Is your practice paperless? Or maybe you're in the process of changing over to digital? Regardless of where your office stands in digital v. paper, we would be surprised if you were offering online booking to your patients.
Before you start with your list of reasons and excuses for not offering this options to your patients (both new and old), we ask that you suspend your objections for just a minute. Let's assume the world is a perfect place and anything is possible. Now that you're ready, we can dive into how and why online booking (and other online self-serve offerings) can transform your practice.
Right now, to schedule an appointment for a dental or hygiene visit your patients have to call your office. That means they are waiting for open hours to talk to someone. For many people, the times they are available to make these calls are when your office is closed: weekends, lunch hours, or evenings. Even if they leave you a message, it's difficult for them to answer your return call. Then both parties are stuck in the cycle of phone tag. Yikes! You want it to be easy and convenient for patients to make (or change) appointments. The harder this process, the more likely you are to lose them to another practice that's less difficult to work with.
Does this mean you have to stay open 24/7 or have staff skip lunches? Do you have to pay one staffer to sit at the desk and answer the phone on Fridays when the office is usually closed? Not unless you want to. With online booking, you can give patients the flexibility to schedule whenever they think of it! It could be at 9 pm after the kids are in bed, or at noon on Tuesday when they have a minute. And since not many practices offer this option (yet), you'll get a leg up on being the convenient option for new patients in your area.
Imagine if your staff could free up 30-50% of the time they spend on the phone scheduling or rescheduling appointments. This includes returning messages and that dreaded phone tag. Even if online booking only reduced their time on this task by 10%, wouldn't it be worth it? Not only do you not have to pay someone to sit in the office on Fridays, you can put these staff to work reaching out to past patients, engaging with patients in the office, or any other task you can think of.
Both the above reasons: flexibility for patients and freeing up staff time impact the growth and profitability of your practice. It seems like something really simple: offering patients the option to book appointments online. But the impact can be huge. Coupled with online forms, text and email appointment reminders, and recall, your practice is streamlined and efficient. You'll save money on overhead, impress your patients, and hopefully inspire your current patients to rave to their friends about how easy you make their dental care.
Want to learn more? Contact us today for a free demo. tab32 makes integrating all these features into your practice easy and intuitive both for patients and your staff.
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