Where did all your patients go?
Why did they stop coming back to see you?
Did you do something wrong?
The number one reason why your patients stop coming to see you is…….well you probably don’t know why.
Like most Dentists when their patients stop coming back, you have no idea why they stopped coming back.
No one knows because no one ever found out. Many of our patients become lost forever!
We try our hardest to follow up our “lost” patients. We call them, leave messages, email them and send an SMS but most of them don’t answer.
I have been very fortunate to work with many Dentists and when I see some of the messages left by Dental Offices to entice patients back I can see why patients don’t reply most of the time.
When we throw language like “reactivate”, “overdue”, “due”, “activate” and “recall” at our patients, it is really no wonder why patients don’t respond.
I am not too sure what your Dental Office messages are like, but do the messages you leave for your lost patients give them a reason to come back or want to come back?
Is there a call to action that makes your patients want or feel compelled to take action?
The belief in many Dental Offices is that the best way to bring patients back is to give them an offer they can’t refuse.
Yes these do work sometimes but maybe only for the one appointment, and then you are back to where you were before.
What you want to do is you want to create a message that gets your patients really thinking. Once they are thinking they will start to be concerned. They will start to have their own questions to ask which will lead them to making contact with you. You can then go over the urgency and importance with them.
When a patient calls you then you are very likely to end up making an appointment for them.
When you call a patient it is so much harder to make an appointment.
Send a message that gets the patient to call you wanting an appointment.
Keep away from generic messages that you keep sending out over and over again. This is a sure way to get your patients NOT to call back.
Use questions like:
“How is that cracked tooth on the right hand side?”
“Has the crack got bigger since we saw you last?”
“I’m not too sure if you can see it but do you think bacteria from food may be going into the crack?”
“How is the tooth next to it?”
Start to get your patient thinking about what can be happening in their mouth without them even knowing.
Creating curiosity and concern will get your patient returning back because yes they do need their teeth checked and looked after, but they must want it, not just you.
So next time you send a message to a “lost” patient have a good look at what your message says.
Does it ask questions?
Does it get your patient thinking and wondering?
Will it get your patient to call the office straight away?
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On Friday August 19 and Saturday August 20 I will be co-presenting Dental Phone Excellence in London England at Dr. David Moffet’s Ultimate Patient Experience Workshop.
Click here for details and Early Bird Registration.
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This blog will feature simple practical ideas that are easy to implement tomorrow in your Dental Office, impacting immediately on your Patients’ Dental Phone Experiences, and ultimately, improving your practice profitability.
At present I have availability for four new private clients. For more information on how I can improve your Dental Office’s Phone Numbers contact me, Jayne Bandy at jayne@theDPE.com
