7 Touch Blueprint for Boosting Dental Treatment Acceptance (Free E-book Download)

Is your dental practice really doing all it can to improve treatment acceptance rates?

Patients might understand the importance of dental treatment but still delay or neglect to schedule their treatments. Procrastination and forgetfulness are significant factors in this delay, with busy schedules being a common reason.

Between busy schedules, forgetfulness, and financial constraints, critical procedures often get deprioritized.

Evidence:

• A 2018 qualitative study in BMC Oral Health highlighted that many patients delay dental care due to busy schedules, with some even identifying as chronic procrastinators when it comes to dental visits.
• A 2016 cross-sectional study in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research found that 38.6% of patients reported procrastination as a significant reason for delaying dental treatment, while another 28.6% cited forgetfulness.

This is where the innovative 7-Touch Blueprint comes in - a structured framework for dental practices to guide patients from initial treatment plan presentation to acceptance through thoughtful engagement touchpoints. The 7-Touch Blueprint has proven to be a revolution in dental patient engagement.

Let's explore the rationale and implementation of each "touch" in this breakthrough approach:

Touch 1: Initial Engagement 

Occurring a day or two post-consultation, this critical first touchpoint sets the tone for the entire blueprint engagement strategy. The initial email and text blast accomplishes several purposes:

- It serves as a friendly reminder about the proposed treatment plan, jogging the patient’s memory in case they simply forgot to schedule amidst busy daily life.

- It reinforces the importance of oral health, noting “addressing this early can prevent more severe and costly procedures down the road.” This educates patients on taking a proactive stance.

- It provides clear next steps via embedded booking links and phone contacts. This reduces barriers to convenient appointment scheduling.

- It establishes the clinic’s ethos of caring deeply about patients’ wellbeing. The message notes “we genuinely care about your oral health,” setting a foundation of trust.

On the crucial question of tone, this touch balances professional authority with gentle empathy. It makes clear recommendations to schedule treatment while also demonstrating compassion and understanding about the common temptation to delay healthcare commitments. This non-judgmental yet insistent voice nurtures ongoing patient engagement.

Touch 2: Reminder Engagement

As the name implies, Touch 2 serves as an additional reminder to solidify the significance of timely dental care. The email and text apply more urgency in their message about “risks of delaying cavity treatment.” Real-world consequences like eventual tooth loss make tangible the perils of postponement.  

Like before, embedded scheduling links facilitate easy booking, removing obstacles to moving forward. The communications also double down on the benevolent tone established in Touch 1. The clinic surely wants the best for the patient’s health and wellness.

This touch also inaugurates the continuum of care message threaded throughout the blueprint - minor procedures now prevent major issues later. Addressing symptoms early on increases positive outcomes for patients and avoids ultimately more complex and expensive interventions down the road should small problems go unchecked due to delay.

Touch 3: Time Sensitivity Outreach

This touch occurs one week post treatment plan presentation to underscore the mounting urgency of scheduling dental care. The email subject line clearly establishes this theme: “Time is of the Essence – Your Teeth Deserve Care.” This gets across the idea that oral health is crucially time sensitive.

The messages remind patients that dental issues impact overall wellness, so addressing problems now helps safeguard holistic health vs. allowing complications to rise through continual delays. The communications strike that now familiar balance of compassionate understanding about healthcare postponements with an increasingly firm directive that the patient must take action via provided scheduling channels.

This represents an inflection point moving towards actionability within a shrinking window as negative consequences loom ever larger. The touch also implies that the patient’s own teeth warrant dedicated care, hoping to spark a sense of personal responsibility.

Touch 4: Personalized Phone Call

After a series of digital communications, Touch 4 represents the first direct personal contact through a phone call. Armed with a pre-developed script to ease conversations, the staff member reconnects the patient to their specific treatment plan, noting it remains unscheduled. 

Next, the touch delivers further education about the medical and financial perils of stretching delays, including “painful, expensive interventions.” This insight into down-the-road complex procedures contrasts more inexpensive early treatments to convince patients to address symptoms now before circumstances magnify.

