The previous issue of PMN dicussed various ways to reduce no-shows and cancellations. This week, we’ll focus on one of those methods – appointment reminders – and look at ways you can create a more effective reminder campaign. You’ll find it doesn’t take a lot of extra effort or staff time to improve your patient attendance noticeably.

A reminder campaign is in reality a marketing campaign. You are persuading your patients to take a specific action, namely, show up for their appointment. So in this article, we’ll discuss three marketing terms –reach, frequency and impact – and how you can apply these concepts to your practice.

Reach

The first consideration of any good marketing campaign is reach – in your case, what percentage of your scheduled patients are you able to contact? Obviously, you can give every patient a reminder card or letter as they leave your office, but you will need to do more if you want to make a measurable dent in your no-show/cancellation rate. Here are some ways to reach a higher percentage of patients with a reminder message.

Tip #1: Update your database every time a patient checks in. Your patient data is the lifeline of your practice, so make sure that everyone in your office understands the importance of updating the patient database. If you are missing a patient’s address, email, home phone number or work phone number, be sure to get it on the next visit.

Tip #2: Automate communications to increase your contact rate. If you rely on your people to personally call or to manually email each patient reminder, there will likely be many hectic days when the reminders simply don’t go out. That’s why Appointments™ makes it easy to automate virtually any type of patient communication.

• You can automate your phone calls with either SpectraSoft’s AppointmentCall™ in-house calling system, or by outsourcing your calls to a teleservices company like CallPointe.

• You can automatically send emails to every scheduled patient with SpectraSoft’s Email Reminder Module.

• You can export a mailing list on a weekly basis that you can send to a local mailing service or a postcard mailer like AmazingMail.

Both the telephone and email solutions are completely automated – you set them up once and they automatically send out your reminders day after day after day…

Tip #3: Append data to reach former patients. If you have been in business for any length of time, there are probably many names in your database that you have not heard from in a while who might still benefit from your services. You may want to send automated emails and/or calls to these patients with a friendly reminder.

Once you start contacting these older records, you will likely find many bad addresses and phone numbers. Rather than give up on these names, contact your local mailing company about a doing a data append. These companies use the USPS National Change of Address (NCOA) database and other sources to update your database with a patient’s current address and phone number.

Frequency

Think of your reminders as commercials. No one buys a product the first time they see a commercial. They need to hear the message several times before it sinks in. In marketing, this is called frequency. Hopefully your patients will likely be more attentive to your reminder messages than they are to the ads they see on TV. Still, you should assume that many people will need more than one reminder for the message to fully take hold.

Tip #4: Provide multiple reminders via office collateral, email, telephone and mail. Many practices make the mistake of contacting a patient once with a reminder and then "checking off" that patient as covered. If you have both a phone number and an email address, contact your patient both ways.

Very few patients will find these multiple reminders excessive, while many more will appreciate the detailed follow up, especially if your messages are brief, polite and business-like. If a patient does request not to be emailed or called, of course you should adjust your database accordingly to respect their wishes, but don’t be deterred. Keep in mind that you are probably losing 10-15% or more of your potential revenue in no-shows and cancellations -- no small loss.

Impact

Once you apply the concepts of reach and frequency to your reminder program, your patients will at least remember that they have a scheduled appointment at your office. Now you need to convince your patients to follow through and actually show up at your office -- instead of doing any of the dozens of other things they could be doing by canceling or simply not showing. This is why it’s important that your reminders not simply deliver appointment information, but actively sell the need to attend.

Tip #5: Most communications should come from the practitioner. Unfortunately, patients seem to have far more respect for the practitioner than they do for the people at the front desk. For this reason, make sure the practitioner’s name goes out on all emails, and have your practitioner’s signature appear on all reminder letters and mailings.

Tip #6: Choose your opening words carefully. Whether you are calling, emailing or writing, your first few words will play an important role in the impact of your message. Make sure your email subject line grabs attention so that your message will not be deleted. Example: "An Important Message from Dr. Jones." Your phone reminders should immediately state who you are and why you are calling.

Tip #7: Stress the benefits of attending. Your reminder message should briefly explain why it’s important for the patient to keep the appointment. For example, "It is very important that you attend every scheduled therapy session to assure the best possible outcome."

Tip #8: Don’t make it easy to cancel. Your phone system or internet service provider may offer a variety of "cool" interactive features that allow a patient to confirm or cancel an appointment when you contact them by phone or email. If you make it too easy for patients to cancel, many will. Instead of offering a "cancel" option, instruct your patients to "call the office and we will be glad to explain our cancellation policy to you." This approach allows patients who genuinely need to reschedule the chance to do so, while weeding out those who simply don’t feel like coming.

By applying the concepts of reach, frequency and impact to your reminder program, you are sure to reduce your cancellations and no-shows. Let us know how you’re doing and if this article was helpful by emailing PMN at newsletter@ssoft.com.