Social media plays a vital role in how you promote your dental practice online. Regular engagement helps your practice score higher in Google’s algorithm, which means more patients can find you when they search for local dentists. 

Knowing which social media strategies to use is crucial for your community outreach. 

Why Are So Many Dental Practices Active on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok?

Facebook and Instagram have over 2.5 billion users on their platforms. Your practice can tap into this massive user base of potential patients by creating a professional account and posting to it regularly. These channels allow you to respond directly to individual users or prospective patients who leave comments and questions about your content.

• Facebook lets you share detailed information about your office, post pictures of featured employees, and invite local people to community fundraisers and events. This social media platform also lets you share updates directly with a “timeline” feature that displays at the top of your followers’ feeds. 
• Instagram uses “live sharing” to stream video in real-time to your audience — a practical tool if you want to walk users through your office or run an open Q&A session through your dental social media account.
• TikTok is another popular social media channel among Millennials and Generation Z. This platform encourages short-form content, such as skits, dances, or fast-fact informational videos, which attract a younger demographic.

If you want to shift your dental social media marketing efforts toward a younger target audience, TikTok and Instagram are the best choices. However, you will need to spend time researching the latest online trends to keep your content fresh and engaging.

How Should Your Dental Practice Engage with Users Online?

The quickest way to engage with potential patients online is through comment interaction. If users post feedback on your content, always respond professionally and respectfully.

Suppose you post a link on Facebook to a blog about dental veneers. Some users may have questions about information not included in the blog. You can reply to their comment publicly or send a private message discussing their options and encouraging them to schedule an appointment at your dental office.

You can also share positive patient reviews and testimonials to boost the credibility of your practice online. Some users may not submit reviews over Google, but they might leave short testimonials on your social media profiles, which you can share with others.

Running a contest on social media is a fun way to drive engagement on your profile. For example, you could give away free merchandise or rewards to the first 500 users to like and share your posts. You could also run a random prize lottery for anyone who writes a sentence or two about their oral health routine.

These methods can increase clicks on your profile and encourage more views.

What Are the Benefits of Posting to Your Account Regularly?

Active dental social media profiles receive more impressions and overall engagement than inactive accounts. You can keep your practice’s content toward the top of your followers’ feeds by posting once or twice a day, if not more.

Posting regularly also encourages users to start following your profile. The more followers you have, the better your pay-per-click ads may do on channels like Facebook.

Our Dental Marketing materials provide templates and ideas to help you optimize and target your posts.

What Are Social Media Analytics?

Social media analytics show you how well individual posts perform on your account. You can track the demographics of who views your content and determine if changes are necessary to drive traffic toward your practice. 

These metrics also allow you to view the best time to post content during the day. For instance, your followers may be inactive during regular work hours or late at night, so post during lunch or around dinner for the highest views.

Digital Marketing Solutions That Elevate Your Dental Practice Online

Running your social media profile doesn’t need to distract you from providing outstanding patient care.

At Dental Intelligence, we make it easy to manage social media for dentists like you with modern marketing materials. Schedule a demo of our digital tools for dental practices and learn more about dental social media.

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Communicating with your current and prospective patients via email is essential. However, deciding which type of email to send, when to send it, and how you should structure the content can be challenging without context.

Tracking email marketing metrics can help you optimize your approach and increase conversion rates among recipients.

What Are Email KPIs for Dental Practices, and Why Are They Important?

A key performance indicator (KPI) is data that helps you track how well your dental marketing strategy performs. With these metrics, your practice can expand its reach to potential patients and drive users toward other resources like your website. 

Email campaign KPIs specifically monitor how recipients interact with your outbound emails. This data is important to consider because over 4.3 billion email users are active around the globe. You can use KPIs to determine what makes your particular target market respond positively and encourage them to subscribe for more content.

Our Dental Marketing tools give you access to a library of ready-to-use content that can help you acquire new patients and keep returning patients coming back. With this resource, you can eliminate time-consuming guesswork when drafting and testing new emails.

Which KPIs Are Worth Tracking for Dental Practices?

So what KPIs should you track to determine the effectiveness of your email campaigns?

Open rate: Getting patients to look at your emails is the first step. Open rate KPIs help determine how many people open your emails, corresponding to the total number sent. The best ways to maximize your open rates include:

• Creating enticing subject headers (relevant to the content)
• Adding recipient names to subjects
• Sending emails in the morning when most people check their computers

Generated leads: Once your recipients open your emails, you should look for generated leads. These are recipients who are ready to book an appointment or explore further resources. You can generate leads by creating concise, informative email content that encourages users to keep investigating your dental practice.

Cost per lead: Using a strong call-to-action and leveraging paid ads can also help you increase your leads. Cost per lead shows how much money you spend converting an email recipient into a patient. You can calculate this metric by dividing how much you spend on your email marketing campaign by the total leads you generate.

Bounce rate: If your campaigns aren’t generating leads, you should review your bounce rates. Sometimes, your emails go to recipients’ spam boxes if they contain typos or repetitive sentences. You may also have several addresses in your email list that are invalid or broken, blocking messages from getting to recipients.

Recipients will not see your bounced emails if they do not arrive in their primary inboxes. If you have low bounce rates but high unsubscribe rates, your emails may reach users, but the content may be ineffective. Change your text, call to action, or reduce the number of emails you send weekly to discourage recipients from unsubscribing.

How Long Does It Take To Gather Effective Data From Your KPI Metrics?

It can take time to collect sufficient data from your email campaign KPIs. For example, you might spend several days A/B testing emails with a small percentage of their patients before sending mass emails. This method allows you to test which subject lines, content, or images get the best response.

Depending on how many recipients you send your emails to, it could take weeks to determine how well your email campaigns perform. 

Production and collection strategies help you track email data accurately if you use other forms of digital marketing — such as social media, pay-per-click advertisement, or a newsletter. Your front desk can ask new patients how they heard about your practice and recommend subscribing to receive email updates. This strategy helps you allocate resources toward the most effective channels to maximize reach.

What Happens After a Successful Email Campaign?

You can deploy tracking codes on your emails that let you monitor your subscribers’ activities through Google Analytics. Some of the most valuable information you utilize includes:

• The number of page views your website receives through email clicks
• How long users spend viewing your website
• Which links achieve the highest click-through rates

Email Campaign Solutions That Benefit Your Dental Practice Marketing Strategy

Interpreting email campaign KPIs correctly can help you understand your target audience and simplify marketing efforts in the future.

Check out more of our email marketing tips and schedule a demo of our all-in-one solution today!

