Building patient practice relationships part two

This is the second in the series on building and maintaining patient practice relationships and how your dental software can help.

The first post in this series covered the importance of having a well structured, informative website and how it can be the stepping stone to gaining new patients as well as being a tool to inform and educate existing patients.

Maintaining and nurturing the relationship your practice has with existing patients it very important to a practice. Developing this existing relationship leads to patients staying with the practice and visiting frequently, resulting in a win-win scenario for both parties. The patient is happy and healthy and the practice has a constant flow of appointments.

Patient Photo

In Dentally, as with most dental software packages, practices have the ability to add images to a patient record. When the patient record is opened the photo is then shown, it is also viewable in the patients details.

This allows staff to get acquainted with patients and provide better, more personable care to the patient. A practice could greet the patient by name when the patient arrives to the practice. Making the patient feel known and valued by the practice is a key target one should aim for. When staff know patients by name, it also improves the feel of the practice, creating an environment where patients feel at ease and think less about pain, both physically and financially.

Birthday report

Being able to see when a patient's birthday is can be very advantageous to a practice, especially if your dental software shows it to you automatically (like Dentally). It allows you to send a text message or (if you're feeling very generous) a birthday card wishing the patient a happy birthday.

Doing this makes the patient feel that they are very important to the practice and will generate good feelings towards the practice. Practices can also use this as an opportunity to offer the patient a reduction, a percentage off or a treatment such as a whitening. This will also create a good feeling towards the practice and potentially generate additional income too!

Helping to promote goodwill with your patients is part of the patient and practice relationship. Maintaining a good relationship is good for your practice and your bottom line.