Whitening Can Save Those Cancellation Days!
By James P. Tasto DDS
About Dr. Tasto
We all have had those days on the schedule that looked so good a few days beforehand. Then, the cancellations start to come in, and the whole day falls apart. As much as we instill in our patients that an appointment is a commitment between the doctor and the patient, people still cancel.
In the past, we would call patients and try to move them up, albeit unsuccessfully due to everyone's busy schedules, or we would call all the patients who needed to come in for a crown. Both of these tasks were time-consuming for the staff, and made us look desperate to our patients, because we were!
Now, we take a different approach. We have collected the emails of most of our patients, so we can send out an alert when our schedule starts to open up. We simply go to www.ConstantContact.com, and send out a mass emailer to all of our patients declaring a Chairside Whitening Day for a special price.
The first time we tried this, we had filled all of our chairside whitening (our office uses Zoom Advance Power) appointments for that day, which is six (6), in less than one hour. We also had many patients call after we had already filled all the appointments, and as long as they agreed to pay for the whitening treatment on the Whitening Day (our office calls it "Zoom! Day"), we would whiten their teeth at a future Chairside Whitening Day.
When our staff and doctors got into the Chairside Whitening Day frame-of-mind, and spent the majority of the day looking at shades of white, and educating patients on the various cosmetic benefits and services available to our patients, we seemed to be able to get more requests for additional treatments for our patients.
The profit we make from a Chairside Whitening Day, plus the overflow of patients pre-paying for the treatment, and the requests for additional cosmetic treatments, can easily equal or surpass the former profit of that day, which seemed so good just a few days ago.
The doctors and the staff should prepare for this Chairside Whitening Day by having all patient emails uploaded into www.ConstantContact.com, and have a newsletter template where you can easily update the content. You may only have one (1) or two (2) days to get that schedule refilled, so be prepared.
James P. Tasto DDS was born in San Diego, California. He went to University High School in San Diego, then onto Loyola Marymount to pursue his bachelors degree in biology. He graduated from University of Southern California with a degree in dentistry in 1993. He immediately moved back to San Diego where he has been practicing dentistry ever since.
Dr. Tasto currently has two dental offices in the greater San Diego area, Torrey Hills Dental and Scripps West Dental. He has completed extensive training in cosmetic dentistry, implant dentistry, Invisalign orthodontics and Cerec restorations. Further, he has been involved with Sports Dentistry in San Diego for over 10 years. His experience includes functioning as the team dentist for teams that range from high school all the way up to professional leagues.
Dr. Tasto is married to his lovely wife, Traci, and has three wonderful children-- J.P., Delanie and Hannah. He enjoys golf, beach volleyball and playing with his children.
