It’s easy to take some forms of technology for granted. We often complain about slow Internet speed, when even the most sluggish connection is lightning fast, all things considered. Technology has made our lives so much easier, especially automation.
For most businesses, automating tasks saves valuable time and money, and helps increase efficiency by allowing staff to focus on customer service. This is especially important now that many practices may be working with reduced staff due to COVID-19. Here are common office tasks that can (and should) be automated.
Checking in for appointments
There are many benefits to automating your appointment check-in process, from improved efficiency to protecting your patients and staff. Offering contactless check-in features streamlines patient intake, minimizes the amount of people in your waiting room, and allows patients to check-in using a mobile device from the safety and convenience of their own vehicle.
Patients can enjoy extra time to themselves in a safe environment before their appointment. The ability to have a mobile check-in feature will remain vital through the end of the year.
Sending appointment reminders
Manually sending out appointment reminders and confirmations for all of your patients can take up a lot of time. Instead of playing phone tag with patients and taking your staff away from other important tasks, consider setting up automated appointment reminders through email, text or automated voice messages.
Utilizing appointment reminders is also a great way to bring back your loyal patients to your office. Send out save-the-date, day-of and pre-appointment reminders that include information about any COVID-19 safety procedures or modified check-in policies.
Email marketing
Sending emails to each of your patients can be a tedious process if done manually, and ultimately might not be as effective as you would like. Automated emails, on the other hand, help increase office efficiency and more importantly you’ll have peace of mind that your emails will get to the right customers at the right time.
Effortlessly set up promotional emails, newsletters, review requests and one-off emails in advance. With marketing automation, you can easily segment your patients into different groups and tailor individual messages to those groups based on factors like patients with cancelled appointments, or patients overdue for appointments.
Patient experience
Patients will be wondering what has changed since the last time they visited your office and accordingly will ask many questions. What’s the check-in process like? Do you accept mobile payment options? Is your hour or operations still limited? Are you accepting walk-ins? It’s important that you answer these questions in a quick and professional manner.
This can be achieved with a comprehensive patient communication solution like Demandforce that displays real-time notifications about appointments and text messages.
Visit henryscheinone.com/demandforce or call 833.429.1132 to see how Demandforce can automate common office tasks.