Hi everyone. This is Dr. Wishnie for another one-minute practice management tip. Today, I'm going to talk about four things you can do right now to keep your appointment schedule full with productive patients during the holiday times.
The first thing, patients who have orthotics from you, you can check their benefits and see if they could get a second pair of orthotics before the year's up. And maybe their benefits will cover it.
And if they don't here's tip number two, holiday specials. Holiday specials for things that are not covered, where patients have to pay out of their pocket, such as a second pair of orthotics. You can give them a 50% discount. Also on lasers and shoes or anything else that patients will have to pay out of pocket. Be creative, send them emails, give them calls, get them on the books.
The third thing is taking care of the patients who are already in the office. These are patients that need to be reminded of why they need to come back and the importance of the next appointment. By doing that and taking a few extra minutes, the percentage of kept appointments will be higher than normal and they will keep their appointments.
And the fourth thing is basically going through a recall list. And these are patients who have not been in the office for the last six to eight months. Who need to get in, they miss their appointment for some reason. You can call them up and see how they're doing. If they're doing fantastic say, "I'm glad, Happy Holidays. And if you need us, we are here for you." If they are in pain, get them on the books as soon as you can and get them better.
Those are four great tips for keeping appointments, schedule full during these holiday times. In the meantime, stay focused, Happy Holidays and Happy, Healthy New Year.