Reactivate to increase production

The number of patients on your database is a key bit of information and something that should be tightly monitored and managed.


Patient retention is one of the most difficult challenges facing general dental practices at this time and your success if going to greatly depend upon your ability to win your patients loyalty and keep them attending regularly.


I have just completed an exercise involving a database of patients whereby 77% of patients had not attended for 18months or more!  I should mention that this practice is doing well in terms of financial success, new patient numbers and profit growth so this figure was somewhat surprising to say the least but one not to be ignored!


So we started a lengthy analysis of the patient database, looking at those patients who had failed to respond to recalls and had subsequently fallen through the gaps.


Once we had identified those patients that we felt there was a possibility we could reactivate we considered ways in which we could attract them back.


We did a trial of a half price exam offer, sent out to 150 of the 'inactive' patients and the result has been amazing.  In just 3 weeks we have seen a 11% response and a resulting income of £500 plus an additional £2000 of planned work of which approximately 50% is already in the book!


You could argue that offering a half price exam is loosing you money and in the short term you may be right although I would argue these appointments have taken slots of your appointment book that otherwise would have been left empty! You need to look at the bigger picture, you have earned additional income, you have achieved a great initial return on investment and you have generated additional income that you have yet to earn.  The most important point to remember is you have reactivated dormant patients and you now have the opportunity to re-develop relationships and convert them into loyal, regular attending, friend and family referring customers!


After an initial sceptical response to this initiative the practice involved is now amazed by the response and will certainly be taking the time and effort to extend the offer to the rest of their dormant patients.


If you would like help planning and implementing initiatives such as this please get in touch on 07703627873 or email [email protected]