Patients and staff love the solutions Legwork offers for COVID-19 changes
By Dr. Greg Grillo
No one knows what “normal” really looks like as we move deeper into 2020. Dental practices continue to adapt to new guidelines and regulations. But it goes beyond that. All of us are dealing with altered consumer psychology that includes anxiety, uncertainty, and mistrust. That won’t be a problem with every patient, but attracting new patients and nurturing your existing ones has taken on a new dimension.
Communication before, during, and after patient visits is always essential to their journey. In the COVID-19 aftermath, your practice must add even more messaging and manage its systematic delivery. It’s a lot to add to the mix, and missteps could have implications no one yet fully understands.
At Legwork, the team has thrown over two decades of expertise serving clients into the new challenge. They’ve worked days and nights to adapt and create tools to lower your stress, maximize your efficiency, and minimize your liability. Patients love knowing you care, and using tools made for these times shows that you do, adding to their trust.
Integrate these six tools in the 6-Step NO-TOUCH Communications Suite to enjoy benefits far beyond COVID-19:
Step 1: Online Appointments
Consumers expect to manage many tasks online, and that demand has grown through the COVID-19 pandemic. With Legwork Online Appointment Booking , your practice gives patients an opportunity to manage scheduling their appointments on your website 24/7. How does this help?
- Patients see real-time availability pulled from your practice management software: quick, contact-free scheduling from the convenience of home.
- Staff frees up time to work on other tasks and serve patients that are in the office.
- Your SEO gets a boost from patients returning to your site to schedule.
Step 2: Paperless Forms
These days health providers prefer to collect patient medical history, intake info, and even signatures digitally. Legwork Paperless gives you forms that are completely customizable, mobile responsive, and seamlessly integrated with your patient communications and website. With Paperless, you can:
- Collect patient intake, health history, and more with pre-loaded, fully secure online forms that sync details to your PMS and PRM systems in real time.
- Create fully-customizable forms using a simple drag-and-drop form builder.
- Build your own lead capture forms, and embed them on your webpage for convenient access. Respondents are automatically delivered to your PRM dashboard where you can add to marketing groups for automated follow-up and conversion.
Easily output printable PDFs of forms whenever you require a hard copy.
Legwork Paperless helps you streamline your day-to-day operations, reduce first appointment jitters, and cut back on paper waste.
Step 3: Reminders
People’s lives are always busy, but new concerns and personal challenges may increase no-shows. Everyone needs a nudge, and Legwork Reminders gives you more ways to do it. Customize reminders according to patient preferences, and take advantage of advanced features like auto-calling and family grouping. How does this help?
- The average no-show rate in dentistry hovers around 15% in many practices. For Legwork clients, 5% or less is common.
- You can customize the content in your reminder messages: deliver vital information regarding COVID-19 changes while making sure your patient will be at their appointment.
Step 4: Welcome and Pre-Screen COVID-19
Before COVID-19, a simple reminder message is all that stood between your patient and their appointment. Now, pre-screening protocols add more time to the administrative intake of every visit. But the Legwork team makes that much easier for you and your patients. How does it work?
The Legwork online workflow delivers a welcome text and/or email that directs your patient to a landing page explaining in-office changes related to COVID-19.
- The patient reviews the page and learns about how much you value their safety.
- The patient completes a screening questionnaire and submits it through Legwork Paperless forms .
- The patient receives a follow-up message telling them to stay in their car and text you when they arrive.
The new pre-screening and social-distancing protocols create more burdens on your staff. But Legwork integrated tools lighten the load and ensure the right steps are covered for everyone’s safety.
STEP 5: Fast Fill and Recare
Practices face two schedule challenges in good or bad times: short-notice cancellations and recall of overdue patients. With more management complexities evolving from COVID-19, keeping the schedule full could take more effort than in the past. Regardless, Legwork has a solution for now and in the future.
- Fast-Fill automatically detects short-notice cancellations in your schedule and immediately starts working to fill them. Fast-Fill integrates with your practice management software and contacts patients who’ve indicated they’ll take an earlier appointment.
- Recare: Your team knows how time-consuming it can be to bring overdue patients back in. After COVID-19, this challenge will reach for months. But Legwork products integrate with your practice software to nurture them back into treatment. From email campaigns to text messaging, your team saves hours encouraging patients to engage with your office again.
Unfilled appointments can cost your practice tens of thousands of dollars every year. But Legworks Fast Fill and reactivation tools help minimize your open time and stay focused.
STEP 6: NPS, Reviews, and Referrals
The best brands know that the customer experience helps shape the trajectory of their growth. They ask questions, request reviews, and encourage referrals. The best dental practices do, too. More than ever, it’s essential that you know what your patients think and how they gauge the efforts you’re taking to keep them safe. Legwork helps you do that by combining three essential no-touch pieces after their visit. How does it work?
- NPS : If there’s ever been a time for customized surveys, it’s now. A Net Promoter Score gives you the same insight Fortune 500 companies use. You can create surveys that ask, “Did you feel safe in our office today?” Or, “Would you refer a friend to us?” Quickly gauge the effectiveness of your team’s efforts and make adjustments.
- Reviews : Legwork Reviews makes helping patients leave feedback easy. An automated text/email reaches them after their visit with links to your Google and Facebook profiles.
- Referrals : Word-of-mouth referrals are the lifeblood of your practice. Legwork clients often boast a 45% referral ratio. Almost every other new patient comes because someone else sent them. Automated requests for referrals, thank-you card programs, and detailed tracking are part of a finely-tuned process.
Make The Aftermath Easier on Your Practice
Your practice has always been a complex machine with many moving parts. But COVID-19 produced another layer of challenges. From guidelines to psychology, you simply need to do more.
With Legwork, you have someone to help bear the load. How you handle the aftermath of COVID-19 means just as much to your patients as what you do. Legwork helps you keep a no-touch approach to engaging your patients. That pays off now, and helps your practice grow for years to come!