Meaningful patient engagement is crucial to achieving a healthy dental practice. Assuming there’s a “one size fits all” method to successfully engage patients? Think again. Practices that understand the importance of tailored communication will go far by understanding how each patient prefers to engage—whether via email, text, phone, social media, or in-person. Observing patient communication preferences translates into positive comments and reviews, timely payments and, most importantly, referrals.
To be successful in the dental community, practices must personalize the patient experience and take time to manage their online reputation.
Personalization goes a long way
The concept of personalizing the patient experience isn’t new and doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s as simple as sending a text or an email, or calling patients with appointment reminders or to follow up after an appointment. Programs like MMG Fusion enable practices to automate patient engagement by contacting patients in a way that best suits individual preferences, while best representing the practice and team.
Automating your patient engagement frees up your staff to focus on patient care and reduces no-shows and lost patients. The average reduction in no-show rates for practices who move to an automated appointment reminder system is nearly 20%. Automating re-care and re-activation campaigns using text and email helps practices easily schedule patients for ongoing care.
Harness the power of patient reviews
Reputation management is another key factor in successful patient engagement. More than ever before, reviews play a critical role in patient trust and the decision-making process with over 80% of online consumers reading reviews before purchasing. As with most things, reviews of dental practices can be very influential and engaged patients are much more likely to leave a review. Patient’s looking for a new dentist are more likely to try a new practice if they read positive peer reviews. Plentiful, positive reviews create a strong online reputation, which is critical to boost your referrals and grow your practice.
MMG Fusion works to collect positive reviews for your practice by ensuring each patient is sent a convenient reminder to complete a review as soon as they are checked out from their appointment. The process takes less than a minute and flows smoothly through the patient’s smart phone and onto the largest and most trusted review sites.
Research shows that patients do not easily recover or forget a negative experience. Studies show that one bad experience requires upwards of seven good experiences to change the patient’s perception from negative to positive. With MMG Fusion, negative surveys are sent directly to the practice so that you can proactively address any negative perceptions on the spot.
Manage, market and grow your practice
NextGen Healthcare has partnered with MMG Fusion to empower our clients to automate the patient journey and improve patient engagement to help grow their practices. MMG Fusion simplifies all aspects of patient engagement and helps you “manage, market and grow” your practice.
Engaging your patients requires continued refinement. Keep your patients connected to your practice through the channels they prefer and use automated outreach to ensure they’re following their personal treatment guidelines. Your happy, connected patients will write reviews that boost your referrals—giving you a reason to smile.
Meet NextGen Ambient Assist, your new AI ally that generates a structured SOAP note in seconds from listening to the natural patient/provider conversation.
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