A new element also emerges here - the introduction of a tangible discounted treatment plan costs. This incentive counteracts financial limitations frequently stalling dental care. The call scripts end by securing an appointment immediately if possible, or reminding them to independently schedule through provided digital channels.

Overall this touch blends relationship-building, targeted education, financial perks and clear scheduling direction to prompt patients towards concrete action.

Touch 5: Offer a Discount

Touch 5 follows up on the financial incentive introduced in the previous phone call outreach. It broadcasts discounts on treatment plans through email and text, aiming to alleviate common cost barriers preventing dental care access. 

Consistently highlighting this monetary support across communication channels underscores its legitimacy and weight. The touch urges patients to grab appointments “before the offer expires,” noting its temporary nature.

This leverages the psychological principle of loss aversion - human beings don’t like losing what they already have, like a discount in this case. If patients miss this financial help by not promptly booking, they lose their special gain. This prompts scheduling to capitalize on assistance for affordable treatment.

Touch 6: Final Discount Reminder

Three weeks after the initial consultation, Touch 6 shares an urgent “final reminder” on the soon-disappearing discounted cost. The message explains the discount nears elimination, so interested patients should “secure your slot” now before it’s too late. 

This touch also raises the concept of limited appointment availability, hoping the specter of losing an open slot catalyzes the patient into rapid scheduling. Together, the threats of missing both financial aid and scarce bookings jolt dilatory patients into cementing an appointment.

The communication channels of email and text continue ensuring omni-channel coverage for this dire notice. While urgent, the clinic still supports patients in easily securing discounts through provided digital scheduling and phone contact.  

Touch 7: Last Chance Urgency

The final touch occurs 4 weeks post-consultation as the very last opportunity to benefit from the expiring discount before it disappears for good. This truly represents an emergency notice to spur the patient into immediate action.

The message explains appointments will soon completely fill up as well, warning of two simultaneous closing windows. This fear of missing out triggers anxiety and an instant scheduling reaction.

The email and text include phrasing regarding the doomed discount alongside heightening scheduling pressure. However, as always, helpful booking links allow securing a spot if motivated right now.

This dual-pronged final warning of disappearing financial help and dwindling availability gives one last shove towards patient activation, closing the 7-touch engagement cycle with care and diligence.

The Power Behind the Blueprint

Stepping back, we can see why this structured 7-touch framework grows dental treatment plan acceptance rates:

It meets patients on multiple channels - email, text, phone - insisting on engagement. It balances patience with firmness about following treatment recommendations. It provides practical assistance addressing financial limitations. It leverages ROI, loss aversion and scarcity to prompt scheduling.  

In essence, the blueprint overcomes common barriers like waning motivation, limited finances, or distraction. It educates patients then guides them firmly yet compassionately towards mutual oral health goals.

Automating Follow-Ups for Feasibility 

The main hurdles that hinder dental practices from implementing the 7-touch blueprint relate to these intensive personalized outreach efforts. It’s challenging manually tracking treatment plans across a large patient pool and ensuring timely, customized communication. And outsourcing these follow-ups to an agency or hiring more staff proves expensive.

This is where automated solutions like mConsent prove revolutionary. Their seamless patient engagement software integration detects unscheduled treatment plans, triggering pre-written personalized communication based on the procedure codes in the practice management, communication is intricately planned to educate the patient, importance of getting treated on-time and consequences of delaying.

This not only reduces administrative strain but ensures the patient is educated and makes a very informed decision. The result is better acceptance of treatment plans compared to a short pitch and no follow-ups. Dental practices using the 7 touch strategy have reported an improved 70% treatment plan acceptance rate vs their original 45% case acceptance.

In summary, the 7-Touch Blueprint offers an optimal strategy to boost dental treatment acceptance rates through conscientious patient engagement, making its effective implementation scalable across any practice. This paves the way for superior oral health outcomes, patient appreciation of attentive care, and a thriving dental business. It’s a win-win situation all around.