Navigating a dental practice is challenging. Like any business owner, once you’ve got your footing, you enjoy a sigh of relief. Things are going smoothly. But is your dental practice efficient enough to where the business runs itself?
There’s always room for more efficiency. So tap into these three specific tips to take your practice’s productivity to the next level.
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Achieving the appropriate staffing levels is a common concern for every small business. Having too thin of a team can leave your staff feeling overworked, frustrated and disillusioned about your growth prospects.
On the opposite end, there’s nothing worse than hiring talented staff and having nothing for them to do. Now you’re stuck with unfulfilled employees and a business risking financial uncertainty.
This is where automation can come in. When you remove manual and time-consuming tasks from your employee workload, you free up your talent to contribute more strategically. And then you can right-size your staffing to deliver on growth.
Automating can come in all sorts of flavors:
- Email Marketing — Target multiple customers at once with segmented campaigns and messages.
- Social Media — Schedule channel-specific social media posts to run at the optimal times.
- Appointments — Let customers choose and schedule their own appointments online.
- Reminders — Ensure fewer no-shows with reminder texts or emails.
- Scheduling — Align calendars to eliminate overbooking.
- Invoicing — Deliver invoices when jobs achieve certain milestones (your choice).
- Reviews — Generate more online reviews by sending customers easy-to-use request links.
Syncing your employees’ calendars to the system eliminates manual scheduling and ensures proper staffing, whether for cleanings or cosmetics. Above all, it keeps your team members happy.
Finding the right automation systems does require some research. But it’ll be well worth it once you witness how high your dental practice’s efficiency jumps.
Organize Documents Better
Pop quiz! A patient calls with questions about a surgery you recommended a year ago. How long would it take to locate that information? Or would you be able to even find it?
When you’re unable to pull documents at a moment’s notice, your dental practice efficiency takes a hit. Business processes get delayed and, worse, your customer service gets placed on the back burner.
There are five main reasons documents get lost:
- Unstructured employee hand-offs
- Disorderly work areas
- Outdated filing systems
- Poorly managed storage (manual or digital)
- Unsecured or unprotected systems
The right system helps you locate everything you need within seconds. With Thryv’s software for health and wellness, practices can create custom patient records — including allergies, medications, emergency contact info, documents and special care instructions.
By enabling staff to add patient notes, they can be ready to assist even in the most complicated cases. Plus, when patients ask for records, you’re able to share them immediately.
Stop Chasing Payments
Running a business is harder when you’re also running after missing invoices. Cash flow is the lifeblood of businesses. Any limitation to this flow limits how the practice operates.
We understand why you spend energy collecting invoices, but it’s not necessary. Providing more payment options makes it easier to get paid. So consider adding the following payment methods.
- Credit and debit cards
- ACH or eCheck
- Online payments
- Recurring payments
- Installment payments
- App-based options
- ThryvPay®, which can combine your chosen payment options
- Email invoicing
- Text invoicing
By offering various ways to pay, you make it hard for customers to pay late. And as long as money is coming in as it should, your practice can continue to provide the quality service patients expect.
If you’re still struggling to get customers to pay on time, check your processes. Make sure you’re proactive in getting paidas opposed to being reactive when you’re not.
Contactless Payments Are Here to Stay
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Dental practice efficiency may seem unattainable. But it’s actually within reach. Start with employee insights and feedback to identify flaws and make necessary changes. Discover how easy achieving it can be.
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