Dear Sharyn
Our office is overwhelmed with patients cancelling their appointments. Most of the patients give reasons related to COVID. We don’t know if that is true but we are running out of patients to fill the schedule and the front desk team and I are frustrated. We don’t necessarily want to fine patients who are legitimately sick but we don’t know what else to do.
K.S. California
Dear K.S.
Late cancellations have always been the bane of dental practices but the problem has now exploded due to Covid, the usual illnesses and bad weather. I offer extensive training on this issue but it boils down to retraining your patients so that they only cancel when it is absolutely an emergency and not when it is only inconvenient.
To start, change your verbiage when scheduling patients so that they hear your cancellation guidelines as well as how difficult it will be to reschedule. “Be sure to keep this appointment, John because we are so booked that I can’t guarantee we’ll be able to find another opening that will work for you.”
If patients do cancel, make it just a little bit more difficult; the front desk should not be saying, “Oh, no problem, we have an opening tomorrow,” even if you do. And finally, there is an art to finding patients who can fill an opening. These calls/texts should be less transactional (Hi, can you come in tomorrow?) and more relationship-oriented (How are you? We’ve missed you. How has your health been since we last saw you?)
But the main focus for you and the team is to help patients value their dental appointments so highly, that they would not think of cancelling. This goal should permeate everything you do.
