Dental Group Plugs Hole in New Patient Phone Calls Recaptures $300,000 in Six Months
Dental Depot's Journey
The Client
Dental Depot is a thriving family-owned dental group with a simple mission: provide every patient with the high-quality, affordable dental care they need and deserve.
Dental Depot built its reputation around commitment to the communities they serve in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona, focusing on providing compassionate care with a common-sense approach.
That’s when they turned to Patient Prism. While other call-tracking companies tell you how many missed calls you had, Patient Prism tells you how to win them back.
The Challenge
It was a shock when they realized just how many people were taking the time to call them but ending the call without booking an appointment. They also didn’t know how many missed calls they had, or how to win those patients back. Here are some other challenges that Dental Depot was facing:
- Not knowing who on their team was good at answering the phone and booking appointments
- Not having enough time or resources to properly train their front desk team
- Knowing that their call handling operation was inefficient and they were leaving money on the table
The Solution
During the summer of 2019, Dental Depot rolled out Patient Prism to more than 20 practices.
Rebecca Bowling is the Patient Scheduling Manager of Dental Depot’s Oklahoma and Arizona practices. Her team makes the follow-up calls to re-engage potential patients.
When they successfully convert, Bowling’s team enters the code PRISM in their practice management system so they can track the revenue associated with those patients.
“Sometimes patients just need more time to process the information they were given,” said Bowling. “People may be hesitant to schedule because they fear the dentist or they fear the price, and they appreciate having someone care enough to call them back and guide them through their concerns.”
“The fact that we’ve been able to recover so much surprised me. Those would have been lost opportunities,” said April Sharry, Dental Depot’s Director of Marketing. “I come from a digital marketing agency and have used a lot of call tracking companies in the past. When we started with Patient Prism, I thought why didn’t we do this sooner?”
In addition to coaching new patient calls within a half-hour, Patient Prism also details:
- The services requested
- The insurance information provided
- The revenue opportunity associated with the call
“The combination of AI, keyword spotting, call coaching – it just gives us a ton of valuable insights into our patients and our team,” said Sharry. Dental Depot’s marketing team and patient scheduling team meet biweekly to look at trends. They pay attention to the number of missed calls, changes in call volume, and conversion rates. In late 2019, they implemented a special offer to reengage callers who cited cost as the reason why they didn’t book on the first phone call.
“A lot of people are price-shopping,” said Sharry. “We found that by getting them in the chair at the lower price point led to a big increase in accepted treatment.”
Their CareCredit® representative even noticed. He called to find out what inspired the increase in new patients applying – and getting approved – for financing.
The Results
Dental Depot recovered $300,000 in collected revenue
“It’s a Game-Changer”
Patient Prism identifies every new patient call that doesn’t end in a booked appointment and emails an alert back to the dental practice. The alerts typically go out within a half-hour of the missed opportunity, include coaching tips and short training videos to teach the team member what to say during the follow up call.
In just six months, Dental Depot recovered $300,000 in collected revenue just from patients who were won back on the follow-up call. “It’s astounding what our team has been able to do with this technology in such a short amount of time,” said Glenn Ashmore, DDS, Dental Depot’s founder.
“This was really a game-changer for us,” said Dr. Himesh Kana, DDS, the Managing Partner of Dental Depot DFW. His practice was the first to launch Patient Prism.
“It doesn’t just show our team why somebody didn’t book. It shows us how to improve. It makes our team instantly better.”
Within just a few months of using Patient Prism, Dr. Kana’s practice recaptured more than $300,000 in new patient revenue from people who booked an appointment during the follow-up call. More importantly, they were able to help people get the dental care they need to improve their quality of life.
1,500 More New Patients
Same-store sales up 6% year-over-year
Turning missed opportunities into booked appointments is only one part of Dental Depot’s success. The other part is training the team how to convert more callers on the initial phone call. Dental Depot has 17 well-established practices just in Oklahoma and they saw an increase in 1,500 new patients.
That was almost one hundred more patients, per practice, in just six months. Plus, same-store sales are up 6% year-over-year. The group introduced an in-depth phone training protocol for current team members and for new hires in the practices and in the call center.
Patient Prism has a built-in award system, which makes it easy to download diamond, gold and silver certificates of excellence for team members who achieve higher conversion rates. That helps keep team members motivated and focused on serving the needs of their community.
“It feels great. I feel like we make a difference,” said Bowling, the manager of the Patient Scheduling team. “Our team loves it,” Kana said. “Once they got trained, they understood it’s really about creating a better patient experience. I’ve always felt that was the key to running a successful practice.”
“The fact that we’ve been able to recover so much surprised me. Those would have been lost opportunities.”
April Sharry
Director of Marketing, Dental Depot
April Sharry
Dental Depot
TRY PATIENT PRISM FOR YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE
No risk, no obligation. Schedule a demo today and see the difference Patient Prism can make for your dental office.