Even with insurance, your patients may not be able to afford some of the dental procedures and examinations your practice offers. Instead of turning them away, consider offering payment plans to keep money flowing into your accounts. 

Flexible payment options allow you to stay afloat in an ever-competitive healthcare market. Knowing which policies to implement will help you optimize service quality and profit.

How Flexible Should Your Dental Practice Be with Payments?

Many of your prospective patients may hesitate to make appointments because they worry about how much treatment will cost. Promoting flexible payment options can encourage them to schedule regular visits and invest in quality dental care. However, it’s important not to offer more than your practice can afford.

You should consider several factors before creating a payment policy. For example, determine a reasonable period of time you are willing to wait before you receive payment in full. 

Some practices offer one or two-year repayment plans for patients. This method is ideal for expensive dental procedures that could take months to pay down.

In most cases, it’s better to offer short-term plans to ensure payments come in quickly. For example, small-percentage discounts on upfront fees or low-cost down payments could be practical solutions instead of long-term financing plans.

What Are the Benefits of Offering Flexible Payment Options?

First and foremost, flexible payment options increase your dental practice’s revenue. Patients who feel they aren’t spending a fortune on dental care will likely stick with your services. This strategy may not earn you the most money upfront, but it supplies you with a steady stream of income from dozens of patients over time.

Offering these financial solutions also helps with lead generation and attracting new patients. Flexible repayments will appeal to many of your patients because they give them more freedom to budget. Promoting a flexible payment policy could even increase your conversion rates by up to 30%, depending on your location and policies.

Flexible payment options also boost your practice’s reputation. Being receptive to your patients’ financial needs will earn you positive feedback. Your patients may even praise these policies in online testimonials and reviews, encouraging others to explore your services.

Which Financing Options Should Your Dental Practice Offer?

In-house financing is a popular choice among many dental practices. These policies allow patients to send payments directly to your accounts receivable department without insurance companies or third-party services getting in your way. However, in-house financing may only be feasible for balances under $1,500, depending on your practice’s budget.

In-house membership programs let you establish subscriptions where patients receive special benefits on basic services, like preventive care. You can include additional benefits for long-term loyalty members, encouraging other patients to sign up and stick with the program.

Set up electronic billing online and allow automatic charges to credit cards or any other preferred method of payment. Make sure you send reminders to patients so they know when bills are coming.

How Can Staff Make the Repayment Process Easier for Patients?

Your staff should ensure that patients fully understand your practice’s financial policies. List these options on your website and have patients sign them using Digital Forms. This method prevents accidental delinquencies or surprise charges that may cause your patients to lose trust in your practice. 

Modern technology makes it easier for your staff to collect payments and monitor transactions. Using data-monitoring tools like Payments helps you track the progress of repayments and identify who is late with payments. These dental management programs also allow your staff to collect payment, communicate information to out-of-office patients, and more.

You can also offer our Patient Financing options that are simple for your patients to apply for and allow you to get paid quicker.

Don’t forget to train your staff on any new policies you adopt. This practice ensures that you receive payments on time and that your employees allocate money to the correct channels. 

Optimizing Your Dental Practice with Proven Payment Solutions

Flexible payment options incentivize your patients to return for examinations and procedures. However, it can be challenging to keep up with collections without help.

At Dental Intelligence, we help your practice manage payments with flexible online payment options. Our resources will enable you to build and monitor your financing policies and reduce the risk of patients who refuse to pay their dental bills. Schedule a demo to learn more about how our flexible payment options can help your practice succeed.

Does your dental practice have a late arrival policy for patients? Every dentist has them — the patients who are always late for their appointments or sometimes even don’t show up at all. It’s a problem that costs your practice time and money and often cuts into appointment times of the patients who aren’t late.

Below, we discuss how dentists can tackle tardiness head-on and how to prevent late patients and no-shows.

No-Show and Late Patient Policies for Dentists: Best Practices and Tips

Developing a late arrival policy for patients at your dental practice can be challenging if you don’t know where to start. Below are three ideas for late policies that are fairly common in the dental industry:

• Late Charge Policies: One of the most effective ways to prevent patients from showing up late to their scheduled appointments is with a fee-based policy. When patients come in after a 15-minute grace period or cancel less than 24 hours before their appointment, you charge them a late fee to their private insurance company, Medicare, or out-of-pocket.
• Fee Removal Policies: Another option is charging patients an initial scheduling fee, which you remove from their final balance if they are on time for their appointment. Or, you can charge every no-show patient a fee, then retract it if they reschedule and arrive on time.  
• Patient Reward Policies: Another option is to reward patients who show up at their scheduled appointment time, like with loyalty points, a gift card drawing, discounts, or other incentives. You can even use our Patient Loyalty Program.

Dealing with Habitual Offenders

Most dental practices have a few patients who are habitual offenders and are either chronically late or don’t show up without canceling or rescheduling their appointment. You may want to implement a different late arrival policy for patients who are frequently late.

For example, will you ask them to show up ten minutes early? Or will you have a zero-tolerance policy that requires them to find another provider after three late appointments or a no-show? You may even want to tell those patients who are consistently late that their appointment time is 30 minutes before the actual time in your calendar.

In addition, you should avoid immediate rescheduling for no-show patients. If they believe they can get another appointment within a week, they’re more likely to cancel at the last minute or not show up at all. Instead, reschedule their appointments for four or six weeks in the future.

Regardless of what method you choose, determining your policies ahead of time can help you reduce stress and provide excellent customer service to every type of patient, even if they’re chronically late.

Preventing No-Shows and Late Patients

Although your dental practice should consistently enforce its late arrival policy, you can take certain steps to help prevent this issue from occurring in the first place.

Use Automated Appointment Reminders

You can reduce the number of late or no-show patients and increase dental production with Dental Intelligence. Our advanced practice management software includes features like Online Scheduling and Appointment Reminders, making it easy to confirm or reschedule patients when necessary. For example, our software updates each patient’s appointment status in real time and sends automated reminders via text or email, reducing the time your staff has to spend making phone call confirmations.

Have Every New Patient Review and Sign a Late Policy

Patients may try to claim ignorance regarding your late policy after being late or not showing up at all. To prevent this, have every new patient review and sign your late arrival policy. You can make this process fast and easy by using Digital Forms.

With our Patient Portal, your patients can access their paperwork and forms either online or through the app anytime they want. Furthermore, you should implement a “refresher” every six months by having current patients review and consent to your late arrival policy.

Decrease No-Shows with Dental Intelligence

Developing a fair and effective late arrival policy for patients can be challenging, but it’s critical for protecting your dental practice from this common issue. Of course, some patients will have legitimate reasons to cancel dentist appointments at the last minute, and sometimes you’ll have to make exceptions. However, with the various solutions available at Dental Intelligence, you can manage late arrivals and boost office efficiency. To learn more, schedule a demo of our product.

