Missed appointments are expensive. You’ve left a space in your day for a specific patient, and when that patient fails to show, you lose productivity and increase your stress level. Sure, you might have a list of other things to work on while you fill the gap, but ideally, your number of no-shows should be very low, and limited to unavoidable events like illness.

No-shows are not simply an unavoidable force of nature. They’re the result of individuals making specific choices that leave you in a lurch. The good news is there are ways to influence your patients to make better choices. You can use the science of ethical persuasion to reduce the number of no-shows, increase your productivity, decrease your stress levels and make your practice a more enjoyable place to work.

Originally published on thenew.dentist – read the full post here.