Reason to Return
Eric Vickery and Shyanne McCracken discuss strategies for improving patient engagement and retention in dental hygiene appointments. The focus is on the 95-5 case acceptance formula applied to hygiene, emphasizing the importance of creating value and urgency for patients beyond seeing their visit as “just a cleaning.”
Resources:
About Shyanne McCracken
Shyanne holds a degree in Psychology and English. After gaining valuable experience as a crisis worker and mental health counselor, she transitioned into the dental field, eager to apply her skills in a new environment. Her passion for understanding patient behavior—through DISC profiling, rapport-building, and other techniques—has been instrumental in increasing case acceptance and attracting new patients. As the office manager and patient coordinator of a thriving insurance-free practice for many years and now in her capacity as a Mastery Dental Coach, she is passionate about helping other dental offices break free from insurance constraints and fostering teams that prioritize patient-driven care, ensuring that patient needs remain the focus, regardless of insurance coverage.
About Eric Vickery
Eric holds a degree in business administration and brings a strong business and systems approach to his consulting. His initiation into the field of dentistry was in the area of office management. He managed dental practices for over ten years and has been consulting over 250 offices nationwide since 2001.
Episode Transcript
Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
Hello everyone, welcome to your weekly motivational moments with Eric Vickery, president of coaching at All-Star Dental Academy. With me is my dear friend and fellow coach Cheyenne. How are you Cheyenne? I am doing wonderful. Thanks for having me Eric. We’re coming back with another session. These are coaching corner, coaching connection, just weekly talks. I think these are good for us to hear what you’re working with your clients on.
00:26
So what do you have for us in the second week? So the second week, I wanted to touch a little bit on that condition that we were talking about earlier with the 95-5 case acceptance formula. Yes. But now we’re gonna place it into hygiene. So how are we creating value and urgency when it comes to those hygiene visits? Yes. I’m seeing with a lot of my clients right now, those holes in hygiene. And the thought here is that patients are seeing it as just a cleaning. So how are we?
00:55
Again, creating that value and urgency where it’s more than just the cleaning. And again, I’ll go back to that condition. This plays a role in preventing cancellations. Eric, you know this, you talk about this all the time with your clients as well. But what we really want to do is connect a condition. So something like bleeding in the gums, the decay, whatever it may be, right? That cracked tooth to the time apart that they are from us, increasing value and urgency.
01:24
that they’re healthy and you want to help maintain that health, right? I hear that all the time from hygienists. Yeah. Maintaining health could be the 95. So just reason for return, what does that sound like? You’re the hygienist, I’m your patient. How does that sound? Yeah. I’m connecting the length of time that they’re apart from us and that condition. So if I’m the hygienist, then when I am scheduling that patient, I’m bringing up that concern. Hey, Betty, I’m concerned with the bleeding and the gums. And therefore, my recommendation is to see you no more than six months from today. So I’m setting that ceiling.
01:54
connecting that condition, there’s a reason for them to come back. It is not just a cleaning. We’re not just scheduling their next visit. We’re scheduling for a reason. And we can use that if a cancellation call comes in, right? We should be notating this in the patient’s chart that we’ve had that conversation. That reason for return is written down. So admin team, when you get that phone call, right? When you get that phone call, that call comes in, patient says, I’m going to go ahead and reschedule my cleaning.
02:25
First thing we say is, oh, not okay. And then we were placing them on hold. We’re looking for two things. Have they done this to us before? And what was their reason to return? Yeah. And then that conversation sounds like we’re picking back up the phone for saying, Hey, Betty, you know, now that I pulled up your chart, I’m seeing here that the last time you’re in our hygienist, notice some bleeding in the gums and she’s concerned. Yeah.
02:51
The reason I bring this up is we don’t have another availability for four weeks and so on. Three months. Whatever. Then are you sure there’s any way you can keep this appointment today because she’s going to be so concerned? Sometimes they can, sometimes they can’t, but even if you put it out, you planted that seed in their mind of concern for their health, not a policy, right? Exactly. Yes. I also… You’re talking about butts in seats right now this time of year, finishing the year strong. I also hear in this conversation is the overdue hygiene.
03:21
piece of this. You’re calling patients who are not on the schedule who are overdue, and you’re also using a reason for return. Is that right? How does that sound? Yep. We teach the message one conversation one, right? So the message that we leave is doctor’s concern. Can you please give me a call? We’re creating that entry. Please give us a call. They’re not interested in helping us fill our schedule. And then the patient calls back. We’re saying, Hey, Betty, we haven’t seen you since X date, right?
03:49
And then the reason I bring this up is because last time we were in, we were concerned about the condition. Yeah, last time you were in, Hygienist noted maintaining health, inflammation, whatever it is. And I know you’re concerned about that. Would it make sense to get you an appointment schedule for it? Love it, so good. All of this connects. It prevents cancellations. It helps you stop cancellations. It helps you recover patients for getting in, but it’s in seats. So reason for return. I love it, Cheyenne. Thank you so much for bringing your knowledge to us.
04:18
This is great. It’s like, why don’t you just coach them all? This is awesome. Thanks for having me, Eric. I love it. Have a great week, everyone.
Questions? We would love to connect with you!
