#4: 12 Truly Awesome Ways to Reduce No-Shows

May 3rd, 2018

Our analysis shows there are common factors contributing to no-shows. Some of these, you can’t control as conflicts in the patient’s personal daily schedule, or transportation problems, causing them to miss their appointment; and unavoidable emergencies, which may affect one or two patients daily.

Luckily most of the factors are within your control, such as:

• Patients forgetting appointments, or writing them down incorrectly, coupled with a poor staff follow up the process.
• Patients recovering from their concern prior to their appointment and forgetting to cancel.
• Unclear policy on how the practice handles late arrivals.
• Patients not realizing how much they will benefit from the services they receive during the appointment.
• Wait times that mean the patient has to take off a half day or a whole day off just for 15 minutes or less of face time with a clinician;
• Poor office procedures, where your front desk has turned away late arrivals
• Patients not feeling a connection to their doctor or other staff.

Patient no-shows and last-minute cancellations come with a big price tag for busy practices. There are 12 truly awesome ways to Reduce No-Shows:

1. Use automated reminders [4:15]
2. Allowing pre-paid appointments [5:25]
3. Trigger mental commitment from patients [5:48]
4. Call your patients the day before their appointments [6:28]
5. Encourage your patients to tell you if they can’t make it! [7:07]
6. Follow a missed appointment with a “sorry we missed you” message [8:18]
7. Multiple reminder methods [8:45]
8. Keep waiting room time to a minimum [9:17]
9. Showing appreciation for the patients who do shows [9:44]
10. Collect patient information earlier in the process [10:48]
11. Establishing relationships with patients is crucial [11:37]
12. Make appointment policies clear and accessible [13:05]

Booking application recommendations:

• Hit Appoint: http://www.hitappoint.com
• Set More: https://www.setmore.com
• Cliniko: https://www.cliniko.com
• Schedule Once: https://www.scheduleonce.com

List of my automation software recommendations:

• Active Campaign: https://www.activecampaign.com/
• Drip: https://www.activecampaign.com/
• Infusionsoft: https://www.infusionsoft.com
• Ontraport: https://ontraport.com
• Everwebinar: https://www.everwebinar.com

Check out our video about 8 Steps to Automate Your Marketing and Scale Your Practice Up
https://onlinemarketingfordoctors.com/automate-marketing/