Have you ever visited an establishment and only been told to wait minutes because the team is in a meeting or on their lunch break, only to turn out to you waiting for at least an hour or so? You might have gone to the establishment and scheduled a meeting with said team days prior.
That whole ordeal just left you with two days worth of wasted time. If your practice is doing the same thing, you should know that sooner or later, this will piss many of your patients off, forcing them to find a new place for dental care. Don’t let this happen to you. You can implement online scheduling if you want to improve your patient’s experience with your dental practice.
Scheduling an appointment should be seamless and stress-free, as it will make your patients more satisfied with your practice. If you’re still not convinced, here are other reasons you should implement this system.
Reduced Chances of Cancellations and No-Shows
Real-time online scheduling reduces no-shows and cancellations since your patients can pick a time and date most suitable for their busy schedules. In addition, since they can opt for the date themselves, they’re more likely to keep their appointments anyway since it’s only natural to pick the date they want.
Also, some software can send notifications to their contact numbers or email addresses to remind them of their upcoming appointment. Not only that, but some software can also do an automated fill-up of gaps when a patient does cancel their appointments. This can boost your productivity and be more efficient with your time, which you can see through an analytics platform for dentists.
The software can also prioritize the people who have the most recent appointments to save more time and effort.
More Visibility for Your Patients
Online scheduling smoothens the whole process of setting up an appointment. This is because patients will be able to view the available dates, set up their appointments, and pick a date that is convenient for them. Then, if everything works out fine, there will be no human intervention, and everything will be set.
This process will be stress-free for your patients since they don’t need to worry anymore whether you’ll be free or not for the date of the appointment. Also, this is beneficial for your practice since your employees can devote their time and effort to something else that’s more important.
Increased Level of Satisfaction
No one wants to be hassled, so putting up a stellar reputation in the community with efficient online scheduling software can fill you up with more appointments, referrals, and even great reviews. Though providing stellar customer service your way, technology can let you go even further beyond.
Online scheduling helps patients stay updated with their appointments, and they will be very thankful that they can do this right from their PCs and smartphones. Not only that, but your employees will thank you, too, since they have more time to do something more meaningful in running your office rather than manning the phones all day.
Reduce Call Volumes and Increase the Number of Potential Patients
As mentioned earlier, with online scheduling, you will reduce your practice’s missed inbound calls and appointments. This is because, with online scheduling, your patients will be able to set or cancel their appointments online.
Also, suppose you’re still using the landline for appointment setup. In that case, you should know that a significant percentage of your inbound calls will go to voicemail and most of the people who are led to voicemail tend to find another dental care provider.
This is a colossal way to lose profits. Not only that, but most dental offices that are not using online scheduling only allow their patients to set up appointments during business hours since they are most likely to be led to voicemail since no one is in the office anymore. But with online scheduling, potential patients can visit your site and set up an appointment any time of the day, whichever day they want to.
You will be notified of this appointment anytime you check your contacts or visit the site yourself. This will give your patients more incentive to choose your practice over any other practices in the local area.
Final Words
Being updated with technology doesn’t only improve your practice’s customer service but will also give you more business. With top-notch dental care and overall convenience, your practice would be an obvious choice since everything is much easier, from setting up appointments to cancellations.
Also, your office would be more efficient, and your staff would thank you because they will be less stressed since they won’t have to handle the phones all day anymore. With efficient online scheduling software, your patients’ first impression of your practice will be five stars.