652: 7 Proven Steps to Reduce Patient Cancellations - Barrett Straub - a podcast by ACT Dental

7 Proven Steps to Reduce Patient Cancellations

Episode #652 with Dr. Barrett Straub

Do you deal with cancellations in your practice? If you’re like most dental offices, the answer is yes. Looking for some training on how to help with cancellations and no shows? Let’s set you and your team up for success with these 7 proven steps. To learn how, listen to Episode 652 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

• Send Dr. Barrett an email
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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

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Main Takeaways:

Mitigate cancellations by being proactive while a patient is in the chair. 

An empty chair is negative profit.

You’ve got to put the right people in the right chairs.

Coding appointments can show you which patients value your time and value what you do.

Make the patient feel like you know them. Are you a transactional or relational practice?

Train people that they can’t cancel.

Quotes:

“Every cancellation that has ever happened in dentistry started at the chair. And what I mean by that is the value, the conversation, and we can’t just pass the buck.Yes everybody has to work together; front and back. But all cancellations start at the chair. If you’re looking to solve the root cause of the problem, then we have to start further back in the appointment, which is the conversation.” (5:28—5:53)

“Research indications why patients cancel. Number one is they do forget…The second reason would be lack of perceived value by the patient. And sometimes by the practice. They feel like they’re doing you a favor by canceling. You ever felt that?...Sometimes we give that perception to patients…Reason number four is something comes up that they would rather do. It becomes a value issue…Number five, they have an emotional barrier. That’s very real. Some feel pain. Some are afraid they’ll receive bad news…and I’m just going to put this off. And lastly some just don’t want to spend the money on dentistry. Things...

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