In today’s digital age, running a successful dental practice requires more than just getting a proper education and your DDS or DMD. Dentists must now also leverage tactics like search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing to drive growth for their practice. One of the most important aspects of your website’s SEO strategy comes from local backlinks.

While the process of acquiring quality backlinks can be difficult, the rewards are worth the effort. Below, we explain local backlinks and provide some expert advice on the best ways to utilize this effective SEO technique to boost visibility and drive growth.

What Are Local Backlinks?

A backlink is a hyperlink that leads from one website to another. For example, if a website posts a link that leads back to your practice’s website, you’ve received a backlink.

Google’s search engine algorithm uses over 200 factors to evaluate, categorize, and index websites. However, it’s the quality of the backlinks that is most important. Acquiring backlinks from reputable, trustworthy sites can establish credibility for your website and boost its place in the search rankings.

Specifically, local backlinks come from local sources in your geographical area or target market. You can gain backlinks in three ways: through outreach, self-creation, or naturally.

Six Local Link-Building Tactics for Dental Practices

1. Invest in SEO and Marketing Services

Many dental practice owners lack the free time and experience to develop, implement, and maintain an SEO strategy. Instead, consider investing in professional SEO and marketing services. It’s an excellent way to get your business out in the local market and reach more potential customers.

2. Use Local Business Citations

Another way to gain more local backlinks is by claiming local business citations on websites like Yelp, Google My Business, and more. These websites provide current information about your dental practice and other local businesses, like its name, address, hours, phone number, and patient reviews. In addition, they often include a link to your website.

However, claiming citations is not enough on its own; you’ll need more link-building tactics to start seeing noticeable results.

3. Reach Out to Your Professional Network

You can also utilize your professional and personal network as a way to gain more backlinks. For example, you could reach out to your college alums, attend local dental conferences, or speak with other local business owners in your area. Furthermore, if you’re a member of local organizations, you can ask them to include a link to your practice’s website.  

4. Publish Press Releases

One tried-and-true method of building backlinks is publishing press releases, which provide local coverage and increase visibility. Consider writing a press release about your practice’s participation in local events or charity work. For example, you could provide pro bono dental work to a member of your local community.

Most experts recommend publishing one press release per quarter.

5. Ask Patients for Online Reviews

Asking patients for online reviews about their experience with your dental office is an effective way to build more local backlinks. Of course, not every patient will leave you a review. However, you can offer an incentive (like a discount or a gift card to a local business) that will improve the chances of receiving patient feedback.

In addition, our solution includes an Online Reviews feature, which automatically sends feedback requests to every patient after their appointment. It’s an excellent way to build credibility and brand awareness in your local community.

6. Thought Leadership

As a dental professional, you have valuable knowledge and experience that you can leverage to improve your SEO and backlink-building strategies. One way to do this is with thought leadership or writing online for dental magazines, digital publications, or blogs. Target websites with high domain authority to increase the value and quality of your backlinks.  

Bolster Your SEO Techniques with Local Backlinks

One of the most common SEO mistakes for dental practices is failing to invest time and effort into building local backlinks. You can publish press releases, contact your professional business connections, ask patients to leave reviews, and submit your dental practice’s information to local business directories.

Do you want to learn more about the advanced software solutions we offer for dental professionals? Schedule a demo today of our product and see how we can help drive growth for your dental practice.

Search engine optimization (SEO) can help drive growth and success for your dental practice. However, building a successful SEO strategy involves leveraging several different factors. In this post, we answer the question "What is crawling in SEO?" and explain how it affects your dental practice's website and marketing strategy.

Crawling for SEO: What is it?

So what is crawling in SEO?

Google and other search engines use bots to evaluate and categorize the content of websites. Since these search engine crawlers are bots and don't have eyes to see and read like humans, they "crawl" pages to determine the type, value, and quality of content they contain.

These bots crawl pages, following new links for updated information, and then use that to index web pages and rank them in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Crawling falls under the category of technical SEO.

So, why is crawling important? By incorporating SEO techniques that make it easier for bots to crawl and index your website, you have a better chance of increasing visibility, boosting your ranking in the SERPs, and driving more traffic.

However, as a service-based business, dentists need to capture local leads that will convert into new patients and more profit. Nationwide traffic won't provide the same results as web traffic from your local community.  

Using Local SEO Techniques to Improve Crawlability

Several techniques can help improve the crawlability of your website while complementing your local dental SEO strategy. At Dental Intelligence, our dental practice software features important tools like Online Reviews, which help you manage your reputation and establish credibility and authority.

Here are more SEO tips to help crawler bots categorize and index your dental practice's website faster and more accurately.

1. Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

One crucial SEO tactic that can help your dental practice website with crawlers is mobile optimization. Google uses a mobile-first index when crawling web pages, which means it evaluates the mobile version. As such, optimizing your website for mobile devices, like making sure it's responsive and will adapt to smaller screen sizes, is paramount and supports easier crawling and indexing.  

2. Utilize Local Backlinks

Internal links, external links, and backlinks are essentially votes of confidence for your dental website and establish trust, authority, and credibility. When you have multiple high-quality local backlinks for your website, it creates domain authority and shows the crawler bots that your website contains relevant, useful, and informative content.

However, be sure that your backlinks are from authority websites related to the dental industry. Otherwise, it could negatively affect your crawlability and index score.

3. Focus on Quality Content

Search engine crawlers evaluate the content of your website as a vital ranking factor. Focus on using content for your dental website that is high-quality, helpful, relevant, and provides value to your patient base and target market.

For example, you want to avoid red flags like duplicate content, stolen content, keyword stuffing, and spamming backlinks. Content is king in SEO, and if you use unethical SEO tactics like the ones we just listed, the crawlers will not rank your website very highly, reducing its performance and visibility.

4. Use Structured Data

Another way to improve the crawlability of your dental practice's website is with structured data. Structured data for SEO allows search engine crawlers to add rich snippets from your content to the SERPs, which gives your website a distinct edge over the competition.

Structured data can include schemas like a sitemap, logo, reviews, or a local business markup, the right-hand box on the SERPs containing your dental office's name, address, phone number, and other critical business details. It supports your local SEO strategy and provides easily accessible information to crawler bots when they need to evaluate your page.

Intelligently Shape the Future of Practice

So, what is crawling in SEO? Here's the main takeaway: search engines use crawler bots to "read," categorize, and index your website, affecting its visibility, local traffic, and page ranking in the SERPs.

