practice, and an opportunity to offer a true value proposition to new patients – “new patients seen within 48 hours” – people want things the moment they want them, and convenience is SUPER-important to all of us.
As a practice owner or manager, don’t you like the feel of that value offer going out far and wide? That just the offer to help patients with a dental need or want fast could make your practice stand out in your community? Especially when you include messaging about how safe it is to visit. With quick appointment times, you will have a real revenue winner on your hands (as long as you answer your phones).
Scan down to read my top tip to add more new patients immediately, with no additional expense.
So scheduling gaps bugging your team? It is a hassle to fill them and juggle patients. Why not make lemons out of lemonade!
Get your neighborhood newsletter and paid media campaign going hard! Already sending direct mail – increase the distribution (make sure it’s still highly targeted) to attract more quality patient calls. Not sure where your best target market is? Ask your key contact at Patient NEWS to assist with a complimentary demographic and competitor analysis and find out.
In a recent survey, 38% of practices consider marketing important to improve production and productivity in 2021, so it’s likely going to get more competitive for your practice to attract patients that are open to a new dental provider. With Patient NEWS you can add direct mail and Practice ZEBRA’s artificial intelligence (AI) and other practice performance enhancement tools to increase your success. The dentists who are doing this are exceeding 100% of pre-covid monthly production – which is more than 20% OVER industry average!
Start with a FREE DEMO
In the same survey, what jumped out is that dental offices are focusing on technology and NOT enhancing the patient experience – which should be #1! Technology is advancing rapidly and it’s extremely important to have the right technology in place for your practice (i.e. Practice ZEBRA, it’s AI and automated patient communication modules), but don’t forget the live patient experience. Patients are linear – they’ve been through unprecedented change, and when coming back to the dental office, they want familiar, they want compassion, they want a great experience.
Consider this opportunity.

Could your practice be more visible and differentiated in your community?
Which competitors are popping up and getting in your way – stealing your patients or grabbing new prospective patients from you – and what’s the best way to get ahead of them?
Have patient cancelations provided scheduling gaps that you could reposition for new patient convenience?
Do you want to mitigate the negative-revenue impact of the lack of new patients due to COVID?
Will it be important for your practice recovery through 2021 to start adding more new patients now?

If you said yes to even one of those questions, we can help. And we want you to see how for FREE. No pressure, no hassle. Get a practice snapshot using Practice ZEBRA and you’ll easily see what opportunities you have. Schedule a free, no-obligation, demo now!
FREE DEMO
Where are the quick opportunities? Here’s a big one. Answer more inbound calls live.
Every one of us wants to believe that all our new-client calls are being answered live. But the reality is, they’re not. The average dental office misses over 30% of their new-patient calls, and these missed new-patient calls are an asset your practice cannot afford to ignore.
That’s a particularly important metric that dental offices need to watch … on average, new patients contribute twice (2X) and sometimes three times as much revenue as an average active patient. Industry average: active patient contributes $1,021 annually and new patients contribute $1,777 (and Top 10% of practices’ new-patient value is $4500 annually). Just answering more calls with current conversion rates will add exponential revenue – and profit.
Therefore, with active patients becoming hesitant (without regular communication and education), when a high-value new patient makes contact with your practice, you want to welcome them with enthusiasm and capture every opportunity to increase production and improve long-term practice security and value.
If answering live is an issue at your practice, you want a solution that will allow your team to be super responsive and catch new patients after they hang up but BEFORE they move to a competitor.
Practice ZEBRA’s instant calls alerts will save your bacon! Make sure you have them activated for your practice – or contact your key contact at Patient News for more information.
ZEBRA’s AI Instant alerts – not only will your designated office recipients get an email or text with the patient contact data, your prospective patient will instantly receive a text from your office acknowledging their call which improves the patient experience and increases their patience to wait for your return call. And ZEBRA’s AI can also give you INSTANT Missed Opportunity alerts for quality patients that speak with your team but don’t schedule for some reason – so you can review and capture those new patients too! Patients will only wait around 15 minutes for your call back – ZEBRA’s AI helps you capture every new patient!
CHECK IT OUT WITH A FREE DEMO
As business owners and managers, we never want to worry about missing important calls, and we don’t want our new clients to have a poor first-inquiry experience. But unfortunately, I’m writing this blog to give you anxiety over the number of new patients you are losing because your practice is simply not answering the phone 100% of the time a new patient calls.
This could be, and likely is, significantly impacting the potential success you could be getting from your dental marketing campaigns. It could be impacting your overall new-patient flow without even investing more in marketing for your dental office.
We can help you remove that anxiety entirely and help you increase new patients and improve their satisfaction with their first interaction with your dental office. And increase revenue.
Schedule a free demo of ZEBRA to see these cool features, and then read on for industry data and metrics in the rest of the blog.
SCHEDULE FREE DEMO
You know that colleague or practice that seems to be doing everything you’re doing but is just a bit more successful? I bet they’re answering their calls and responding to patients quickly! Top dental practices answer almost 99% of their calls live – so it can be done, but this isn’t realistic for the average dental practice with only so many hands at reception. So what can you do at your dental office?
This is where artificial intelligence comes into play.
At your practice, no missed call needs to be a missed opportunity again. Today, AI (artificial intelligence) gives you real-time missed call and missed opportunity notifications, and Practice ZEBRA offers you the best solution.
Schedule a FREE DEMO
According to an HBR study, after analyzing 1.25 million leads, replying back to customers within one hour makes it 7x more likely you’ll close a sale than if you reply within two hours. However top owners interviewed by Inc., say that 15 minutes is the window that business are most likely able to get the sale.
Time for a little spring cleaning?

Check your direct mail program to increase practice awareness
Answer more calls live
Implement Practice ZEBRA’s Instant Call/Patient Alerts.

Check your processes, your plans, and rely on expert support like the team at Patient NEWS. We’ll help you ensure you’re capturing all revenue opportunities at your fingertips.

Share: