Patients Don’t Usually Leave Loudly – They Walk Out the Back Door

Are you continuously looking for more, and more new patients? Is your schedule hard to keep full on a regular basis? 

On a recent visit to one of our practices, I found myself discussing that they have a great number of new patients coming through the door, which is amazing. You would expect their schedule to be booked out at a minimum of 2 weeks in advance. However, they have openings for tomorrow. Why is that?

What we are finding is that as we have a ton of new patients coming in the front door, established patients are walking out the back. The office is busy and producing well, but the team is having to work very hard for that success because new patients take a lot of time and energy as we all know.  

Practices that succeed long term are not simply the ones bringing in the most new patients — they are the ones creating experiences that make patients want to stay and have systems in place to keep them coming back. 

The truth is that most patients do not leave noticeably. They do not announce their departure or explain their frustrations. Instead, they slowly disengage. They stop scheduling treatment. They postpone hygiene visits. They ignore reminders. Eventually, they disappear altogether and many times this is not on purpose. They simply lose track of time and are sometimes embarrassed to come back.

Patient retention does not depend on a single big gesture. It grows through consistency, communication, trust, and the experience patients have each time they interact with your office. Small, unnoticed mistakes can gradually weaken loyalty over time.

Let’s look at how some of the ways we can maintain patient loyalty:

• Practice Culture – Denise wrote an article about this last month focusing the practice’s culture on employee retention. I want you to realize that this trickles right into patient retention. Your patients can feel when an office is running smoothly or is in chaos. Ensure that your culture is comfortable to enter in to. 

• Communication – this is incredibly important in so many ways. 

  • How is your phone answered? Do your patients feel welcomed when your phone is answered or do they feel like a nuisance? We are continually telling our teams that when the phone rings, that is your paycheck. Treat your calls that way.

  • Is dental health presented as a priority for your patients when they are in the office? Educating your patients on the importance of maintaining their dental health is vital to keep them coming back. 

    
    

Too often, we hear casual responses that unintentionally minimize the importance of recommended treatment or routine preventive care. Statements that suggest patients can proceed with treatment "whenever they feel like it" or return for their next examination and cleaning at their convenience may send the message that dental health is optional rather than a critical component of overall health. 

• Along those lines, a patient should never leave the office without another appointment. We hear “OK, just give me a call to schedule your next visit.” All patients need to come back to the office either for treatment, or for their routine exam and cleaning…they should always have an appointment to come back, otherwise you have to chase them down to make another appointment.

• Patient follow-up – Does your practice have a system for patient follow-up? This is the most common place we find that patients are getting “lost”. A patient cancels their appointment or left the office at their last visit without scheduling their next one and is not contacted to come back. What systems need to be in place for follow-up?

  • Automated texts and emails are great ways to follow up with patients that are due for their next preventative appointment, and you can send them to patients that have treatment plans. Just don’t rely only on the automated messages going out.  

  • Canceled or No-Show appointments – these patients often require a phone call to get those appointments rescheduled. Creating a system of how you are keeping track of these patients, as well as when they will receive phone calls or text messages is very important to keep these patients from “walking out that back door”. 

  • Unscheduled treatment and preventative lists – does your team know how to obtain these lists from your practice management software? These lists are incredibly important for the follow-up process. 

    
    

Attracting new patients is important of course, but retaining the patients you already have is what creates long-term stability and growth. Every patient who leaves your practice represents more than lost production—it represents a lost relationship.

Patients rarely walk out the front door and announce that they are leaving. More often, they quietly drift away due to missed follow-up, inconsistent communication, scheduling challenges, or a lack of connection to the practice. The good news is that these issues are mostly preventable through systems, meaningful relationships and a team that shows every patient matters.

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Janice Janssen, RDH, CFE, Consultant

At age 14, Janice Janssen got an after-school job working for her dentist. Twenty-something years later, she is the co-founder of Global Team Solutions and an expert in practice consulting. Besides hands-on experience, Janice has gained professional recognition for her hard work and commitment to excellence. She is co-author of OMG! Office Management Guide, the “bible” used in GTS training workshops. She is a member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants (ADMC), and is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), which positions her as an expert in educating dentists to deter fraud and embezzlement in their practice.

Janice can be reached at: janice@gtsgurus.com