At Dental Intelligence, we offer a range of cutting-edge software for dental professionals to streamline practice management, increase productivity, and drive growth among their target market. Schedule a demo of our product and learn more about how we can build success for your dental practice.

Even missing one employee can throw your entire schedule off, resulting in overworked staff, longer wait times, and a poor patient experience.

Currently, the dental field is having trouble filling various positions, including dental assistants, hygienists, and even receptionists. Below, we discuss the current labor shortage and tips for helping dentists with understaffed teams keep their practices running smoothly.

Why the Dental Industry Is Facing Unprecedented Labor Shortages

After the pandemic, healthcare professions were among the highest-risk occupations for American workers, and dentists were at the top of the list. Almost overnight, practices closed up shop.

As the shutdown continued, patients put off routine and elective care appointments for months. Once restrictions eased up, the rapid increase in patient volume created an inevitable bottleneck.

According to Marko Vujicic¹, the vice president and chief economist of the Health Policy Institute at the American Dental Association, around 40% of dental practices in America were actively searching for knowledgeable employees to fill open positions in August of 2022.

Furthermore, 90% of those practices found it “extremely difficult” to find suitable candidates. Nationwide, dental practices are dealing with overworked staff, months-long scheduling backups, and loss of productivity.

Five Ways to Deal with Shortage of Staff at Your Dental Practice

1. Start Every Morning with a Daily Game Plan

If your dental practice is short on staff, getting through the workday without any bumps or obstacles can be a challenge. In addition, your team has to pick up the slack and handle the extra work until you hire a suitable candidate. With our Morning Huddle and other software solutions, you can increase dental production and start the day with clear communication between your staff for a more efficient workflow.  

2. Streamline Scheduling and Patient Care Systems

When you’re down a staff member and facing a busy day and full appointment schedule, every minute counts. Investing in Online Scheduling and systems for patient care and practice management can help you streamline your workday, increase efficiency, and create a more convenient and positive experience for your patients.

However, using two or more systems can be cumbersome. Instead, look for a single, centralized system that makes it fast and easy to switch between tasks and facilitate all your essential workday tasks at once. Dentists with more than one practice location will particularly benefit from this time-saving solution.   

3. Go Paperless with Cloud-Based Platforms

When learning how to deal with a shortage of staff, one of the best things to do is go paperless.

Dental practices generate a lot of paperwork, from patient treatment plans to consent forms, medical records, billing, and more. Dealing with all this paperwork makes it harder to manage proper care for your patients and can put extra stress on staff, not to mention the security risk it poses. However, you can eliminate that issue and save time by going paperless with a cloud-based platform that offers features like Digital Forms and Consents, flexible payment options, Virtual Check-In, and more.

4. Be Proactive Against Burnout

Dental professionals working in an understaffed practice are at a high risk of suffering from burnout. Being proactive in fighting against this issue is important, as employee morale significantly impacts the quality of care your practice provides.

For example, you can take steps to pinpoint the triggers that affect your staff the most through an anonymous survey. Some factors might include excess overtime hours, lack of support, and working through breaks. Then, you can determine which problems are the most pressing and how to solve them, ensuring your current staff remains happy, productive, and engaged.

5. Cast a Wide Net When Hiring

Dental staff recruitment can be a challenging and time-consuming process. When searching for suitable candidates, use every resource available to you. For example, you can look on LinkedIn, post jobs on your Facebook page or website, use online job boards, or post openings at nearby dental schools.

Put time and effort into creating job postings to entice qualified candidates to apply. Casting a wide net can help you fill job openings faster and reduce the time and money spent recruiting.

Advanced Software Solutions for Dental Professionals: Dental Intelligence

Knowing how to deal with a shortage of staff at your dental practice is critical to its continued success. With our cutting-edge solutions at Dental Intelligence, you can drive growth, streamline your workflow, and keep your practice thriving even when understaffed. Schedule a demo today!

Resources

¹ WBUR article

Dealing with insurance sucks — for patients and as a practice.

From the patient standpoint, it’s difficult to figure out which procedures are or aren’t covered as well as at what rates and how often. It can be even more disappointing when they don’t get the amount of coverage they were expecting.

As a practice, insurance companies probably aren’t your best friend either. Working with insurance companies is becoming more complicated and time-consuming for practices. 

First, it’s a challenge to verify a patient’s insurance benefits. You either have to call the insurance company or look up the patient’s information online — that is if the insurance company provides this information online. And when you call in, you probably wait on hold longer than you have time for. Some insurance companies even limit how many codes you can provide per phone call.

Then, to get reimbursed, you're required to provide nothing short of a book report with in-depth explanations and detailed images for each procedure for each patient.

Even worse, reimbursement rates aren’t going up. Insurance companies also like to play the “stall as long as you can” game when it comes to paying you. They also like to find even the smallest mistake they can to deny a claim.

It’s a lot of work for a potentially small payout. And it doesn’t appear that the archaic ways of the dental insurance industry are changing anytime soon.

So how can you collect insurance payments more efficiently when it seems like the odds aren’t in your favor?

Enter: Dental Intelligence Insurance.

Dental Intelligence Insurance makes it less time consuming for you to collect insurance payment and easier to keep track of claims all in one place. This brand new module includes Eligibility Verification and Claims Processing and works hand in hand with Dental Intelligence Analytics and Engagement. So let’s break down each of these new features this module has to offer.

Eligibility Verification

With real-time eligibility verification, you can quickly verify any patients’ insurance benefits. No need to have multiple windows or tabs open. 

Reduce your office wait times by verifying patients’ insurance within moments — or better yet, before they even come into the office. If you’re using Dental Intelligence Digital Forms, you can gather insurance information from patients before the appointment and verify their insurance eligibility well in advance.

Spend more time with patients and focus on other important tasks instead of spending hours a day on the phone or online verifying insurance.

Claims Processing

Submitting claims isn’t only time-consuming, but can also be costly. Most insurance companies charge per attachment and even limit the number of claims that can be submitted each month. With Dental Intelligence Insurance, you can submit an unlimited amount of claims as well as the attachments associated with them, all for the same low cost.

We also use standard X12 formatting for faster, more precise processing, greatly reducing the risk of human error. If something is entered incorrectly, Dental Intelligence Insurance will flag the claim and let you know what is missing or invalid before they’re processed to insurance.

Process, track and manage all your claims in one spot. Our real-time view allows you to see status updates, rejection reasons, and other smart notifications. Increase your approval rate and accelerate insurance reimbursements with Claims Processing.

Additional Features

In the rare case that an insurance company doesn’t accept electronic submissions, Dental Intelligence Insurance will automatically print claims and mail them for you at no extra cost. That way, you don’t have to remember which insurance companies accept electronic submissions and which don’t.

