Alex Nottingham, JD, MBA offers expert guidance in banishing broken appointments to drive practice growth. Unlock effective strategies and training for optimal practice management.
Resources:
- Dental Practice Growth Webinar
- All-Star Live Dental Training Events
- Dental Coaching
- All-Star Online Training
About Alex Nottingham JD MBA
Alex is the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy®. He is a former Tony Robbins top coach and consultant, having worked with companies upwards of $100 million. His passion is to help others create personal wealth and make a positive impact on the people around them. Alex received his Juris Doctor (JD) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Florida International University.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management, and training. Here’s your host, Alex Nottingham. Welcome to Dental All-Stars, and our topic is banish broken appointments. So first, in banishing broken appointments, doctors, you got to show up. You can’t have patients just waiting in a waiting room all the time and expect…
00:29
them to be on time if you’re not on time. So be on time, schedule properly, don’t rush, and apologize if your patients have to wait. Now, patients have to show up. They have to be on time if we’re gonna run a productive practice. So let’s look at broken appointments versus changed appointments. Broken appointments, less than 48 hours notice. Changed appointments, greater than 48 hours notice. When you think of the airlines,
00:59
When it comes to broken appointments or cancellations, they don’t have that issue. They leave on time and you’re being charged, no refunds, no issues. Doors closed, out they go. So that’s airlines. Now, is this your office when a broken appointment or cancellation is on its way? Thank you for letting us know. When would you like to reschedule? Or, what would you like to reschedule? Or, okay.
01:28
Or even worse, you’re rude and you threaten them, I’m gonna charge you, how dare you break this appointment? Okay, so these aren’t the ways to do it. So how do you deal with broken and changed appointments? You teach, you don’t punish. So let’s look at changed appointments verbiage. When a patient calls to change an appointment, here are some verbiage you can use. We were looking forward to seeing you, what’s going on? This begins the teachable moment.
01:56
Then you can say, let me see when the next available opening is. Look at your schedule, offer them a time about four to six weeks away, and then convey that you are concerned the patient could not come. You and doctor were excited to see them and give them an opportunity to honor their original appointment. That’s a changed appointment. A broken appointment is less than 48 hours notice. With this,
02:26
Never respond with a threat. Same verbiage as with changed appointments, but communicate the significance of breaking this appointment. This is called a warning shot. This is how the warning shot goes. Perhaps I never told you, or maybe you forgot, but we typically charge for broken appointments. I will make an exception this time, but I’ll notate it on your chart. So we talked about how to banish broken appointments, but there’s more training to be done. How do we improve our phone skills?
02:54
How do we reduce turnover? How do we run our business more successfully? How do we motivate our team? To do that, go to the free webinar, allstardentalacademy.com/webinar to learn more. And until next time, go out there and be an All Star. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All Stars. Visit us online at allstardentalacademy.com
