How many observation patients does your orthodontic practice have on its roster? Regardless of how many are in the pipeline, you can safely bet that at least half, possibly more, will never begin treatment in your practice. Losing ten observation patients in any given year, could be equivalent to losing $50,000 or more in revenue.
One problem with observation patients is that appointments are spread far out. Typically, an orthodontist sees an observation patient once or twice a year. Scheduling appointments 6 or 12 months ahead of time may not be convenient for the patient. Therefore, it is likely the patient will push off scheduling the next appointment, or if they do schedule an appointment, they may simply not show up.
The onus is on your practice to keep your observation patients “front and center.” One way to make sure these patients stay on your radar is to consistently run a report and see who is ready for their next appointment. However, consistency is sometimes difficult in an ideal world. Your office staff is busy or may even experience staff turn-over, so it’s easy for these reports to be placed on the back burner. Plus, who wants to run another report?
An easier way to ensure your observation patients come back for their next visit is to recruit a SmileSuite Virtual Assistant to ensure these patients show up. In SmileSuite, simply link a VA task to the observation procedure. This task could be to follow-up with a text, email or personalized phone call reminding them that they are due for their observation appointment.
SmileSuite really makes it that simple. No more running reports. No more losing track of patients. And as an added benefit, practices can include an additional automated task, such as a reminder to send a postcard three months before the next visit. It’s a nice touch and an easy way to keep patients engaged with your practice.
Use SmileSuite and never forget about another observation patient again.
SmileSuite helps orthodontists create flexible treatment presentations so they can start more patients, maximize profits, and make data-driven decisions with ease.