How you communicate with your patients has a direct influence on how they respond or react.
The words you choose are very important.
What you say to your patients is not always what they hear!
That is why it is so important to think carefully about what you are about to say to your patients.
Here are a few bad messages you could be sending your patients.
1. “I will call you if we get a cancellation.”
When you say this to your patient, they hear:
“Our patients cancel their appointments and it’s OK.”
Of course this is not the message you want your patients to hear.
Better to say:
“If an appointment becomes available, I will call you.”
Now you send the message that more appointments may become available to get you in sooner.
Much better!
2. “I’m calling to confirming your appointment.”
What the patient hears is:
“Your appointment is not confirmed yet, so it’s alright to cancel the appointment if you want to.”
And it’s not!!!!
Much better to say:
“It’s just a courtesy call to let you know Dr Brown is looking forward to meeting you on….at….”
This presumes the patient is attending their appointment, which was confirmed at the time the appointment was scheduled.
3. “Would you like to make an appointment?”
You must be very careful when asking your patients a closed question.
Your patient may say NO!
Better to ask:
“Let’s make an appointment for you. Would you prefer morning or afternoon?”
You suggest they make an appointment, which is what you want your patient to do, then you ask the question.
“Would you prefer morning or afternoon?”
You are giving your patient a choice, when to schedule an appointment, rather than if they would like to schedule an appointment. See the difference.
Much better!
4. A patient calls to cancel an appointment and you say, “That’s OK.”
Is it OK? No it’s not OK.
Your patient only hears “OK”. Your made it quick, easy and painless to cancel an appointment. Now you wonder why patients do this over and over again!
Better to ask:
“I am so sorry to hear this. Is everything alright?”
You are now trying to find out the reason for the cancellation with an opportunity to provide a solution for your patient to keep their appointment for treatment and care.
Much better!
5. “Have you been here before?”
I often get asked why this is the wrong question to ask when trying to work out if a caller is a new or existing patient.
When you ask this question you immediately tell the caller you have no idea who they are, which is fine with a new patient who you don’t know but it can be awkward for an existing patient who would like to be remembered somehow.
Why not presume every person who calls your practice is an existing loyal referring patient.
You won’t get into trouble making the other person feel like you know them.
Better to ask:
“Hi John, when was you last appointment with us?”
This way you create a level of familiarity thinking the caller has seen you before.
Most new patients at this point in the conversation will jump in and tell you they haven’t been to see you before, without you even asking.
The risk of not remembering a patient is reduced and no one is offended!
So have a good listen to what your team are saying and asking your patients. They may be giving the wrong message to your patients unknowingly.
Start changing the way you communicate with your patients and you will get much better results.
Let me know how you go!
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T H E D E N T A L P H O N E E X C E L L E N C E O N L I N E M A S T E R C L A S S I S H E R E !
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I LISTENED TO YOU and finally my Master Class is here ONLINE just for YOU!
Your team do not need a day off work to attend this Master Class. YOUR TEAM can complete the Dental Phone Excellence Master Class right there in your practice at their own pace. The BEST part of my Master Class is that you have it FOREVER once you purchase the Master Class.
It’s time to say GOODBYE to New Patients calling your office and NO APPOINTMENT ever being made, people calling your office about the price and never making an appointment and your patients continually calling to cancel their appointment!
There are 7 Learning Modules in this Master Class
• Module 1: How to Effectively Communicate with Your Patients
• Module 2: The 8 Steps to the New Patient Call
• Module 3: How to Answer the Questions Callers Ask
• Module 4: Correct and Easy Appointment Scheduling
• Module 5: How to Prevent and Handle Cancellations
• Module 6: How to Follow Up Your Patients
• Module 7: Giving the Very Best Patient Experience
There are a total of 42 Learning Videos and my Checklists, Templates, Scripts and Flowcharts to help support your team’s learning.
This program has been designed to teach dental teams how to communicate more effectively with their patients and get better results.
This Master Class is easy to understand, easy to work through and you can go through the program at your own pace.
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I look forward to seeing you all get the RESULTS you deserve and MORE!
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Call Tracking Excellence
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