Following the footsteps of the retail and finance industries, omnichannel healthcare is gaining traction. An omnichannel dental practice results in improved patient retention, increased revenue, and streamlined processes.
What is omnichannel?
Before we delve into what an omnichannel dental practice looks like, let’s talk about what omnichannel is. In Latin, “Omni” means “all.” Essentially, an omnichannel experience is seamless and consistent across all channels. This means whether through a brick and mortar location, by phone, online, or via social media, the quality of service is always the same.
An omnichannel dental practice helps create deeper relationships at all points of the experience, improving patient retention for your dental practice.
Patients expect an omnichannel experience
Patients may not recognize that they want an omnichannel experience, but the experience they’ve come to expect is an omnichannel one.
The dental experience is no longer as straightforward as it once was. Patient touchpoints start even before they step into your practice. Patients start researching their healthcare providers online; 90% of patients will choose another provider entirely if they don’t like what they see through online research. This is why dental marketing for your practice is critical.
Reminders to patients before their appointments are a given to reduce no-shows and late cancellations. However, these days, more and more dental practices are catering to their patients and contacting them through their preferred contact method such as text message or email.
The dental experience doesn’t end when the patient leaves the practice – follow-up calls, social media posts, and email marketing are all ways to keep top-of-mind and create lasting relationships with your patients across multiple channels.
The rise of the omnichannel experience was in response to how people interact with businesses these days. Patients want their dental experience to travel across devices and channels with them. And that’s the heart of omnichannel – a great patient experience that occurs across channels but ultimately feels seamless.
In an overall omnichannel healthcare experience, mobile is becoming increasingly important. Consider this information that was found in regards to hospitals:
In a related field, like dentistry, we can expect that similar figures would be found. What this means is that a mobile-optimized website or a mobile app for your dental practice takes higher priority than ever before.
In the age of instant gratification, convenience and speed will be rewarded. Patients want their healthcare interactions to be fast and easy.
Answer the phone within three rings or returning a patient’s missed call immediately
Accommodate patients’ busy schedules by opening earlier or staying open later or on weekends
Value of an omnichannel dental practice
With an integrated dental software, you can significantly improve patient experiences at your practice and by extension, increase your revenue.
Consider this new patient experience at an omnichannel dental practice:
Booking: A patient books their appointment online
Pre-appointment: Patient receives a text message reminding them of their appointment
Check-in: They get to the office and fill out their patient information on a kiosk tablet at the front desk
X-rays: The dental assistant takes the patient’s x-rays with digital imaging technology, and the images are immediately transferred and appear on the dentist’s screen
Treatment plan: Using the x-rays, the dentist explains to the patient the proposed treatment plan
Payment: Up at the front, the office manager pulls up the treatment plan the dentist entered and lets the patient know how much the treatment will cost and how much their insurance will cover
Follow-up: Post-appointment, the patient receives an email, thanking them for their business
The experience occurs across multiple devices and involves the integration of imaging and dental practice management softwares – but all the patient experiences is a smooth appointment.
Integrated dental software can enable omnichannel experiences
To be able to offer your patients an omnichannel experience, you need an integrated dental system that has all of your patient information and dental technology in the same place.
ClearDent has everything you need working together in one convenient place:
Patient notes: Clinical notes are easily created and stored securely after signing on patient files
Documentation: Kiosks allow you to conveniently gather important patient documentation. Documents such as consent forms are generated in just a few clicks and stored securely
Insurance: Accurate statement of coverage is received from the patient’s insurance company and updated in ClearDent in seconds
Patient communication: ClearConnect is a patient communication system built directly into ClearDent for appointment confirmation, recall reminders, new patient welcome packages, real-time conversations with patients via 2-way text messaging, and more
Payments: Recurring payments for large or ongoing procedures can be set up easily
An omnichannel dental practice provides a connected experience across the entire patient journey. An integrated dental software can help you provide exceptional, omnichannel patient care, setting you apart from the competition.
ClearDent can help you offer an omnichannel patient experience
When it comes to growing dental clinics, new patient acquisition is often what comes to mind but improving patient retention rates is just as important and crucial to the success of any dental clinic. Returning patients provide a greater return on investment. It costs 5 times more to obtain a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Happy patients also improve your bottom line as they are your best advocates, bringing you more business by referring family and friends.
On average, dental clinics have an attrition rate of 10-20%. While some factors like people relocating may be out of your control, there are certain patient retention strategies to help ensure they’re happy and continue to come back to your clinic – because at its core, improving patient retention is about keeping them happy.
Make it easy
Patients these days lead fast-paced lives and are used to ease and speed in everything they do. This means you have to ensure their dental experience is as convenient as possible for them. You can do this by:
1) Extending your office hours
It can be difficult for patients to make appointments during normal working hours. Consider opening your clinic earlier in the mornings or keeping it open later in the evenings to better accommodate their busy schedules.
2) Sending appointment reminders
Appointment reminders are often expected and appreciated by patients. It also helps you reduce late cancellations and no-shows. Many dental software systems allow you to send appointment reminders automatically.
