1-800-DENTIST Introduces Easy 24/7 Appointing
Los Angeles – 1-800-DENTIST®, dentistry’s premier new patient leads program, is now offering dentists 24/7 appointing — a major enhancement to their service that exponentially increases the ability of dental practices to connect with new patients. 24/7 appointing is available at no additional cost to any practice using 1-800-DENTIST.
The introduction of 24/7 appointing is proving to be a real game changer for dental practices. The reason it’s so effective is because it allows 1-800-DENTIST to appoint patients in slots dentists have provided to the company. Now, patients can be successfully appointed any time of day or night they contact 1-800-DENTIST. The ability to appoint even when the office is closed helps ensure that dentists never miss a patient lead.
Patient expectations about appointing have radically changed over the past five years thanks to companies like Open Table. People now expect to be able to go online and schedule reservations and appointments whenever they want — even if it’s 2 o’clock in the morning. This is a major problem for dentists because most practices are not able to accept or confirm appointments after hours, which is when a growing number of new patients are actively looking for a dentist.
Here’s how 24/7 appointing works: A patient contacts 1-800-DENTIST and is matched by a referral specialist to a member’s practice. The patient is given an appointment based upon schedule openings provided by that member dentist. 1-800-DENTIST presents the appointment to the member dentist for them to confirm or reschedule with the new patient. The patient gets an appointment and the practice gets a patient that they otherwise would have missed. It’s important to stress that 1-800-DENTIST members always have the final say when it comes to determining appointment availability.
24/7 appointing is having a major impact on practice productivity. The latest 1-800-DENTIST analysis found that when the company’s referral specialists make the appointments practices have a measurably higher show-up rate and a higher patient lead quality. It’s less work for the practice, and instant gratification for the patient. The company reports that the greater scheduling availability results in a much better consumer experience.
“24/7 appointing is the most important change we’ve made to 1-800-DENTIST since we referred our first patient lead to a dentist back in 1986,” explained company founder Fred Joyal. “Most practices can only appoint patients during regular business hours, 30 or so hours a week. By extending that coverage to 168 hours a week, we’re helping dentists connect with a lot more new patients.”