Everyone who phones a Dental Office is ringing for help.
Our job when we answer the phone in a Dental Office is to help the caller.
To properly help the caller we need to ask questions that will guide the caller to the best way we can help them.
And that is to make an appointment.
The phrase “leave the door open” means to give someone the choice to do what they want.
If you ask the wrong questions when you are on the phone, you will leave the door open and the caller may not make an appointment.
Is your Dental Office asking the correct questions so that the caller makes an appointment?
The wrong questions include:
- Would you like to make an appointment?
- When would you like to come in?
- Do you need to check with your wife first?
- Can you afford it?
- Do you want to call me back when you are ready?
- You prefer an 8:00am appointment don’t you?
These wrong questions are also asked when the patient has had treatment:
- Would you like to pay for that?
- When would you like to come back?
- Call me to make the next appointment?
These questions leave the door open for the patient to say:
- I don’t want to make an appointment just now.
- I will call you when I am ready
- I need to check with my wife first
- I can’t afford it right now
- Can I pay next week?
The correct things to say:
- Would you prefer morning or afternoon?
- Would you like 9:00am or 10:30am?
- I can make you an appointment right now.
- The fee for this treatment is…
- Today’s fee is X dollars. Which card would you prefer to use today?
What are the questions your Front Desk people are asking when they are on the phone?
Are they the questions that are helping the caller make an appointment?
Or are they questions, or maybe not even questions, that are helping the caller not make an appointment and get off the phone even more confused?
If you leave the door open with your caller, they will usually exit the door without an appointment. This means you have failed the caller by not helping them.
You have lost a patient!
This blog will feature simple practical ideas that are easy to implement tomorrow in your Dental Office, impacting immediately on your Patients’ Dental Phone Experiences, and ultimately, improving your practice profitability.
At present I have availability for three new private clients. For more information on how I can improve your Dental Office’s Phone Numbers contact me, Jayne Bandy at jayne@theDPE.com
Reblogged this on Dental Phone Excellence Blog by Jayne Bandy.