[Set your clinic up with ClearDent to take advantage of ClearConnect, our patient messaging system. Book a ClearDent demo today]
3) Scheduling enough time
Research shows that longer wait times are negatively correlated with patient satisfaction, perception of the provider, and confidence in the quality of care. Be sure to properly optimize your dental schedule to allow sufficient time for each patient.
Build trust and create value
Part of improving patient retention is ensuring that they understand the value of your dental services and to do that, you need to build trust. Trust and value are gained when you take the time to explain everything very thoroughly and clearly, whether it’s the next steps in their treatment, why they need the treatment, or even explaining the procedure itself.
Some patients may think that they don’t need dental services because their teeth feel fine, it’s too expensive, or they’re scared. You can combat this by talking them through the x-rays and explaining why they need certain procedures, the proposed treatment plan, and the dangers if they don’t take action.
Or, if the patient is known to be uneasy about dental procedures, take extra care to reassure them, let them know what to expect, and guide them through the process to help settle their concerns.
Whether patients are feeling weary about the cost, process, or need, they’ll appreciate you addressing their concerns directly.
Ensure patients feel at ease
How patients feel while they’re at your clinic contributes a great deal to improving patient retention. When they feel at ease and comfortable, they’re less likely to go to another dental clinic.
1) Create a welcoming waiting room
While you should try to reduce the time patients spend waiting, you can at least ensure they’re comfortable. Some things to consider having in your waiting room include:
A TV
Comfy seating
Magazines
Water
Kids play area
2) Be friendly
Patients often don’t jump at the chance to go to the dentist; procedures like root canals or wisdom teeth extractions are not appointments that they look forward to. To cancel out potential negative connotations, make sure every patient feels welcome and that they’re more than just a number to you. Below are some tips to create a friendly environment:
Greet patients
Smile
Build rapport and make light conversation
Use the patient’s name in emails, by phone, or in person
Ask if they need to use the washroom before getting started
Introduce new team members they haven’t met yet
Ensure there is privacy if patients need to discuss sensitive or financial items
Say thanks and tell patients you look forward to seeing them next time
3) Empower them
Help empower patients to take responsibility for their dental health:
Give patients useful information such as proposed treatment plans and post-procedure instructions
Discuss the importance of getting regular checkups
Give patients a goodie bag of a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and other tools so they can continue their oral care at home
Stay in touch
Of course, you always want to ensure that patients leave feeling happy and tended to but the patient experience doesn’t just end when they leave. Staying in touch and engaging with patients is another patient retention strategy.
1) Follow up
A quick phone call to check how a patient is feeling after a procedure can go a long way in improving patients’ perception of your clinic. This also gives you the chance to turn any bad experiences around, reducing the chance your patients will take their business elsewhere.
2) Monitor reviews
These days, if patients are not happy, there’s a high possibility they’ll write a review online. When you monitor reviews on your clinic, you have the opportunity to address negative comments and make it right. And since the communication is public, it also shows potential patients that you care about providing great service.
3) Send a newsletter
The healthcare industry has an average email open rate of 33%. This means it’s a prime opportunity to send patients useful content such as promos, clinic updates, or educational information about oral health.
4) Send seasonal greetings
Birthdays and holidays provide a chance to stay top of your patients’ mind. Send patients a birthday email or remind them to use their remaining insurance before the end of the year.
5) Patient surveys
Sending patient satisfaction surveys is a great way to gain valuable feedback that can improve your clinic. The results will uncover what’s working and what’s not, which you can then use to take action.
There isn’t one thing that you can do to improve patient retention overnight; it’s a combination of several patient retention strategies that everyone in your clinic can contribute towards
For decades, the norm in dentistry has been calling patients with appointments and recall reminders. But is that the most efficient way of doing things?
No, it isn’t.
Communication has become faster and more personal with the advent of smartphones. As such, the way businesses need to communicate must adapt as well.
Where newspapers, mail and phone calls used to be the norm for communication, Twitter, email and text messaging have now all but taken their place. For many, the phone app is becoming the least important app on their device. Instead, a click-to-confirm message from your dental practice via email or text message allows your patients to communicate with you using the medium that they are most comfortable with, as compared to calling patients.
Is phoning still effective? Not really…
The caveat here is that if you manage to get someone on the phone, at a time that is convenient for them, when they have the ability to take note of what you’re saying, yes… phoning can be effective. However, the vast majority of calls don’t manage to meet those criteria. In fact, most will go unanswered.
Using an email or text messaging system of communication allows your patients to check and record the reminder at the best time for them, whether that’s immediately, or later that day. On top of that, phone confirmations can not be scaled unless you commit more time and more people. Email and text communications, on the other hand, are instant and completely scalable.
This is how ClearConnect can greatly benefit your practice immediately. With a few clicks of a button, you can quickly see a list of patients with unscheduled recalls or treatments, and send a message to them to get an affirmative response to fill vacancies much more effectively.
Combine this powerful ability with a revolutionary system like ClearMessaging, which has the ability to chat with single patients or groups of patients via text messages from within ClearDent, and your communication efficiency and effectiveness will skyrocket.
