Patient Retention: How to Keep Your Client Base

Unquestionably, a crucial aspect of expanding a dentistry practice is bringing in new patients. However, from a practice expense and income viewpoint, patient retention is just as critical (if not more so) in a competitive market when dental competitors are equally seeking new patients. Here, we tell you about the role that dental management services play on this and offer some helpful guidance to help you make sure you're giving patient retention the attention it deserves.

Why Is Maintaining Patient Loyalty So Crucial?

The proportion of all of your patients that return for additional visits is known as patient retention. Even though it could be challenging to measure the exact number, this is a crucial sign of how well your practice is doing.

Upselling your services to your current patients will be far simpler than persuading a new patient of the quality of your care. In fact, your patient retention efforts should take precedence because it costs 25 times more to acquire a new patient than to keep existing ones.

How to Improve Patient Retention

Make a Strong First Impression

Contrary to popular opinion, a patient may not actually make their initial impression of you during their first visit to your clinic. Be sure you’re portraying yourself well across all platforms, not just in your office, as many patients use your website, social media profiles, mailers, and networking groups to establish their first impressions when researching doctors.

Find Creative Ways to Convince Them to Book Their Next Appointment

There are various ways you can be creative with the notification you send out to confirm your patient's next appointment if they leave without setting one up. You may say "Thank You" and include a link to arrange their follow-up appointment, share a dental hygiene fact that makes it urgent for them to do so, or let them know about your new office hours so they can plan their appointment with you.

Provide Different Payment Options to Ensure Constant Care

Did you know that 40% of Americans don't routinely visit the dentist? And surprise, most of the time cost is the main factor. Instead of presenting your patients with a large bill at the end of their treatment, create a payment schedule that bills them in modest increments every month or every three months, making it financially feasible without breaking their household budget. Along with this, you encourage patients to come back frequently, which helps your retention rates.

Pamper your Patients

Offer a long-time patient a free service, like teeth whitening, if you know they have a significant forthcoming event, like a wedding or prom. Patients will be delighted by this unexpected act of kindness and are more likely to recommend your services to others.

Improving the Patient Experience

Making patients happy is one of the best ways to increase retention rates, and doing so takes more than just providing high-quality clinical care.

Every member of your team, whether clinical or administrative, has a distinct responsibility. Customer service is a separate function that they all play, though. Making the patient feel special is everyone's responsibility.

Interested in Dental Management Services?

Being able to manage the administrative part of a dental office can sometimes be a little too much, which is why using the assistance of a specialized manager can streamline every process and achieve a higher rate of client retention in the long run, identifying the weaknesses of your practice and immediately working on them. Give us a call at The Dental Practice Management Agency for more information.