 Hello everybody Andrea here with dental L. So let's talk about how to keep your schedule full over the holidays I mean this can apply for any time But I'm just going to talk about it over the holidays for now because holidays are coming and a lot of people are telling me that Their schedule is falling apart yet for me My schedule is busier than ever where I actually want to take time off and kind of feel like I can't so if you guys Don't know me. I am an independent dental hygienist I have owned my own dental hygiene practice a mobile dental hygiene practice for two years So I go to patients homes. I've been in the dental profession now for about 15 years So I do have a lot of experience But let me just show you guys an example of what my I'm just gonna keep it back a bit So you guys can't see the patient's names, but this is my Schedule busy. So this is October. This is November I wanted to take time off for December. So see how it's a little bit scattered But look at the difference you guys so many many People okay, which is good. That's what you want when you own a business So let me tell you guys how I get that What I do if you're not doing it yet is start to direct bill Meaning don't have your patients pay upfront Accept direct billing if you don't know what that is or depending on where you live You might call it something different What it is is you submit their insurance claim forms for them on their behalf and they only pay you the difference That is it covered so I can submit claims Electronically to the insurances that do accept it and they tell me right away if they're 80% covered 90% covered 50% covered you never know if I do have to mail in claim forms It does take a couple extra weeks to know that but I don't mind doing that. Yes, it's a lot of paperwork I probably spend most of my time doing paperwork I could hire somebody to do that though when it gets to be too much Before I started doing that for patients I would take cash only or email transfer a credit card on the day of the appointment But I just simply wasn't busy enough because patients can't afford That type of treatment I clean teeth primarily so teeth cleaning whitening I'm a restorative hygienist so I can do the fillings as well But those are kind of what I do on a daily basis Patients just simply can't afford a larger bill or they would rather spend their money on something else So around the holidays, they're not going to book their teeth cleaning in They're going to do Christmas shopping without money instead But I'm still kept busy as I had shown you guys on my iPad because I accept direct billing They don't have to worry about a thing I do the hard work for them another way to keep busy is be consistent on social media So I have a page called dental lmobile hygiene. That's my business and I'm consistent I don't post 20 times a day who has time for that don't post every day sometimes every other day But I post action shots so patients when I'm working on their son daughter husband wife They take pictures of me in the chair, which is so nice because otherwise I would not be able to get those photos They send them to me. I say can I please share them to help to spread the word and then I share them So that other people can see oh mobile dental hygiene is a thing, you know, it's great And that's the thing about my business is that people don't realize that mobile dental is a thing And this works the same if you have your own physical location It doesn't matter if you are a dentist watching this and you just can't keep busy over the holidays in your own dental practice It's the same thing Starping consistent on social media because that's where people are you want to reach people, right? We don't post in the newspaper or sorry like we don't pay for ads in newspapers at least I don't Yellow pages. What's that again? Commercials we just don't do that So we need to find another way to get people to engage and to get people thinking about their dental hygiene visits Social media is the way to do it. I did a post the other day about it's almost the end of the year Insurance is running out. You have paid for your dental insurance So use it a lot of people see that and go, oh my goodness. I did pay for my dental insurance Why don't I use it up? The only problem with that is people tend to tell me now I'm fully booked like I am fully booked until after the holidays and then some like there's no way I can see more patients So people message me and say that they want to get in before the holidays and I say I can keep you on a short notice list So that way if somebody cancels absolutely, I'll let you know right away, which does happen I have a long list of people waiting to get in but that's every business's dream, right? You want enough clients you want enough Clients that if somebody cancels you can call somebody up and say hey somebody canceled for like four hours for now Can you come in? Yes, I can make it so that people Want to come in and the way to do that Is to be consistent on social media put that idea in their heads your insurance is running out You need to book your teeth cleaning or whatever it might be. That's the best way to do it So that is a big part of how I keep my practice busy Another part is which a lot of people don't do I wonder if you can think about it right now is referrals do not hesitate to ask Patients to say oh, you know, thank you so much. It was so lovely to meet you I would love for you to spread the word, you know, here's a couple cards. Here's five cards Please tell people you know because I am accepting new patients. They might not realize you're accepting new patients They might think oh man, she must be so busy I'm not even gonna tell anybody about her because she won't be able to see anybody Tell people if they liked your services to refer you a lot of people don't do that A lot of my patients come from referrals that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. It's an amazing thing I encourage my patients to post those pictures on their page and say, hey, I had a mobile hygiene visit today It was great. That's how people hear about it against social media But they're posting it too. You're not posting it. So don't hesitate to let people do that Okay, and ask them to and another thing is to follow up Don't just simply meet a patient They have their service and they never hear from you again until six months later when you call them up and say you're due for your six Month cleaning follow up with them the next day a couple days later and say how do the gums and teeth feel? You did a great job. There was a lot less plaque on the bottom teeth Just really work on the upper left because that's where most of your bleeding was just you know Have a conversation with them. Show them you care. Okay, show them you care Do something as simple as I know it's not possible for everybody, but you know, say Merry Christmas I don't know say something be interactive with them Follow up with them and that's where social media comes into play again Your patients are watching your social media page Even if you're not talking to them directly like face-to-face or on the phone or on email They're watching your social media page. They're seeing your posts They're thinking about you even if you don't realize it They're thinking about you and then when it's almost time for their six-month cleaning they might say oh jeez I think I'm ready for my six-month cleaning. I'm going to book in another tip What you're probably doing is pre-book patients so after you see them if you talk to them about You should be coming in every three months to have your teeth cleaned because the gums bleed a lot Book their appointment before they leave Don't let them do it in three months when they think about it. You'll forget. I'll forget. They'll forget Everybody will forget Pre-book their appointment so that way they don't have to worry and you don't have to worry it will be there. I Do suggest if you can reminding them a month before so that way if they reschedule Your schedule doesn't fall apart like a couple weeks before if you call them a couple weeks before to remind them That's not enough time if they need to reschedule and might be hard for you to book patients in again So do it a month before and then a couple weeks before and then a day before that's what I do People can still forget believe me. So keep that schedule full that way Those are the main things you guys the obvious is be a great dental professional Give them a reason for them to want to come back, but that's kind of obvious So I hope this helped you guys if you have any questions about anything Well, let me know feel free to comment below too of what works for you How do you keep your office full or do you have questions? Are you starting your own independent dental hygiene practice and you have questions of how do I get patients? I can help you guys. Okay. Thank you for watching and have a great day