Easily sync bank deposits with ERA. Plus, get paid all in the same place with the combined power of Dental Intelligence Insurance and Payments.

If you’re part of a DSO, our centralized view allows you to see claims across all locations so you can stay on top of insurance reimbursements throughout your organization.

Save time and get paid faster with Dental Intelligence 

Let Dental Intelligence help you manage insurance all in one place, so you can get back to focusing on patient care. Schedule a free demo today and begin collecting insurance payment more efficiently.

Some patient encounters can place you and your dental staff in awkward situations. Still, you must learn to resolve these issues calmly to avoid hurting your reputation with other patients. Effective communication can be challenging to master, but it is essential for the success of your business.

Understanding the types of concerns patients may have and how to read verbal and nonverbal communication is a good place to start to navigate difficult conversations with patients.

What Types of Patients Are Common in Dental Practices?

You should not expect all of your patients to be happy and enthusiastic during their visits. Dental problems can cause irritability, stress, and anxiety for many people who come through your door. In extreme cases, these issues could result in loud patient outbursts in your office.

Suppose you have a patient who has a fear of dental offices. They may cry or scream during treatment. Patients may also become angry with your staff after learning their insurance won’t cover a specific treatment.

Knowing how to handle these difficult situations will keep you from receiving poor reviews or upsetting other patients in the office.

How Can Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Help You Navigate Difficult Patient Interactions?

Reading body language is essential when communicating with your patients. Even if a patient does not cry or yell, you may be able to read their emotions by observing some key signals.

For example, an anxious patient may shake or display a “thousand-yard-stare” — two coping mechanisms some people use to manage fear. Unhappy patients may cross their arms, scowl, or clench their teeth. Monitor these cues to determine your next action.

Take a deep breath before you approach your patient. A cool-headed response will always de-escalate a problem over a rash, heated exchange. Allow the conversation to be a two-way discussion by politely asking your patient to explain the problem they are experiencing.

Do your best to understand their perspective and respond accordingly. If a patient is late to their appointment and upset about the cancellation, acknowledge that this problem happens occasionally and offer to reschedule them for the next opening. Politely educate the patient by explaining why the cancellation is necessary to ensure that other patients in line remain on schedule.

Dealing with difficult patients can be an ongoing process for your dental practice. It may be a good idea to accommodate regularly problematic patients with extra resources and follow-ups.

Tips and Communication Strategies to De-Escalate Conversations with Difficult Patients

By following these best practices, you can deal with difficult patients, acknowledge their concerns, and provide quality care:

• Use tools like 2-Way Communication to streamline patient communication online and over the phone to prevent confusion during visits. You may be able to prevent problems before they start by managing your patients’ expectations ahead of time. 
• Explain Treatment Plans in detail so your patients can prepare for examinations or dental procedures without stress.
• Create a warm and welcoming dental office for your patients to help anxious patients relax. If they still show signs of anxiety or discomfort (remember to watch their body language), ask them if they would feel safer if you added extra layers of personal protection equipment.
• Always put the patient first when speaking and provide practical solutions: “What would you like from us to help resolve this issue?” or “I understand that X problem is causing you discomfort. Would Y solution help?”

If a difficult patient tries arguing with your front desk staff or back office healthcare professionals, lead them into a private, one-on-one conversation. Removing them from a group setting makes the situation feel less confrontational.

How to Prepare Your Dental Office for Difficult Patients

Train your staff on how to communicate with patients professionally. You can schedule regular team meetings to discuss policies and strategies. Make sure that your team can balance phone calls, emails, and appointments to prevent delays that may upset patients.

Keep an eye on the morale of your employees. A happy staff will provide better, level-headed communication during difficult situations.

Communication Skills That Help You Maintain a Positive Reputation

Effective communication is an important aspect of dental care. With the right information, you can nurture a positive patient experience.

At Dental Intelligence, we can help you avoid dental patient communication mistakes. Contact us to discuss our state-of-the-art solutions for dealing with difficult patients and schedule a demo to see it in action.

Answering every phone call your office receives can be challenging if your staff manages a busy schedule. Setting up a professional voicemail greeting is a convenient way to communicate your services to potential customers and provide quality service even when you can’t answer the phone.

Knowing what to include in your message is essential for keeping your patients happy and promoting customer retention.

How Can an Effective Dental Office Voicemail Improve Patient Relationships?

Prospective patients expect you to pick up the phone when they call. Busy or unanswered phone calls discourage them from reaching out a second time.

Your dental office voicemail greeting should assure your callers that you care about their concerns and will get back to them at your earliest convenience. It should also encourage them to leave a message with contact information and the reason for their call.

Offering these basic courtesies ensures that your patients don’t feel ignored and helps your practice retain a professional image. Sometimes, a friendly voicemail greeting could mean the difference between a good and bad review on your practice’s Google listing.

Outbound voicemail messages could also be useful for your patient outreach strategy. Voicemail Drops enable you to leave messages for patients with appointment reminders or follow-ups without their phones ringing. This convenient tool prevents disruptions during their day and lets them listen whenever they please.

What Should You Consider When Building a Voicemail Script?

Creating your own voicemail greeting provides a touch of authenticity, but there are some common mistakes to avoid. Write your greeting on paper and rehearse it several times out loud before recording. This method helps you avoid wordiness or awkward pauses that may confuse your caller.

Record your greeting in a room with minimal background noise. Interference from crowds, indoor appliances, or electronics can make it hard for patients to hear your message.

You can avoid the hassle of creating a DIY greeting by investing in professional recordings from a reliable third-party service. This strategy may be practical if you have a sizable multilingual clientele. Professional voice actors can record the same greeting in another language, promoting a more inclusive experience for your patients. 

What Are Some Examples of Dental Office Voicemails Your Practice Could Use?

Explore some of the most common dental office voicemail greeting examples:

“Hello, thank you for calling the dental office of X. Due to a high call volume, we cannot answer the phone at this time. After the beep, please leave a message with your name, number, and email address. We will call you back at our earliest convenience. Thank you.”

The above message is straightforward, giving your patients clear instructions on what to do next.

“Hi, thanks for calling the dental office of X. We are assisting other patients at this time and cannot pick up the phone. Leave a message with your name and number. Our staff will return your call as soon as possible.”

A casual greeting may improve patient relationships if you own a small practice.

“You have reached the dental office of X. We operate between the hours of Y and Z. We value your call but are unable to respond at this time. Please leave a message after the tone or use the keypad for more options: If you have questions about your billing, press one. If you would like to schedule an appointment, press two. Para español oprima tres.”

