CRM - Customer relationship management?

[aussiedentist]

Noob using australian version of od, going quite well btw!

I NEED to be able to organise my list of patients, into a list, that can get funnelled into various options, that then may get scheduled appointments, or call again later, or never call again

ie We ring 50 patients one day

30 we get no answer
5 make appointments
5 want us to ring them in a week,
1 have died
3 have gone to other dentists and are not happy with us
6 want us to ring them in three months


So, now, we need the software to then put those things in the calendar
so, that we
1) try the 30 again tommorow, or next week
2) ring the 5 patients again next week
3) not ever contact the dead one, or the 3 who didnt like us
4) Contact the other 6 in three months time

And, of course, next week, the six monthly recalls from six months ago have been added, the three monthly perio recalls are added, etc etc etc

Was reading the NO bs marketing by dan kennedy, who says software like this is a must, which i agree with
Us dentists are soooo lazy, and inefficient. I know i have 10+k of undone work in my od file which i need to dig up

WHat i really need is to be able to get a recall list, and then add the crm side to it, so that on any day, i can just get my receptionist to get on the phone, and have the computer to tell her who to ring, rather than spending her time finding out who to ring!

I know that there are crm software, both free and paid for that will do this, but i really hate the idea of trying to run two systems simultaneously. OD should also allow us to automatically put notes in- ie rang pt, no answer, rang pt, do not call again, etc

I note in a prev post, jordan was mentioning that he was using od as a crm tool, but i was hard pressed to find specific details

[bpcomp]

Much of the functionality you want is in Open Dental. If you go to the Appts screen and then look over on the top right hand side, you will see two icons. One icon looks like a pad of paper with the corner folded up and is labeled "Appointment Lists" if you hover over it. The other icon looks like a printer and is for printing the schedule. If you click in Appointment Lists and then select the "Recall" button you will have most of that functionality for your recall patients.

For other TX you can use the treatment finder which is not as functional but still very helpful. It can be found by going to "Reports" from the top menu and then selecting "Treatment Finder" from the right side of the screen.

If the built in functionality does not do enough for you and you do go with an external CRM, please post about it here so we know what you used and why. I'm always curious to know what other offices do even if we don't end up doing the same thing.

[gthiele]

What i really need is to be able to get a recall list, and then add the crm side to it, so that on any day, i can just get my receptionist to get on the phone, and have the computer to tell her who to ring, rather than spending her time finding out who to ring!

I know that there are crm software, both free and paid for that will do this, but i really hate the idea of trying to run two systems simultaneously.

Great post and I'll be sure to follow this one to see where it goes!

First some background. I'm a PracticeWorks user looking longingly at the many features Open Dental does so elegantly. IMHO PWorks isn't being cared for properly by it's present owners so it looks like a dead end street for me. PWorks however has the recall system(and many other systems including one of my favorite, the unscheduled treatment plan list) handled quite nicely with their "Automation Experts". I would really really really (did I say really)like to see this type of functionality placed into OD either directly or a by third party. Right now I'd like to combine the best of PWorks, OD, LH360, and InfusionSoft "but I really hate the idea of trying to run 4 systems simultaneously."

You could check out the new (bleeding edge) Dentma OD bridge to Infusionsoft (the software that Dan Kennedy uses) http://marketplace.infusionsoft.com/app ... pen-dental however you might be the first user since there are no posted reviews. Let's keep this thread active!

Best regards,

[aussiedentist]

Interesting that the infusionsoft was exactly what i was looking for, until i found out is $2500/year!
Also, am far too busy to guinea pig myself atm.

I found out a lot of what i was trying to do via the unscheduled list, the asap list and the recall list

Is there any chance that we can get a couple of more lists? As long as we can move patients easily between each lists (as we can now). Even better if we could name them ourselves!

Ie - so we can funnel everyone where we want them to be, and not have patients slipping through the cracks.

If we could integrate with a calendar it would be great- ie if a patient wants us to ring in three months, we can slot them in. I assume we may just put them under a recall for 3/12 in this scenario?

[jsalmon]

...OD should also allow us to automatically put notes in- ie rang pt, no answer, rang pt, do not call again, etc...

I'm not sure about the automatic part but here at HQ, we use communication logs for everything. Every phone call that we have we write notes about it and track it that way. That sounds like what you want for this part. Those entries can show up in the Account and in the Chart modules.
http://opendental.com/manual/commlog.html

[JDs]

I'll second Gary's sentiment about the automation experts in PracticeWorks. More than anything else, they really made the software work for us.

[aussiedentist]

Is there any chance we can get a few more lists, in addition to the unscheduled, and asap?

I would like to make a few different ones, like
'reminder sent', 'couldnt reach by phone', 'text message sent', email sent', and be able to transfer ones from one to the other, as we can at the moment

Is this easy to do?

[mopensoft]

I'm sure you can create plug-ins or queries to get the list

[aussiedentist]

I'm sure you can create plug-ins or queries to get the list

Im not quite understanding if this means i can create a query to make the list (which would be ok), or if i can create plug ins to get more lists (which would be brilliant!)

Can i create plug ins to create MORE lists, ie more than the 'unscheduled' 'asap' etc?

[StevenB]

...

First some background. I'm a PracticeWorks user looking longingly at the many features Open Dental does so elegantly. IMHO PWorks isn't being cared for properly by it's present owners so it looks like a dead end street for me. PWorks however has the recall system(and many other systems including one of my favorite, the unscheduled treatment plan list) handled quite nicely with their "Automation Experts". I would really really really (did I say really)like to see this type of functionality placed into OD either directly or a by third party. Right now I'd like to combine the best of PWorks, OD, LH360, and InfusionSoft "but I really hate the idea of trying to run 4 systems simultaneously."

You could check out the new (bleeding edge) Dentma OD bridge to Infusionsoft (the software that Dan Kennedy uses) http://marketplace.infusionsoft.com/app ... pen-dental however you might be the first user since there are no posted reviews. Let's keep this thread active!

Best regards,

I'm on a similar ride as Gary, a former PW user looking to improve the automation present through OD. I've only been live on OD 2 weeks, so still exploring (but really impressed with the versatality of the software). More automation features would be really nice.

Steven

[gthiele]

Steven,

Are you also a Club Lighthouse member? If so, and when you get a chance to catch your breath from making the transition, would you be willing to let us know how well some of the systems that Allen set up for PW and shared as articles and experts are handled in OD? Also,for any missing functions, are they listed in OD's feature requests? Those aren't visible to outsiders.

Thanks so much! Gary

PS Maybe your reply should be under a new thread since this seems to heading off topic.

[StevenB]

Gary,

Yes, I'm a longterm Club LH user too. I've been with PW for 14 years. I agree with the part about catching my breath, as we customize OD, but I actually enjoy the exploring of the program. It may take me a few months to compare the customization / automation aspects - I also wouldn't want to relate a suspected shortcoming just because I may not have discovered how best to do some tasks in OD. I am happy with my decision to switch.

It did take me about 3 hours to customize their routing slip (sorry, "sheet") to better represent what we like, as I compared it with our PW ones.

And yes, we can start a new thread when able.

Steven

[mopensoft]

I'm sure you can create plug-ins or queries to get the list

Im not quite understanding if this means i can create a query to make the list (which would be ok), or if i can create plug ins to get more lists (which would be brilliant!)

Can i create plug ins to create MORE lists, ie more than the 'unscheduled' 'asap' etc?

I think query is straightforward which give you back data presented in tabular format. With plugin, you can do more than that. For example, integrated with phone or sms function, highlight critical info, more lists from OD data, and so on. Open Dental allows you to do a lot of thing via plug in.