You want your dental practice to be state-of-the-art. So why is it that so many of us are tied down by paper, poor communication, no-shows and last-minute cancellations? Do we just have back luck, or is there a greater force that’s preventing us from reaching more potential within our practice?
If you feel like you are in a rut or tied down by mundane tasks in your dental practice, you could be suffering from one of the Monsters of Practice Management. These monsters haunt dental practices year-round, but they are especially haunting during the Halloween season!
The four main monsters are The Paper Waste Mummy, Late-in-stein, Callzilla, and The Review Troll. Read up on each monster below to see if they may be one of the culprits that are haunting your practice. And, be sure to read the antidote for each one, so you can learn how to effectively banish each monster for good!
The Paper Waste Mummy: The Monster of Paperwork
There’s enough paper here to make a mummy! In fact, there is one!
The Paper Waste Mummy is a monster that haunts dental practices that are weighted down from filing, printing, scanning and shredding paper documents. One of the mummy’s favorite things to do is to spawn other mummies from all the shredded paper that lies around the office.
The Paper Waste Mummy is disruptive to office workflow and enjoys making an office look dated with all of his paper minions.
If you suffer from a Paper Waste Mummy in your dental practice, here is the antidote to remove him:
- Invest in paperless dental software that will integrate with your practice management software.
- Go digital with all patient forms and treatment plans
- Digitalize your entire office – do not scan insurance cards, EOBs, etc. Instead, take images and store them in your software.
- Let your patients play a part in your new technology by letting them complete their new patient forms online from home with their computer or smartphone.
Late-in-stein: The Monster of No-Shows and Cancellations
Late-in-stein is a monster who hates punctuality and everything to do with being on time. He uses lightning and electric waves to release his power. His power is influencing dental patients to be late for their appointments, cancel at last minute, and even no-show.
Since his power travels at the speed of light, he can influence many dental patients within a practice. Hence, the high number of no shows and cancellations that so many of us face.
If you suffer from Late-in-stein, you can combat his evil force with the following antidote:
- Be sure that you are reaching each patient via their preferred form of communication. (Phone call, Text Message, Email, Postcard, etc.)
- Implement software in your practice that allows you to text in real-time with your dental patients.
- Automate appointment reminders and recall but make sure that each message is personable.
- Use your software to locate your unresponsive patients and personally reach out to them with a phone call.
Callzilla: The Interrupter of Patient Phone Calls
Callzilla prevents exceptional phone service by creating chaos and disorder to phone delivery. Callzilla makes it difficult for the front office to find the right information to act on when patients of record call in to the practice. Endless hold times and phone tag are common problems with Callzilla and no callers ever seem to get scheduled for their next visit!
If Callzilla is preventing your practice from delivering great service over the phone and scheduling appointments, here is the antidote for combat:
- Invest in software that displays important PMS notes about a patient on screen as they call in.
- Be sure to remind patients of record about balances due and upcoming appointments.
- Schedule any due and past due appointments over the phone.
- See if the incoming caller has any other family members who are patients of record, see if those family members have upcoming appointments or need to be scheduled.
The Review Troll: A One Star Review is Monstrous
The Review Troll burrows in the dark corners of dental practices. He thrives on promoting one-star negative reviews. As soon as he sees an upset patient in the practice, he encourages them to vent online by giving the dental practice a negative review.
If the Review Troll has gotten ahold of your practice, you may find a handful of upset reviews on your important review sites such as Google and Facebook. Here’s your antidote to fight back:
- Start asking your happiest patients in person to leave you a review online.
- Look into review generation software that sends a review request to your patient in the form of a text.
- Be sure that your practice has an established profile on the big review sites.
- Work together as a team on verbal skills to ask patients for a review.
The Resolution: YAPI Fights The Monsters
The Monsters of Practice Management are real. The scary fact is that even though they can be easily combated, they haunt thousands of dental practices nationwide. Don’t let your office be susceptible to these haunts. Make a resolution to exterminate these ghosts for good by investing in dental software that will remove these problems.
YAPI provides not only a solution to each monster but an entire plan that combats all of them. You can learn more about each unique plan or our bundle offer, The Works, by taking a demo. Put an end to all these monsters once and for all!
On behalf of our team at YAPI, we want to wish you a Happy Halloween! And, in your case, hopefully, it’s one with fewer spooks this year!