Formal greetings with a phone tree feature and multiple language options are best if you manage a larger practice.

How Can a Dental Practice Optimize Its Voicemail Features?

Managed dental office communication technology — such as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) — lets you set custom voicemails, redirect callers to relevant digital extensions, and store incoming messages. 

Consider rewriting your script if you notice patients aren’t leaving messages. It may also be worth asking a non-employee to test your voicemail and give feedback. This method offers you an outside perspective.

Dental Office Phone Solutions That Benefit You

Communication is key to your dental practice’s success. A professional dental office voicemail greeting demonstrates to your patients that you care about their time and encourages them to stay in touch.

Check out our blog to learn more about why your practice should be using Voicemail Drops. Schedule a demo today to learn about our suite of digital tools that improve phone communication and patient care at your practice.

Marketing your dental practice to a wider audience can be challenging without positive patient reviews. Over three-quarters of potential patients use reviews to decide which practices are worth visiting, so positive reviews are a powerful tool to grow your practice.

Many of your patients may not leave reviews after their appointments, which means you miss the opportunity for their positive word-of-mouth marketing to entice other patients to your dental practice. Understanding when and how to ask for reviews from your patients can help your practice solve many of the reasons patients don't leave reviews.

1. You Are Not Driving Patients Toward Reviews

Patients who don’t know where or how to leave reviews for your dental practice will simply not post them. Optimizing your business operations and encouraging patients to post their experiences is the first step to getting more engagement.

For example, you could post links to your website, Google, Facebook, and Yelp on posters around your office. These could read, “We Care About Your Opinion. Rate Your Experience With Our Staff!”

2. You Are Waiting Too Long to Request a Review

Waiting too long after appointments to email your patients with links to reviews can be a mistake. It’s best to reach out within 24 hours while their experience remains fresh.

3. You Don’t Automate Your Reviews

Your staff may not have the time to solicit reviews from every patient who comes through the door. Automating the process frees up time and resources and means you never forget to ask for a review. 

You can set up emails or an automated calling system to contact your patients shortly after their visits. Dental Intelligence Online Reviews allows you to easily request reviews from patients.

4. You Are Pressuring Patients to Leave Reviews

Avoid using direct confrontation that pressures your patients into leaving reviews. Being too forceful can land you in an ethical gray area. This mistake discourages patients from taking time out of their day to leave positive feedback and could even drive your patients to another dentist.

5. You Respond Inappropriately to Negative Reviews

As your practice grows, you may receive a few negative reviews from hot-tempered patients. However, responding professionally to negative feedback helps you maintain a trustworthy public image and shows that you are receptive to patient concerns. People may be more willing to leave reviews when they see your staff respond appropriately to online comments.

6. Your Office Has Long Wait Times

Keep your dental practice running smoothly to avoid disappointed patients who aren't motivated to leave reviews. Poor service could even result in negative reviews.

Reduce wait times in your office with effective schedule management strategies, initiate follow-up calls, and keep patient records organized and accessible when they request them.

7. You Don’t Call Patients Back

Establish and optimize an office-wide phone system that allows your front desk staff to keep up with calls. Answering your patients’ calls and questions will encourage them to leave positive reviews about your practice.

You can also use your phones to contact patients on a waitlist if another patient cancels their appointment. Fitting them into the schedule sooner than they expected is a good look for your practice and may earn you a review.

8. Your Staff Behaves Unprofessionally

Unprofessional behavior from your staff will prevent you from getting the positive reviews you need. Train your staff to manage stressful work situations productively to ensure 100% professionalism during every patient interaction.

9. You Rush Your Patients Out the Door

Your practice may treat over a hundred patients every week. Still, it’s important not to make them feel rushed in and out of the office during appointments. Allowing them to process the customer service experience and make informed decisions about your practice significantly increases their chance of leaving reviews. 

Dental Solutions That Help You Earn Positive Reviews

Many dental practices ignore the importance of earning positive reviews, but yours shouldn’t. The benefits of investing time to accommodate patients and resolve their concerns will help you boost outreach and fill your appointment slots.

At Dental Intelligence, we know how to get more online reviews for practices like yours. Schedule a demo today and see how reviews can help your practice grow. 

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In order to grow, you have to be willing to adapt. The world around us is constantly changing, and dentistry is no exception — how we do dentistry is always changing through new technologies and processes.

Growth isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. But with a constant, concerted effort, you can implement scalable changes to help your DSO thrive.

We had the opportunity to sit down with Brandi Williams of Catalyst Dental Allies, a DSO based out of Edmond, Oklahoma. She has almost thirty years of experience helping practices grow in various roles, from dental assistant to insurance coordinator to office manager, and now, VP of Growth.

“This is the perfect time to rewrite the rules of dentistry,” Brandi said. “It's time to think outside of the box and kind of pioneer the new frontier of dentistry. I think there are endless possibilities right now.”

When Brandi walks into one of her offices, she always finds an opportunity for growth. She uses data to find growth opportunities and then implements new processes to achieve the desired outcome.

Here are three key takeaways from Brandi that have helped her grow practices successfully.

1. Implement New Processes Effectively

It’s challenging to create a new process and then get an entire team to adopt it. Some might say if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. But if you can make it better, why not try?

To get new processes to stick, Brandi finds accountability is key.

“I've discovered the best way to get buy-in is setting the expectation and getting a commitment from each person on the team, and then holding them accountable by following up.”

Previously, Brandi would quickly check in with team members to see how they were doing with applying new systems. However, she found she wasn’t getting the traction she needed from her team. Recently, she’s started to refocus how she spends her time by scheduling time to meet and follow up with team members.

“Now I understand the importance of having these meetings and spending a little more time on the why behind the process,” Brandi said. “I don't always have to spend as much time retraining and explaining if I put the time in the front end.”

Brandi also started applying weekly scorecards with measurements every team is responsible for completing. That way, they have ownership of their practice.

Communication is key to implementing new processes effectively. Each team member must clearly understand your expectations of doing their part to improve the practice.

2. Discover Opportunities with Data

Data helps you see where you are and where you are projected to go, but without knowing the story or the “why” behind the numbers, you won’t be able to know how to improve.

With Dental Intelligence, we help you see the story your data is telling so you can intelligently shape the future of your practice.

“Dental Intelligence allows us to dive deeper,” Brandi said. “The metrics from Dental Intelligence give us a great landscape of how the practice is doing, but then we're able to take that to the next step.”

