I am sure you hear the word reactivation so often in your Dental Practice.
When you contact your patients to reactivate them, what are you really doing?
To reactivate means to “restore to a state of activity”.
You want to bring your patients back so that they are active in your appointment book.
The word reactivation creates an impersonal, mechanical and often, generic procedure that you follow to try and contact your patients to make an appointment for them so they can continue or start treatment..
What I see in most practices is that the process of reactivating patients has become just that, a mechanical and even thoughtless process your front office follows with very little concern to whether the patient responds or not.
The truth is that the reactivation of your patients is one of those tasks that nobody really likes to do.
Reactivation of your patient’s needs to be thoughtful, meaningful and personal.
I recently heard a front office coordinator say she just didn’t know where to start with patient reactivation.
The sooner you make contact with your patient, following their last appointment, the more likely they are to make another appointment.
Start by reactivating those patients who have most recently had an appointment.
If you wait too long to contact patients who have not gone ahead with their treatment, they may end up going to another Dentist, or they will be more resistant to making another appointment when you finally contact them.
I believe the very best way to make contact and reactivate patients, is to call them.
When you make that call, be prepared. This means you have looked at the patient’s file and you are fully aware of the following:
- The patients last appointment. Knowing what happened at the patient’s last appointment and the patient’s response to treatment is very important and will help you handle any issues or resistance to going ahead with treatment.
- Any cancelled appointments. Sometimes the patients we are reactivating may have made an appointment and then cancelled it. You want to know why they cancelled so that you can look for solutions during the call.
- Treatment Plan with the Dentist or the Hygienist. On the call you have information about the treatment that has been diagnosed by the dentist and the consequences of what will happen if that treatment is not completed.
- Any previous resistance to treatment. It is so important to know the reason the patient didn’t go ahead with their treatment in the first place, so you are ready to offer solutions.
- Life events for the patient. Knowing what is happening in the lives of our patients can help when we call to reactivate patients. Being flexible and accommodating helps the patients go ahead with treatment.
Knowing as much as possible prior to the call is what can make the difference between making an appointment for the patient and not.
So, call your patients.
Have a conversation with them.
Ask questions and look for solutions.
Then, make your patient an appointment so they can go ahead with treatment.
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I love this post Jayne. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.