Two-Way Texting for Dental Practices

You don’t have to supply smartphones for your employees to facilitate two-way texting. All you need is Art of Chat. Art of Chat allows you to turn your business line into a two-way texting line without the need for any additional equipment. You can use the tablets or computers in your dental office to text with patients in real time, and your remote employees can use their home devices to access the same information.

The benefits of two-way texting are endless for your patients and your staff. Every area of communication becomes so much simpler when you stop playing phone tag and start sending texts.

Sending Appointment Reminders

Your dental practice likely sends in the mail. You print postcards, your staff personalizes them, and you drop them off at the post office. The ideal outcome is that patients will receive their appointment reminder, attend their scheduled appointment, or choose to call and schedule. However, this isn’t always the case.

Unfortunately, most notecard style appointment reminders get tangled up in grocery store flyers or other junk mail and ultimately become recycled. Or people move and don’t update their address with you, and your appointment reminders could arrive at the wrong household.

Sending reminders via text assures that patients have received them and prevent them from becoming no-shows that hold up the rest of your day. You can also use these reminders to encourage patients to simply schedule their bi-annual cleanings if they don’t already have one on the books.  

Keeping an Emergency Line Open

Many people fail to schedule dentist appointments until it’s too late. Even people who brush and floss twice a day may not realize the importance of making or keeping their dental appointments as a preventative measure. It isn’t until their mouth starts to hurt that they realize they’re overdue for that cleaning they were supposed to get last year.

If they’re experiencing pain or symptoms of an infection, they want to know how urgent the situation is. You can encourage them to come in for an emergency appointment or book them an appointment within the next few days, depending on the circumstances.

Communicating With Patients Who Just Had an appointment

If someone has had all four wisdom teeth extracted, dental surgery, or even a simple filling and has an important question, it isn’t easy for them to pick up the phone and give you a call. Talking may exacerbate pain, and it may be difficult to understand what they’re saying, especially if they are still numb. In this scenario, two-way texting solves a myriad of problems.

 A patient may want clarification about when they should take certain medications, how they should be caring for their mouth, or if a certain food or beverage is safe. Rather than allowing them to search the internet for answers or leaving them to make an assumption, a two-way text conversation can set things straight. They’ll get the answers they need to recover comfortably and safely until their next appointment.

Informing Patients of Scheduling Changes

Your dental practice doesn’t want to turn away emergency patients. People in severe pain or people with dental infections need help right away. When they come in for emergency care, they could be cutting into another patient’s allotted appointment time. Most patients will understand the delays if you’re able to let them know.

Simply use Art of Chat to send a text to your patient and advise them to leave half an hour later if their dentist needs some extra time to help a patient in need. Patients will appreciate knowing before they leave. They can run their errands while they wait or reschedule right away, rather than sitting in the waiting room twiddling their thumbs.

Sending Group Announcements

When you need to relay the same message to a large group of people Art of Chat has you covered. If you’re keeping your practice closed for the day due to an unexpected storm, use Art of Chat to let your patients know and help them reschedule their appointments.

Perhaps you’re offering an exciting new in-office whitening treatment. Plenty of your patients would love a brighter smile. Let them know about your new service and encourage them to schedule an appointment via text message.

Review Management 

The success of your dental practice is built upon the positive testimonials of patients who love the care you provide. Why not encourage them to tell the rest of the world about the positive experience they had with your practice?

In your follow-up texts with your patients, include a link to your Google Business listing and encourage them to leave a review about their experience. If you make it very easy, most people won’t have a problem typing out a five-star review and boosting your reputation within your community.