A study published in the National Library of Medicine found that patients consider quality, professionalism, and referrals as important factors when selecting a dental practice. At the top of the list was the ease of communicating. More than 93% of patients who rated their patient satisfaction highest said communication with the dentist at their practice was easy.
Dental practices face numerous challenges when it comes to scheduling patient appointments, from missed calls and after-hours inquiries to handling last-minute cancellations. When patients can’t get through or wait too long for an appointment, it results in missed opportunities and a less-than-ideal patient experience. A streamlined appointment system helps tackle these common scheduling obstacles, allowing practices to operate more efficiently while keeping patients satisfied.
6 Common Challenges in Dental Appointment Scheduling
First, let’s talk about some common dental appointment scheduling challenges most dental practices face in efficiently handling dental booking.
- Manual Errors
- Missed Calls
- Busy Schedules
- No-Shows & Cancellations
- Difficulty Rescheduling
- After-Hours Calls
1. Manual Errors
When scheduling is done manually, there is always the risk of human error. Forgetting to enter appointments into the online scheduling software or accidentally writing down the wrong appointment type can create chaos.
2. Missed Calls
Missed calls are missed opportunities and a sign of bad customer service. When a patient or prospective patient calls and gets a busy signal, voice mail, or is put on hold for a long time, they may hang up and never call back.
3. Busy Schedules
People are busy. It is easy to forget about a booking made months ago. In other cases, the time was fine when they made the appointment, but now they find they have a schedule conflict. This leads to broken appointments that need rescheduling (which takes time) or could result in a no-show (which hurts your daily production goals).
4. No-Shows and Cancellations
No-shows and last-minute cancellations can seriously disrupt a dental practice’s daily schedule, leading to lost revenue and wasted time. When patients don’t show up or cancel without enough notice, it’s often too late to fill the open slot, reducing the practice’s productivity. Frequent no-shows can also cause scheduling backlogs, making it harder for other patients to get timely appointments. Managing this issue requires proactive strategies, such as automated appointment reminders, to help reduce missed bookings.
5. Difficulty Rescheduling
Rescheduling can be challenging and time-consuming. It often involves phone tag with patients or multiple calls to coordinate a time that suits both the patient and the practice. If patients cancel after hours, follow-up calls are typically needed to secure a new appointment.
6. After-Hours Calls
It is not just emergency calls that come in after hours. Many people only have time to call when your office is closed. So they may send an email or leave a voicemail message to book appointments or ask a question. Since nobody is there to take the call, it can get lost. And the longer the response time, the less likely you are to book an appointment.
In the evenings, as you settle in at home with your family, patients are often doing the same—and that’s when they start thinking about their healthcare needs. Becker’s Hospital Review says that as many as 43% of patients look for doctors and dentists after office hours. If you are not available when patients or prospective patients call, it can result in lost opportunities.
Dental Appointment System Scheduling Tips
An effective dental appointment system can help solve scheduling issues like missed calls, manual errors, and after-hours inquiries by automating key aspects of the scheduling process. With features like self-service booking, automated reminders, and SMS-based scheduling, the right system minimizes no-shows and allows patients to book, reschedule, or cancel appointments more easily. By streamlining these interactions, a well-designed appointment system not only keeps the schedule full but also improves the overall patient experience and helps staff manage time more efficiently.
Automate Your Data Entry
Manually entering appointment information can introduce errors that disrupt a dental practice’s workflow and affect patient satisfaction. When details like appointment times, patient information, or treatment notes are entered by hand, there’s always a risk of mistakes—such as scheduling the wrong type of appointment, double-booking, or missing essential details. A reliable dental appointment system automates these processes, accurately capturing patient and scheduling information each time. This minimizes human error, keeps the schedule organized, and reduces the need for follow-up to correct issues.
Automation also frees up time for front-office staff, as they no longer need to manually update schedules or input patient information into multiple systems. Instead, an automated system gathers, organizes, and syncs all data in one place, connecting smoothly with the practice’s other tools. This streamlined approach allows staff to focus on higher-value, patient-facing activities while ensuring accurate records that enhance the entire scheduling and intake workflow.
Provide Automated, Self-Service Scheduling
Solving scheduling challenges means making it easier for patients to book appointments, reschedule appointments and get answers to basic questions. The right dental appointment system helps simplify patient communication by automating scheduling, and responding to patient queries and appointment requests any time of day or night.
When patients pick the days and times from the options you present, they tend to keep the appointment. As part of a year-long study, Mayo Clinic researchers tracked patients that scheduled their appointments online and those who scheduled appointments with the front office staff. The results revealed fewer no-shows and cancellations among those who self-scheduled. Additionally, using automated appointment reminders is considered a best practice for managing dental appointment scheduling effectively.
Leverage SMS Booking
When you are comparing the features of a dental appointment system or dental practice management software, it’s important not to confuse booking through text with the practice of sending a booking link through SMS. With an online booking process, the software sends the client a link in a text (or web chat) which requires them to leave the thread to access the online appointment scheduling system in a client app or browser window.
Once the guest leaves the familiar texting interface, you risk losing them before they book. This is especially true if they are using a mobile device (like the overwhelming majority of people). They have to create an account or remember their login info, strain to see the booking calendar, and hope they are clicking the correct boxes. In our experience, 95% of customers (or patients) opt into dental office SMS scheduling but only 5% click a link to an online booking system because of the way online appointment booking works on mobile devices.
The Benefits of the TrueLark Dental Appointment System
- Reduce the loss of potential patients who call outside of business hours
- Increase your practice’s average production goal by overcoming the common challenges of appointment scheduling
- Streamline patient intake by letting patients book appointments and having the AI capture contact details via SMS
- Simplify your dental schedule process for your front desk or call center team
- SMS appointment scheduling tools integrate with practice management software to simplify workflows and reduce human error in patient management
TrueLark’s Dental Appointment System and Manual Dental Scheduling Systems
Are you still using a paper appointment book or a standalone online appointment booking process? Do you want to schedule appointments more efficiently and reduce the burden on your front office staff? Book a demo for the most capable and affordable dental appointment scheduling system in the industry. During your demo, we can discuss how TrueLark stacks up to:
- EagleSoft appointment scheduling
- OpenDental appointment schedule
- Carestream dental appointment scheduling
- EasyDental appointment scheduling
- Curve dental appointment scheduling
- Dentrix appointment scheduling
To learn more, book a TrueLark Dental Appointment System demo today.
Originally published February 7, 2023. Updated November 20, 2024.
