Mass mailing question

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fishdrzig
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:46 pm

Mass mailing question

Post by fishdrzig » Sun Jun 19, 2016 1:42 pm

I want to send out a letter to all my active patients. Are there companies that will do that for me, letter, envelopes, postage?

If so, how is the best way to get them the names/addresses of all the patients?

Thanks

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mopensoft
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:33 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Re: Mass mailing question

Post by mopensoft » Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:23 pm

A simple way is to write a SQL to get the active patient list

fishdrzig
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:46 pm

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by fishdrzig » Mon Jun 20, 2016 2:17 am

How does one write an SQL?

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Arna
Posts: 444
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:16 pm

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by Arna » Mon Jun 20, 2016 10:01 am

We have this report already written on our query page. This report will give you a list of families (the guarantor will list) of anyone seen in the last three years. http://opendentalsoft.com:1942/ODQueryL ... yList.aspx

Copy the following text and paste into your Query Box in the Reports window. You can export this list to excel to pass on to a third party for mailing (or do a mail merge yourself).

Code: Select all

/*35 List of families seen in the last three years - Useful for generating a list of patients for Christmas cards.*/

/* After saving the resulting datafile, you would use the letter merge feature of Word to actually print the cards or labels. The first name is not very useful because it is the guarantors name, not the patient's name. */

/* This query gives names and addresses of guarantors for each family where at least one active patient has been seen (with procedures completed) within the past three years, and where the guarantor address has a valid zip code. Only visits after today's date three years ago are included. */

SET @FromDate = CURDATE() - INTERVAL 3 YEAR; 
SET @ToDate   = CURDATE();
SELECT g.LName,g.FName, g.Address, g.Address2, g.City, g.State, g.Zip
FROM patient p
INNER JOIN patient g ON p.Guarantor=g.PatNum
INNER JOIN procedurelog pl ON pl.PatNum=p.PatNum
WHERE p.PatStatus=0
/*only patients with procedures completed within the last three years.*/
AND pl.ProcDate BETWEEN @FromDate AND @ToDate
AND pl.ProcStatus=2
AND Length(g.Zip)>4
GROUP BY g.PatNum
ORDER BY g.LName,g.FName
Entropy isn't what it used to be...

Arna Meyer

fishdrzig
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:46 pm

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by fishdrzig » Mon Jun 20, 2016 1:23 pm

Thank you both very much

fishdrzig
Posts: 433
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:46 pm

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by fishdrzig » Mon Jun 20, 2016 1:27 pm

Ok, I have the file, now can someone recommend a third party that may provide this service?
Letter, envelopes, stamps, everything?

rhaber123
Posts: 415
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 12:09 pm

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by rhaber123 » Mon Jun 20, 2016 4:44 pm

2 options

1- http://www.patientnews.com/
They take care of dentists. They offer custom mailing when needed. I used them in the past.
Talk to them and they will have many options for you.

2- But I think the best way and the least expensive, is to have your letter ready. make 500 copies (for example) at a local copy/printing place,
some of these places offer to print the envelopes too as well as the folding,
or have one or two employees fold them and put the stamps, 2-4 hours of work depending on how many patients you have

Create Mailing Labels in Word using Mail Merge from an Excel Data Set :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNEyvGHvlpk
jump to the time 2:30 to make the labels in Word

john_moses
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Joined: Wed May 04, 2016 10:39 am
Location: Kansas City, MO
Contact:

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by john_moses » Wed Jul 06, 2016 5:46 am

Do you have any email addresses stored with approval to send an email? It would be far cheaper to do an email blast with constant contact or mailchimp.

If you don't, then I use a third party system to do print and mailers. I have it integrated into my service, but if you have the motivation and technical chops I could provide the script for you to run.
John Moses
https://www.sendthereminder.com
Automated patient communication system: reminders, overdues, confirmations, newsletters

User avatar
Arna
Posts: 444
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:16 pm

Re: Mass mailing question

Post by Arna » Mon Jul 11, 2016 9:58 am

I second the Mail Chimp recommendation. Their services are awesome and you can really design some great promotional material.
Entropy isn't what it used to be...

Arna Meyer

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