Monitoring Patient Retention Through Your Hygiene Program (Part 3 of 3)
Kleer and Skytale Group have partnered to help DSOs thrive by gaining and retaining patients. This is the final piece of the three-part blog series on DSO growth from the management consulting team at Skytale. In this article, we discuss why your hygiene program is a critical pillar of your practice’s success.
You can also read the first two posts in this series:
Strategies to Attract and Retain New Dental Patients
Proven Strategies to Propel DSO Growth
How your Hygiene Program Contributes to Patient Retention
A dental practice’s hygiene program is often underestimated as a component of its success. That’s because hygiene appointments aren’t typically the biggest revenue drivers in a practice. The truth is, however, that hygiene is unmatched in its ability to build trust with patients, recommend restorative treatment plans, screen for niche services, and ultimately elevate retention in your practice. In fact, we believe a full hygiene schedule is critical for the success of a dental practice.
Why? First, if you have a hygienist on staff, it’s important to maximize their productivity. A full schedule is the best way to increase revenue from hygiene services. A good rule of thumb is that a hygienist’s net productions should approximate three times their wages, a three to one ratio hourly. (However, 2.5:1 might be a good benchmark as hygiene wages increase.)
Second, your hygienists, who get to know your patients over time on a six-month basis, are powerful internal marketers for other services in your practice. They can identify issues that lead to both restorative procedures and niche services your practice offers, like ortho, sleep apnea, or facial aesthetics. And because many patients have a trusting relationship with their hygienist, case acceptance can be higher.
How can you optimize your hygiene system to improve patient retention and cross-market services? We’ll outline some tactics below.
Enhance the Patient Experience
A patient’s experience with their hygienist will be a key predictor of whether or not they return to your practice. Training your hygiene staff on how to interact with patients, reduce cancellations, and improve case acceptance is critical. In fact, Skytale has helped practices increase case acceptance from 43% to 96% by reworking the strategic design of the patient experience.
How? It starts with simple changes such as improving the way a patient is greeted at reception. Calling an “appointment” a “reservation” during the scheduling process to reduce cancellations. The way you present treatment can make a big impact on whether or not a patient will accept it. Focusing on implementation excellence to add the greatest value. How you perform these, and even the tone of voice, can make a lasting impact.
Set goals and KPIs to keep your practice on track. For example, your hygiene reappointment percentage should be above 89%. If it isn’t, consider ways you can improve the patient experience.
Introduce a Dental Membership Plan
A dental membership plan is an effective way to increase retention. And it’s a win-win, because it makes restorative services more affordable or patients. Patients who are a part of the membership plan, such as Kleer, are more likely to visit often and accept treatment.
Train and incentivize your hygiene staff to promote your membership plan. Help them to identify great candidates for membership, like those patients who pay cash for hygiene services, patients who indicate their losing insurance or changing networks, or those who have been proposed treatment plans and may be maximizing their insurance benefit.
Leverage the Right Tactics, Tools, and Partnerships
If your hygiene program isn’t contributing to your practice’s production or retention in the way you’d like it to, there are many available tools to help you get there. First, identify what tools, tactics, and partners can help you put the systems you need in place. Here are some that might be transformative to your practice:
Technology:
You can’t make progress if you don’t have an effective way to track and manage data. Make sure your practice management system is helping you meet your goals. A good dental software has the ability to look at benchmarks from different offices, break down productivity by provider, and more. Leverage your programs to track case acceptance from an individual hygienist's chair. That way, you can see it improve as you implement changes to your patient experience.
Use Data and KPIs to Make Informed Decisions:
Your technology is only going to be as powerful as the data you’re putting into it. Once you have the right practice management software, identify what Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can help you reach your goals. Some good KPIs might include:
- Individual hygienist production
- Referrals and case acceptance from hygiene to restorative work
- Referrals and case acceptance from hygiene to specialty services
- Case acceptance by hygienist
- Number of cancellations
- Hygiene re-appoint rate
These KPIs can help you make informed decisions as you work to improve patient retention and increase hygiene production.
Work With a Management Consultant:
A management consultant with vast industry experience can play a critical role in elevating your practice’s productivity and profitability. The management consulting team at Skytale Group can help DSOs identify potential areas for growth, implement solutions, track KPIs, and ultimately increase the overall efficiency and value of your organization.
Scale Your Membership Plan:
You need a membership plan with the ability to handle membership plan performance at scale. Kleer offers a variety of custom-fit solutions to help your practice reach its goals. Learn how Kleer Growth Services can help you set goals and track progress. Or, to figure out which solution is right for you, download our Choosing the Right Membership Guide.
Are you a DSO owner ready to scale and grow?
Take the next step with a management consultant who can help you build out your hygiene program, retain patients, or meet your goals for scaling. Skytale Group Management Consulting offers strategic consulting to dental clients with an appetite for growth. The firm’s investment banking group offers M&A Advisory as well as private capital raising alternatives.
We’d love to hear about your goals and workshop how we can help you get there. Get in touch today to start the conversation!
Get started, today.
Our experts will show you how our advanced, cloud-based membership plan platform—coupled with resources, tools and support from the experts at Kleer, can bring your practice phenomenal results.
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