You train your staff to deliver the best possible experience for your patients. You stress how important it is to be empathetic, helpful, and supportive because one bad visit can end a relationship. After all, your patient can choose from an array of nearby dental practices, so you do everything in your power to earn their loyalty.
Can you say that you hold your practice management software to the same standards?
It’s Time to Declare Your Independence from:
- Adequate dental practice management software
- On-site servers that you have to purchase, maintain and update
- Limited visibility into the health of your practice
- Frustrating customer service
- Cybersecurity worries
Adequate Software
Many practices have used the same practice management software for years. Sure, there are some flaws, but their staff is comfortable so why rock the boat? Change is hard and the thought of switching software is daunting.
In reality, change can be a very good thing once you explore your options. For example, you’re likely to find more user-friendly software and features that make your staff more efficient. And training that is well-structured and effective. You’ll discover that companies that are singularly focused on practice management software continually improve their platform while providers that offer a catalog full of dental supplies may not do so well with software.
Curve is singularly focused on our cloud-based dental practice management software. In fact, we’ve committed $40 million over the next five years to our single platform. That means we are continually enhancing features to ensure our customers have software that will keep up with the ever-evolving practice of dentistry.
On-Site Servers
Traditional server-based software seems simple enough. You run your practice from your office. Why wouldn’t you keep your data on servers where you work? However, COVID-19 has caused many dentists to rethink where they store their data. After the mandatory office closings, we received messages from many of our customers sharing how relieved they were that their practice management software was in the cloud. They had heard from frustrated colleagues who use server-based software and couldn’t access what they needed from their office. That wasn’t the case for Curve customers.
Our customers easily rescheduled patient appointments, pulled reports, and handled billing from their home office. They also used tools and webinars we provided to plan for their re-openings and to improve their operations to make maximum use of their unexpected downtime.
Limited Visibility into Your Practice
Does your software provide reporting that enables you to have the data you need when you need it? Our robust Business Intelligence (BI) feature combines standard dental reports, custom report functionality, and Playbook Dashboards to provide actionable insights into the most important financial and operational aspects of your dental practice. Our customers use Curve Hero’s BI to maximize their practice efficiency, profitability, and patient experience.
Rather than waiting until the end of the month to dig into the data, Curve customers get answers to questions like:
- Am I on target for my production goals this month?
- How many patients do I have on a Recare schedule, and how many have an appointment set?
- Is there enough work to hire another Dentist/Hygienist?
Having data at their fingertips empowers customers to make timely adjustments that directly impact revenue and maximize production.
Frustrating Customer Service
When you break it down, dental practice management software is only as good as the company that stands behind it. At the very foundation of the Curve Dental business relationship is a commitment to customer service.
Most consumers begrudgingly accept the fact that customer care is not what it used to be. Adequate has been the accepted norm because experience tells us this is as good as it gets. Whether it is off-shoring support to reduce expense, an automated phone system designed to do everything in its power to prevent you from speaking to a human, or ridiculously long wait times, in many cases poor customer service has become the new normal.
The good news is dental practices don’t have to accept substandard customer service.
Let’s take this experience a dentist had with an unnamed dental practice management software provider. He related that every time he loaded a software update, his system slowed down. Every time. This particular day the clinical chart would not open on his terminal. He called customer support and waited 25 minutes to speak to a live human, because, as the automated voice told him while he waited on hold, “Please continue to hold. Your call is very important to us.” You would think the company would see the irony! This happens EVERY TIME he calls that number and it was his motivation for switching to Curve.
At Curve, Great Customer Care is Front and Center
Cloud-based software typically uses a Software as a Service or SaaS model. This subscription model has become popularized among consumers thanks to the likes of Spotify and Pandora, among others. Just like you can play either music service from any device, cloud-based practice management software can be accessed anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
What distinguishes top SaaS companies from cloud pretenders is their commitment to service. To us, world-class service means 24/7/365 customer care, automatic product updates without disruption to your workflow, data security, and backups and effective training. Any company purporting to offer cloud-based software that doesn’t provide this level of service is not using your monthly subscription responsibly.
Cybersecurity Worries
Traditional server-based computing places the responsibility for cybersecurity protection on the shoulders of an in-house team or outside consultant. Keeping up with cybersecurity protocols and staying HIPAA compliant is an ongoing challenge if you are not in the cloud. We remove that worry with continuous backup to an Amazon Tier 1 data center, which ensures the accuracy, accessibility, and integrity of our customers’ data. Annual 3rd-party intrusion detection and security audits ensure data is secure from the latest cybersecurity threats.
Make Your Declaration of Independence
If you want your practice management software to make the same level of commitment to you that you deliver to your patients, now’s the time to declare your independence. Stop settling for adequate software and customer service. You, your patients and your staff deserve better.
