You may have heard someone say,
“He was a fast talker.”
This is really code for “you can’t trust him.”
What is one of the most important things to do on the phone?
The answer is to build rapport with the caller and gain their trust.
Have a think. Are you a fast talker?
If you are a fast talker then you have probably not gained the trust of your callers, which has affected the number of appointments you have made for people.
I was recently on the phone talking to a medical receptionist and she spoke to me so quickly that I just felt she didn’t really care about me. I felt as though I was just another caller and she had better things to do with her time than talk to me.
I was not feeling the love!
So have a good look at how your phones are being answered.
It is time to slow down when we answer the phone.
It is also the same for how quickly we talk to patients when we are face to face with them.
This made me think about the purpose of talking.
Talking is to communicate.
Communicating is the ability to translate a message to another person and to be easily understood.
Talking quickly while you are on the phone can result in your message being misunderstood and unclear.
If people on the phone are saying to you:
“I didn’t quite get that.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I am confused.”
“Can you say that again?”
then it is time to think about how fast you are talking.
When you listen to people in the media and how they deliver their message you will notice how they speak slowly and actually pause, between sentences.
The pause is so we can take in what has been said and absorb the message before we move on to the next message.
We should be doing this when we answer the phone in our dental office.
Research has shown that the more we pause when we speak to people, the more they understand and believe you care about them.
Do you think this is even more important when answering the phone in a dental office?
Absolutely it is!
On the phone it is even more important to ensure the caller has understood you and is then ready to make an appointment, otherwise we run the risk of callers not making an appointment.
So slow down, pause, and spend time with the caller.
The caller will appreciate this, like and trust you, and want to make an appointment at your Dental Office.
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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.
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Dental Phone Excellence is a simple to implement complete Phone Answering system I developed that helped me to build an extraordinary dental practice in the heart of working class western Sydney.
If you’d like to know more, download my sixteen page FREE special report “How I Quickly and Easily Went From 35% to 77% New Patient Telephone Conversions, and Doubled The Size of my Dental Practice Along the Way” and discover some of the many costly mistakes being made on your phone…..
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My next public speaking presentation teaching Dental Front office Staff how to improve their phone skills will be held in Perth Western Australia on Friday June 16th 2017.
I will also be presenting in Melbourne Victoria in Friday June 23rd 2017.
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At present I have availability for only 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
