New SMS Functionality

OK, so this edition I am being a little selfish in what I speak about but I think for good reason.

I am focusing on new functionality dental4windows now offers in the area of the SMS technology but more to the point, how you can use this functionality to better improve efficiencies within your practice but even more importantly particularly now, improve services to your patients at the same time as filling any gaps that may be starting to appear within the appointment book.

Dental4windows has recently added to the SMS functionality what we call SMS Recalls and also Queries. These are both functions improving the way we communicate with our patients and I am finding them both extremely helpful for my staff and the great majority of patients appreciating the extra service to them these offer. I use the new SMS Recalls in partnership with the existing functionality. The way our SMS technology works is it allows us to pull up those patients who have indicated their preference to receive SMS Reminders of appointments, to then create or run our standard text/message template reminding them of their specific appointment time and date. Our technology allows us to use any fields we have patient data in such as name, date of birth, our address as examples. The system also allows us to customize or edit any outgoing SMS if we so desire for example, “Don’t forget your ….…. medication Mrs Smith”.

All this is so easy to use and all comes standard in dental4windows these days. 

The SMS Recalls functionality allows us to now create a list of patients from a query (search/lookup) based on the date I as the Doctor have suggested/nominated for the next check up and the Date Range I as the user, have also nominated. In other words, I can now save all that administration time for my staff in preparing addressing, stamping and mailing posted Recalls/Reminders.

Queries is another great functionality that many of us will benefit from.

I can pull up any of my patients in a Query eg. Patients who may be interested in a crown since I now have a new Sirona Cerec (I don’t really but would be nice) and I want to offer some of my existing patients a reduced price to help start paying for the new system. I know I have quite a number of existing patients I have discussed this with and said I would touch base with them when the new Cerec system arrived. There may be 10 to 30 that may be interested or who I know might benefit and would certainly appreciate the thought. I can of course do this for many reasons such as Bleaching Due Again, Outstanding Treatment Plan or whatever else I care to run with.

I can set the query criteria through the Query Wizard, this gives me the list of patients that qualify and are set for SMS messaging. I can also if necessary, make adjustments to each SMS message to customize or make more relevant and then I just send with a confirmation of messages sent window popping up to confirm. Nothing could be easier and I can do all of this to improve the quality of my Patient Services, to Market my practice better, to reduce my FTA rate and more…..

You can probably tell from this that I am excited but I’m sure that those who know me and what drives me will understand why when they see how effective this technology has become and now with these further improvements of functionality, fantastic.

Dr Frank Papadopoulos