Brandi uses Dental Intelligence to make important decisions with her practices, so they know where they need to focus their efforts. Once Brandi and her team determine what needs to be changed, automation from DI helps implement those changes smoothly. For example, if she discovers a practice has room for improvement with their accounts receivable, her team will then use Dental Intelligence Payments to collect payment through the automated text-to-pay features.

Dental Intelligence not only allows Catalyst Dental Allies to automate their processes, but also saves valuable time.

“The last thing we want is for anyone to spend hours and hours on reporting, just for the sake of reporting,” Brandi said. “It's more beneficial for them to be able to know where to find the number and understand where the number is coming from and why.”

3. Fill Chairs with Online Scheduling

Keeping chairs filled is a problem practices often face. Calling patients to schedule is time-consuming and exhausting. You say the same thing repeatedly and get rejected…a lot.

In the past, Brandi’s practices had an appointment request option on their website, but that didn’t prove very effective either.

“Patients would get lost in a sea of emails and it just wasn't very patient interactive,” Brandi said.

A process that only allows for appointment requests and not fully booked appointments creates more work for the practice. Brandi discovered most appointment requests came in after hours when patients were available to schedule. Usually, by the time someone followed up the next day, they would be busy, and phone tag ensued.

When Brandi first heard about Dental Intelligence Online Scheduling, she was skeptical of the power it could provide for her practices. However, that all changed when Brandi had firsthand experience using it in her practices.

One day while filling in at one of their practices, Brandi faced a dilemma. She had a new provider starting soon and knew that meant many new openings in her schedule, but didn’t want to spend hours calling patients. That’s when she decided to experiment with Online Scheduling.

“I'm just clicking a button — it's the craziest thing,” Brandi said. “Nobody told me ‘no,’ and it took me 20 seconds.”

She started sending bulk scheduling messages from a premade list of patients due for hygiene. During that month, that practice had nearly 50 appointments booked online. When comparing that number to the number of phone calls she would have had to make, it was clearly a game changer.

“It's so rewarding to see that I did this and now look at how many patients are scheduled.”

Boost Your Practice’s Performance Today

Stay ahead of the dental industry by implementing automated tools into your practice. Find powerful insights with Metrics and Reporting and make impactful decisions. No matter how big or small your DSO is, DI will help you boost your practice’s performance and find opportunities for growth. Schedule a free demo today to see how Dental Intelligence can help you intelligently shape the future of your practice(s).

You run a top-notch dental practice but don’t get a lot of new patients and struggle to get existing patients to reschedule. Does that sound familiar? If so, you might not be using social media to market your dental practice effectively. 

With dental marketing by Dental Intelligence, you can learn the importance of social media for dentists and tips for marketing on popular social platforms. 

The Many Benefits of Social Media for Dentists

While social media marketing might seem outside the realm of providing excellent dental care, investing resources into it can benefit your practice and enhance the patient experience. Here are several ways social media marketing helps your dental clinic:

Reach More Patients

Most of your current and potential dental patients use social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. When you post on social media, you’re reaching a huge audience of people, including those looking for a local dental clinic. Therefore, improving your social media presence can lead to acquiring more new patients.

Cost-Effective Marketing

Compared to paid ads on local TV and radio stations, social media marketing is a more affordable way to spread the word about your dental clinic. 

Creating a social media profile, making posts, and sharing pictures and videos are marketing strategies that don’t cost money. Even paid ads on social media are typically more cost-effective than ads on other channels.

Higher Patient Engagement

By going to where your patients spend time online, you have a lot more opportunities to engage with them outside of the dental clinic. Posting interesting content, such as dentistry-related memes or educational videos, leads to likes and comments from your target audience. 

Engaged patients are more likely to schedule appointments or refer your practice to friends and family.

Increased Brand Awareness

Higher brand awareness leads to more referrals, more new patients, and increased patient loyalty. Social media marketing is one of the best ways to increase your dental clinic’s brand awareness. When you post unique, eye-catching content on your profile, you can begin to gather a more significant following online.

It’s essential to showcase how your practice stands out from the competition, influencing potential patients to choose your dental clinic over other practices in the area.

More Website Traffic

Increased website traffic helps your business in several ways. When you share links to your site on social media, users can easily find out more about your clinic and schedule an appointment. Higher traffic also leads to improved rankings on search engines like Google, helping you get more clicks and attract new patients.

Social Media Platforms Dentists Should Be Using

When choosing which social media platforms to use for your dental practice, you should consider the types of content and users that visit each channel. To help you make the best choice for your clinic, we’ll provide details on a few of the most popular social media for dentists.

Facebook

In July 2022¹, Facebook had 2.9 billion active users worldwide, so it’s no surprise that the site is one of the most popular platforms for advertising local businesses. 

Facebook works best for:

• Patient testimonials
• News and announcements
• Educational posts
• Product promotions

Instagram

Instagram has higher engagement from younger audiences and is primarily a platform for pictures and videos. Dental practices often use Instagram to promote visual content, such as before and after photos.

As such, this social media site works best for:

• Funny or educational video content
• Posts about office culture 
• Product promotions
• Highlights from webinars, podcasts, etc.

YouTube

Many dental clinics have joined YouTube to share interesting, educational content related to dental care. With long-from videos, you have the opportunity to teach users about various dental procedures, which can ease the anxiety many people have about going to the dentist.

This works best for:

• Educational videos
• Office tours
• Patient testimonials
• Interviews with the dental team

TikTok

TikTok has a massive young audience and showcases short videos that users can view in seconds. It’s important to create concise and eye-catching content to stop people from scrolling past.

TikTok works best for:

• Before and after videos
• Entertaining content
• Quick educational videos
• Office culture videos

Attract More Patients with Simple Dental Marketing Tools

At Dental Intelligence, we help dental practices create lasting relationships with patients, leading to enhanced business growth and overall better dental care. You can use our software to streamline your office’s procedures, including scheduling, reminders, and payments. 

Find out how Dental Intelligence can take your practice to the next level. Schedule a demo today!

Resources

¹ Datareportal

With so many dental practices reaching out to the same pool of clients, attracting and retaining loyal patients can be challenging. However, there is a simple, cost-effective solution: email marketing. Email marketing for dentistry can help your clinic stand out and boost your business — you just need to follow a few practical tips.

Benefits of an Effective Email Marketing Strategy

A well-thought-out email marketing strategy comes with many benefits. Some are intangible, while others have concrete numbers and data to back them up. You can boil down the numerous benefits to two general categories:

1. Increased engagement

2. Decreased cancelations

Email marketing campaigns enable you to engage with your clients like never before. You can maintain the conversation with current patients, keeping them in the loop and looking forward to their next appointment. You can also effectively reach out to prospective patients, providing information about your dental clinic and prompting them to book an appointment.

