You want to scale your practice, but your productivity per capita is linear. The amount of work you produce goes up, but so do the costs associated with producing it.
It’s not just you. Productivity per hour in dentistry is slowly growing but is still below its 2010 peak.
What if there was technology that could help your production/hr. number grow faster?
Marketing automation can help to do exactly that.
Dental Automation is Still in its Infancy
With out-of-the-box solutions like Birdeye and options provided by patient management systems, automation in dentistry is taking off.
A lot of these features focus on gathering and distributing reviews, automating billing, and communicating with patients through emails and text messages.
Because these software programs are designed to have simple user interfaces and straightforward purposes, the range of their usefulness is necessarily limited. However, that’s not to say they’re not useful. Programs like Birdeye are amazing and have helped countless practices simplify and manage their reputation.
Nevertheless, dental automation is still relatively new and there’s a lot of room for growth.
There are More Flexible Automation Options
What if you had a conversation with a prospect on the phone, or a patient in the chair, and had the ability to click a button to send out educational and marketing materials? How much more would you earn per staff member?
What if, rather than just a robotic-sounding automated text message, you could leave your patients a voicemail from the dentists themselves? Wouldn’t that degree of personalization make automated reminder systems more effective?
Similarly, what if you could automate more touch points with your patients? Would that help with retention? Would building a stronger out-of-office relationship with your patients help you get more referrals (without even having to ask for them)?
These things are possible with existing technology, they’re just not typically provided in simple out-of-the-box software.
There are more flexible options out there, which can be exploited with the right team to automate other internal processes in your practice.
The Power of an Automation Team
There are a number of flexible automation platforms available. We use Infusionsoft, which is a perfect solution for small businesses who don’t necessarily have the budgets for more expensive programs like Marketo.
Infusionsoft, in turn, can be interconnected with other software and channels — such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and your patient management system — by using third-party integrations, such as Zapier. The range of its capabilities, likewise, can be expanded through third-party extensions, like Fix Your Funnel.
If there’s a problem, the automation world is big and limitless enough to find a solution. The trick is finding the right team and working with people who can deliver the solutions you need.
Are you ready to meet that team? Contact us.