Getting patients in and out on time at a dental practice is key to the success of an office. The muscle behind the success of this method is proper appointment scheduling. Scheduling for a dental practice can be stressful with so many things going on in an office. By focusing on these seven appointment scheduling tips and automating your process, your dental practice will become a well-oiled scheduling machine.
1. Schedule in Proper Increments
Time is money, and this couldn’t be more important than in a dental office. Most dentists plan their schedule with 15-minute increments between patients. This is lost money that quickly adds up and could prevent a practitioner from retiring on-time, if at all.
We suggest shaving down your time between patients to 10-minutes. This may take some practice, but with automated software, your schedule will become more efficient and in the end, make you more money.
2. Keep Your Appointment Slots Filled
Don’t let patient cancellations or unfilled time slots become the bane of your office. Get yourself familiar with a waiting list management system. This type of software helps automatically fill empty slots in your schedule.
The software will send out dental appointment reminders via text to patients. Should one cancel, the text reminder app will then reach out to specific patients that could potentially fill this time slot, leaving you with zero money lost.
3. Schedule for the Present and the Future
Scheduling ahead is always in your best interest as a dentist. This is especially true when you begin to develop lasting relationships with your patients. Your schedule will quickly become filled for the time being, but that is okay. As long as you have daily scheduling goals in place you will always be able to focus on the now and if the methods you are practicing are effective.
4. Don’t Forget Hygiene Appointments
A dentist cannot rely on new patients and dental emergencies alone to survive in the industry. Hygiene appointments are detrimental to your business’ success. With programs like DoctorConnect, you can use appointment scheduling software to plan out distant appointments with hygiene patients before they leave your office.
5. Have Your Station Prepared
This may sound like a basic suggestion, but too many dentists have wasted their time by not having the station prepped for each patient. Aside from getting your scheduling down to perfection, work with your staff to come up with a great routine for prepping the station between patients. Automated scheduling will shave off lots of time for your office and allow this to become a reality.
6. Automate Your Appointment Scheduling
Appointment scheduling has never been easier than with the modern tech of software. Forget the phone calls and refer your patients to online appointment scheduling. By working with automation software, your dental business will make planning for dental care stress-free for both you and your patients. Appointment scheduling also reduces no shows, sends out patient appointment reminders and works excellent with text messages and email.
7. Always Schedule to Maximize Production
Maximizing production is the ultimate goal of a dental office. This can best be done by creating more time in a schedule for cosmetic procedures like dental implants or more advanced root canals. With programs that automate your schedule, you can easily separate the types of appointments on your plate and when they fit into your overall availability.
Keep Your Dental Practice On Schedule with DoctorConnect
Dental services in the United States rely on near-perfect scheduling of upcoming appointments. It isn’t easy to reach the goal of perfection without some help. Let DoctorConnect be the software that helps make your office as efficient as you need it to be. Contact us to find out how to schedule a demo for your office today.