The other primary benefit of email marketing for dentistry is decreased cancelations. No one likes crossing names off the appointment list. With effective emailing, you can minimize no-shows and maximize revenue.

Five Tips for Your Practice's Email Marketing Campaign

If you are new to the world of dental marketing, you may feel a bit overwhelmed. Learning about A/B testing, bounce rates, conversions, CTRs, and other technical terms might leave you confused and stressed out. Below, we lay out some straightforward tips to help you create a killer email marketing strategy.

1. Choose a Top-notch Email Marketing Platform

Developing an effective email marketing campaign starts with choosing the right platform. An unprofessional, poorly designed email will turn potential patients away in a heartbeat. On the flip side, software for world-class marketers might be more than what you need.

As you find the best email marketing platforms for your needs, consider asking the following questions:

• Does the platform offer a wide selection of beautiful templates or a start-from-scratch option?
• Does the platform offer automated email campaigns?
• Does the platform have mobile-friendly email designs?
• Does the platform allow you to import contacts easily?

2. Set Clear Goals for Email Campaigns

Clear goals are a must for any business-related endeavor, and that includes email marketing. You should identify specific goals before launching any campaign. Some of the most common marketing objectives for dentists include the following:

• Attracting more patients
• Increasing revenue
• Building relationships with current patients
• Preventing appointment cancelations

Keep in mind that different types of emails have different purposes. For example, welcome emails introduce the recipient to your clinic and start the conversation. Promotional emails, on the other hand, showcase a product or service. Determine your campaign goal, then choose the appropriate type of email.

3. Focus on Important Dates 

When it comes to email marketing for dentistry, you must consider important dates at your clinic. For example, this could be the best time of year to get veneers or teeth cleaning. Important dates could also be timeframes when your clinic offers discounts.

You can start planning your email marketing campaigns around these points in the year. It will help keep your message relevant, increase open rates, and encourage engagement.

4. Expand Your Mailing List

Emailing is still one of the top communication methods, despite the latest technological advancements and countless social media platforms. In lieu of this, collecting email addresses should be a high priority. You want to do everything you can to expand your mailing list. 

An easy way to add patients to your mailing list is with pop-up forms on your clinic's website. You can also have a physical sign-up sheet in the waiting room. Many practices include a link on their Twitter or Instagram bios, sending users to a landing page.

5. Keep Track of Analytics

Creating successful email marketing campaigns is an ongoing process. Pressing "send" deserves a celebration, but that is only the beginning. The analytics and insights you gain from previous campaigns will help you develop more effective strategies down the road. 

Analytics are critical in knowing what works and what doesn't with regard to marketing. By keeping track of the numbers, you can:

• Know the ideal time to send emails based on when recipients typically check their inbox

• Determine what to include in the emails based on what people click on the most

Email Marketing Solutions for Your Dental Clinic

Email marketing for dentistry does not have to be complicated. At Dental Intelligence, we know the most effective digital marketing strategies for dentists to help you grow your practice. Schedule a demo today to get started!

Everyone likes healthy, beautiful-looking teeth, but not everyone enjoys paying the associated costs. If payments are a pain point for your dental practice, consider using an upfront payment policy. Dental Intelligence Payments can help your clinic avoid common issues like late payments and overdue dental bills.

Payment policies are a subject few dental clinicians like to discuss. However, you will want to consider upfront payments for several essential reasons.

What Are the Benefits of Requiring Upfront Payment?

With upfront payments, your patients will pay the entire bill before receiving treatment. This may not seem like a big deal at first, but requiring clients to pay the cost upfront offers several short-term and long-term benefits for your dental practice.

1. Satisfying Clients

Customer satisfaction is one of the highest priorities in dentistry. The best clinics provide outstanding dental care that focuses on the patient's needs and preferences. Such preferences and needs extend to paying bills.

Routine cleanings might not be expensive, and a patient's insurance will likely cover them, but what about root canals or veneers? Potential clients do not want hefty bills hanging over their heads while in the dental chair.

Requiring upfront payments is an excellent way to keep your clients happy. It offers them peace of mind, reassuring them that they will not receive a bill after the appointment. It also helps build trust and establish long-standing relationships.

2. Reducing No-shows

Many dental practices struggle with no-shows and cancelations. Patients may schedule an appointment, forget about it or balk at the potential bill, and fail to show up. Some will cancel or postpone their appointments due to concerns about debt.

Upfront payments help minimize such problems by enforcing commitments. If a patient has to pay the entire payment upfront, you can bet they will arrive on appointment day. In addition, you will not need to worry about labor costs and compensation for your office staff.

3. Increasing Revenue

Good dental clinics maintain a client-first mentality. At the end of the day, though, your practice is a business. You cannot survive very long in the healthcare industry (or any industry, for that matter) if your total revenue does not exceed your expenses.

Another significant benefit of requiring upfront payment is increased revenue. Upfront payment policies lead to higher client satisfaction, which results in more clients coming to you for dental care. More clients equal more revenue.

Additionally, patients might not pay the entire bill for weeks if you send it in the mail after a procedure. Delayed payments can mean cash flow backups and financial uncertainty for your clinic. You can avoid these issues by implementing an upfront payment policy.

How Do You Avoid Problems with Upfront Payment?

Upfront payment is one of the best solutions to satisfying clients, reducing no-shows and cancelations, and increasing overall revenue. However, this does not mean conflicts will not arise. Here are three practical ways to prepare for these conflicts and avoid potential problems in the future:

• Provide accurate estimates: The trouble often comes when a clinic requires upfront payment but provides an inaccurate estimate. If the estimate is too low, the patient will pay more than expected and might never come back. You can preserve your reputation and prevent this fiasco by providing accurate cost estimates.
• Train your office staff: Discussing medical bills and required payments can be touchy. With adequate training, your dental staff can handle the subject sensitively and knowledgeably. You can have necessary conversations without annoying your patients or offering misguided financial advice.

• Offer various payment methods: Some dental patients prefer to write a check, while others exclusively use credit or debit cards. As such, you should offer multiple payment methods with your upfront payment policy. This ensures the payment process is convenient and easy, with as little hassle for the client as possible.

Get Dental Solutions for Your Clinic Today

While many dental practices use post-care billing methods, an upfront payment might be a better way to go. This method requires patients to cover treatment costs before sitting in the dental chair — no bills or payment reminders sent to them in the mail. It is an excellent way for your clinic to maintain long-standing relationships and steady income.

At Dental Intelligence, we have the tools and know-how to boost your dental practice. We can improve your collections with payments and help you achieve your clinic's goals. Schedule a free demo with us today to see what we can do for you!