4 Ways to Increase Productivity In Dental Office

Have you ever thought about digitizing your dental office to increase productivity? Running a dental clinic is challenging, and you should make your clinic as efficient as possible where you can.

So, how can you increase productivity in your dental office? What can you control? There are several methods to increase productivity in other areas of your practice. Keep reading to learn more.

What Do You Need to Digitize Your Practice?

Creating a digital footprint is important for any business, as it allows customers to find you from wherever they are. But, there are several in-house processes that can also benefit from becoming digitized. Here are just a few things you’ll need to benefit from going digital.

Dental Website

Websites are an essential means of centralizing all information about your business. If you’re going to effectively digitize your clinic, you’ll need a place where patients know they can access your services and information. This allows customers to see any changes to the business, opening times, and services provided.

This will allow your dental practice to implement custom functionality with features like payment processing, online booking, and account management. You can even integrate third-party features to further boost the accessibility of your services. Your website will be your online front desk, the main place patients go for any queries, make sure you digitize as much as you can for easier access.

Database Scalability

Your clinic will begin to handle a lot of digital information, and it’s important you’ve got the capacity to hold it all. This means ensuring you’ve got scalability, and the potential to make upgrades and changes to your system as it continues to operate. If you can continue to run your digital service as it improves, you reduce downtime and keep availability for patients.

Elasticity is where your system can adapt and change to fit workloads, so you don’t over-provision for what you actually require. Your system should also be able to prioritize certain functions over others when necessary; for instance, more patients are accessing your booking than they are currently using billing features.

1. Offer Online Bookings

   Nowadays, people can carefully schedule their entire life in the palm of their hands with mobile devices. With most people carrying the means to access the Internet so close, it only makes sense that you allow patients to book, rebook, and cancel appointments through your dental website.

   Having an online booking database means you can maximize your operational capacity. If you have extra staff or cancellations on short notice, you could quite easily update your database and offer patients the ability to make same-day bookings.

   By offering online bookings, you’ll also take some pressure off of the receptionist staff. If your patients are able to book appointments online, it means your reception staff can focus on other priorities.

2. Digitize New Patient Intake

   Digitizing your induction form will be invaluable to the service you provide your customers. You can still offer the paper form for those who aren’t digitally capable, but you’ll want to promote the digital availability to really capitalize on the benefits.

   If you digitize your induction process, you’ll create a far more convenient patient journey. It could be that you simply require it to be completed before their appointment, but for patients with busy lives, it’ll be considerably easier to complete the form on their phone at a reasonable time.

   It’s also worth noting that for those looking to fill out patient applications in the clinic, it may be a good idea to purchase an electronic tablet so their information is automatically uploaded to your database. This will remove the need for receptionists to input patient data themselves, freeing them up for more important tasks.

3. Digitize Billing

   With the possibility of digital billing, you can increase convenience and security for customers, spend less time counting cash, and avoid lengthy waits for cheques to be processed. You could also become more digitally inclusive, allowing customers to use secure payment apps that include secure encryption services like PayPal.

   Additionally, you could arrange to take billing details at the point of booking for prepayment or seamless transfers after the appointment. This will help make the patient journey for an appointment as simple as walking in and out.

4. Offer Online Consultations

   Some customers may be struggling with mobility issues and don’t want to make any unnecessary trips, so you may want to offer phone or video appointments. After all, the more options you have for patients, the more accessible your service will become as a whole.

   While some appointments will understandably have to be at the clinic, offering teledentistry or video calls gives the patient more options when it comes to their treatment. If you want to be more patient-centric, allow customers to choose how their appointment is held or consider making all of your reviews telephony appointments.

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If you’re not sure how to begin digitizing your clinic, then The Dental SEO Experts is the agency for you. With years of experience in web development and digital marketing, The Dental SEO Experts can craft a fully custom dental clinic website that meets your requirements and boosts your reach. Get in touch today for more information on how we can support your practice.