Choice #1 is to send out a generic and impersonal letter, postcard, email or SMS asking your patients to call your office.

Or

Choice #2 is to call your patient and give your patient a personal message or conversation because after all you probably know them very well and they know you.

My choice is always choice #2.

I see so many letters being sent out to patients starting with:

“Our records show…….

Or

“In a recent examination of your dental records…..”

This is not personal and just looks like something generic your dental software has sent out.

I know some patients will always respond and make an appointment to this type of letter, but how many of your patients don’t respond.

What happens next. Of course. You send yet another follow up letter. Usually the same one again and again with a continued no response.

You end up on a systematic cycle of follow up letters!

Why not call your patient. You either know them well or you have at least got to know them on their first appointment.

You say:

“Hi John, this is Jayne from Green Dental. How are you today? Dr Green has asked me to call you.”(pause and listen to your patient)

“He is very concerned because you have not made your appointment for……and I am calling to make you an appointment.”

Can you see how the call is now personal? It is about the patient and their dental needs and about the relationship between the dentist and the patient.

Always CALL first before other means of patient communication.

If the patient answers the call you can now ask questions, answer questions, try to remove anything getting in the way of the patient going ahead and making their appointment.

You can’t do this in an email, SMS, letter or postcard.

The more “RECALL” (I so hate that word!!!) letters I read, the more I realise how impersonal they are.

I know following up on a call with a patient can be a little uncomfortable at first and the reason your patient, didn’t make the appointment or cancelled is probably still the same reason they have not made another appointment, but this is your job.

This is what you do when you are truly helping your patients.

Once you start making follow up calls the RIGHT way it becomes easier after each call you make, and you get better and better and make more and more appointments for your patients, which means your appointment book is healthy and your patients are more healthy!

My next public speaking event is my live full day Master Class  “How to Turn Every Dental Phone Call Into A Valued and Kept Appointment” and is being held in Brisbane on Friday April 6th 2018.

Click here on this link to register.

Click here for information on Sydney and the Gold Coast.

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Dental Phone Excellence is a simple to implement complete Phone Answering system I developed that helped me to build an extraordinary dental practice in the heart of working class western Sydney.

If you’d like to know more,  download my sixteen page FREE special report “How I Quickly and Easily Went From 35% to 77% New Patient Telephone Conversions, and Doubled The Size of my Dental Practice Along the Way” and discover some of the many costly mistakes being made on your phone…..

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At present I have availability for TWO 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