When Dentists reach out to me for help the one thing I notice that all the offices have in common is no real system. By system I mean a set way things are followed consistently so everything works and is interconnected.

A system that is in place, fully understood and is easy for everyone to follow means more appointments are made.

Many front office teams struggle because they do not know what to do and say consistently so everyone is doing something slightly different with no common goal for the practice and the patients.

In other words: chaos!

Having no real system in place not only causes chaos and disarray, but the team start to feel they are not achieving and they are failing in their job.

I am not too sure how the front office team can ever be expected to meet the Dentist’s expectations if they have no system to follow.

I especially see this failure to perform and get results when the phone is being answered in the Dental Office.

The Front Office team does not know what to say and ask callers on the phone, so sometimes up to 80% of all incoming calls are not converted to appointments.

In other words 80% of your potential business is being given away. Turn this 80% into real dollars of revenue and it is shocking. Even more shocking is the Dentists that do not even know what this percentage is.

Having a system so your team knows what to say and ask patients when they are on the phone must be number one on your list of priorities, to effectively run a dental office.

A Systematic way to answer the phone needs to include the following steps

• What to say when the phone is first answered

• How to determine who is a New Patient

• What to ask the patient to find out what they need and want

• What to ask the patient to create urgency and concern

• How to capture important information and contact details

• How to make and confirm the appointment time so it suits the patient and your appointment book

Once everyone on the Front Desk knows the correct steps to answering the phone then they will experience more success making appointments.

This blog features 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 two 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