We always want to be able to talk to our patients when we call them but as we all know in this busy world of ours…..it is NOT always the case.
Leaving your patient a message when you have so much you want to ask them to help them stay on track with their Dental Treatment can be daunting.
What do you say?
Do you say this? Or that?
Do you want them to call you back or do you keep calling them until you drive them crazy?
Your Front Office needs to be able to leave a great message for your patients.
You need a message that will create curiosity and has a call to action for the patient to call you back straight away.
So that when the patient calls you back you have control of the call. They *will* need you to help them.
Never leave a message with no call to action. If you leave a message that you have called with no reason for the call, then they will usually NOT call you back.
Leave a message that gets your patient thinking.
For a patient who has no scheduled appointment for their treatment that has been planned for them, leave a message “regarding their appointment”. When they call you back letting you know that they have no appointment, you can then tell them that you are aware they have no appointment and then go ahead and make one for them.
A bit tricky?
Yes!
But the outcome is what you wanted and what your patient needed.
The message you leave will have 2 outcomes:
- Your patient will ignore it and not call back
- Your patient will call back
Do you know which messages your Front Office team are leaving for your patients?
The messages need to be carefully thought out and the best words chosen for the right outcome.
Leaving a “confirmation message” message is always a great example.
Think about the outcome you want. You need to let your patient know you are looking forward to seeing them at their appointment. At no point in the message do you want the patient to think you are checking to see if they are still coming to their appointment. You need to believe when you leave that message that you know they are coming in for their appointment and they will be on time.
It is very easy to leave a message that the patient then interprets that it is ok for them to reply with a cancellation.
When this type of message is left you actually lead your patient to make a choice as to whether they will keep their appointment or cancel it.
Your Front Office team could actually be helping your patients make cancellation calls.
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
