Have you wondered why some dental practices are more profitable than others, even if they serve a similar number of patients?
Since it costs an average of $200 to acquire a new dental patient, a large patient turnover means you’d be spending a lot of marketing dollars just to fill your practice.
In fact, it could take as much as 5 to 25 times more to acquire a new patient than to retain an existing one while a 5% increase in retention rate can lead to a 25% increase in profit. Not to mention, happy patients are more likely to refer others to your practice, helping you lower marketing costs.
As such, patient retention plays a key role in maximizing a dental practice’s profitability and your post-visit patient communication strategy can impact how many patients will return.
To increase patient retention rates, you need to maintain patient relationships and stay top of mind. By leveraging a robust dental practice management software, you can automate post-visit communications to keep in touch with your patients at scale cost-effectively.
Patients who had recent procedures or are still undergoing treatments may have an outstanding balance or recent payment history. Using dental practice management software, you can automate the generation and distribution of e-statements every month and deliver them to your patients via text or email.
This will help you not only shorten billing cycles and eliminate cumbersome paperwork but also stay on your patients’ radar. In addition, this can enhance your professional image to enhance the credibility of your practice.
Incomplete treatments not only translate into lost revenues but also mean that your patients aren’t getting the outcomes they originally sought. This could impact the patient experience and affect your reputation.
Implement an effective follow-up strategy and automate workflow to find and book appointments for patients who have incomplete treatment plans. For example, tab32’s Revenue Discovery module allows you to generate a report on incomplete treatments, with an option to send out a series of reminder texts to patients along with a link to schedule their appointments online.
Now you may wonder -- how can you stay in touch with patients who don’t have an outstanding balance, recent payment history, or incomplete treatment?
Every six months, you can send out a reminder for patients to update their medical history and contact details. This will ensure that you have their latest information for the next visit while staying on their radar between routine checkups or other visits.
tab32’s online forms allow you to automatically send out medical history reminders so patients can update their information online securely without taking up your staff’s time and attention. This will not only help streamline your processes while reducing errors but also help you stay top of mind.
Reinforce positive experiences by asking your patients to fill out a survey after their visits. This also allows you to address concerns immediately to minimize the chances of patients posting negative reviews about your practice while giving you the opportunity to collect glowing testimonials for your website and third-party review sites (e.g., Google, Yelp) so you can leverage the power of social proof and referral marketing to lower your patient acquisition cost.
Patient retention is the key to increasing your profitability and an effective post-visit patient communication strategy can help you foster loyalty that will keep your patients coming back.
Using the right dental practice management software can help you automate workflows and stay in touch with your patients without increasing overhead costs. Request a demo today to see how tab32 can help you optimize patient experience and become more profitable.