Avoiding the September Slump: How Pediatric Dental Practices Can Maintain Patient Volume When Kids Go Back to School

As the summer sun begins to fade and the back-to-school rush sets in, most pediatric dental practices notice a familiar trend: a slowdown in patient visits and therefore production (our practices traditionally have seen between 15-20% less production compared to August). With parents focusing on school supplies, new routines, and getting their children on international sports teams, dental appointments often take a back seat. However, this seasonal dip in patient volume doesn’t have to be inevitable. With the right strategies, your practice can mitigate the slowdown and set yourself up for a strong finish to the year.

Plan and Communicate Early

Start planning your September strategy now. Communicate with parents about the importance of maintaining their child’s oral health during the school year. I cannot overemphasize the importance of overemphasizing the importance of regular dental visits to parents. Most parents don’t understand that ECC progresses much more rapidly than caries in adult dentition. Don’t overdo it to the point of fearmongering, but make sure they understand how important it is to not skip a visit. Keeping no-show rates to a minimum will help your September numbers more than you realize. And if you’re not tracking your no-show rates, start!

Offer Back-to-School Promotions

Promotions are a great way to attract parents who might otherwise delay their child’s dental care. Try partnering with a local coffee shop and offer $5 gift cards for new patients. Decorate your office with back-to-school themes and make sure your team is trained to talk to the child about their school experience so far.

New Parent Time

Guess who doesn’t go to school? Kids under 5 (typically). Get with your marketing company and make sure you are placing additional emphasis on this age group with your September marketing efforts. Focus on this demographic in your reactivation campaigns as well (see #9).

Leverage School Partnerships

Don’t let it be the other pediatric practice that gets their banner on the fence in the pickup line. Partnering with schools is an excellent way to get your name out in the community and market to a population that may have missed your messages through other marketing channels. Offer to provide educational presentations on dental health or sponsor school events. In exchange, schools can distribute information about your practice and encourage parents to schedule dental appointments. Pro Tip: going through the PTA will yield far greater success than going through the already-overworked admin office.

Stay Engaged on Social Media

September is a perfect time to ramp up your social media engagement. Post tips on maintaining dental health during the school year, share patient testimonials, and celebrate back-to-school milestones with your community. You can also run fun contests or giveaways that encourage parents to book appointments and engage with your content. Make sure to get help with your social media. No offense, but most of us are too old and don’t have enough time to understand how it actually works. A few sporadic posts can be a waste of time at best, and cringeworthy at worst.

Patient Reactivation

This one is so underutilized it’s scary. Study after study have shown that the least expensive patient to attract to your office is one that’s already been there. Setup an automated drip campaign to attract patients back to your office. Run a list of patients that are overdue for recare that have no upcoming appointments in the next 9 months. Those are patients that are eligible for an exam and cleaning NOW.

Training

Finally, use the downtime in the office to focus on team training. Make sure it is structured, useful, and actionable – don’t just have them watch a bunch of videos online. Focus on referral and review scripting to encourage referrals that take place immediately. Also make sure to focus on scripting that reduces no-shows and cancellations. The patients you see this September will be the patients you see next September, so creating the value in their minds will pay off for you next September and beyond.

Conclusion

I’ve observed an interesting psychological “tic” that we have in the dental community. Dentist A has a slowdown or bad numbers for the month, which causes them to reach out to Dentist B in the community and ask them if they are slow too. Typically the response is in the affirmative, at which point Dentist A feels much better about themselves. Which is really odd because the bank and the landlord could care less about mutually shared economic pain.

Forget how the other office is doing. Forget what the economy is doing. At our offices, we take a firm stance and communicate it with the entire team. Ready for it? Here it is.

We choose not to participate in slow months.

Your attitude, your mindset, and your actions will dictate whether or not you have a good month in September. Make sure your team knows which kind of practice you choose to be.