No, it’s not say goodbye and head to the bathroom! Even though this is exactly what most patients do.
After every appointment your patient should leave:
- With a next appointment
- Pay for the appointment they have just had.
Simple and easy to do.
Now the tricky part is to make sure it is done in the right order.
First make your patients next appointment and second, take their payment.
I see so many dental teams do it the other way around.
Even though we know all our patients should be ready to make their next appointment or check the date and time of their Hygiene Appointment, it is still important to do this first.
If you take the patient’s payment first then there is an open gate to leave without making the next appointment.
You probably know what I mean. You may have heard your patients say this:
“That’s OK I will call you and make the next appointment later.”
“I need to check my diary when I get home.”
“I’m in a rush, I haven’t got time to make the appointment now.”
“I don’t know what I am doing.”
Now I know that not every patient will do this, but it is amazing how many will.
There is nothing keeping the patient in front of you as they have made their payment and it is time to head out of the door.
The other reason it is a good idea to make the appointment before taking the payment, is because the discussion with the Dentist about the next appointment, is still fresh in their mind, so it makes sense to do it now.
If the patient needs no appointment for ongoing treatment with the Dentist, they will have another appointment that was made previously after their last preventive care appointment with Hygienist, OHT or the Dentist..
Check the date and time in the appointment book with the patient.
This is now not the time to make any changes to this appointment so don’t suggest it to your patient.
Avoid saying, “Is this time still suitable to you?”
This appointment has been confirmed already when the appointment was made so leave it there.
“Your appointment with Mary, your Hygienist is confirmed for…..….at…..
Now is the time take your patients payment.
Now you can say goodbye to your patient and they will head to the bathroom!
The next Master Class in Melbourne is “How to Turn Every Dental Phone Call Into A Valued and Kept Appointment” on Friday 31st August 2018.
Click here on this link to register.
Click here for information on Melbourne.
This Master Class is followed by Brisbane and Sydney
Brisbane Master Class- Friday 12th October 2018.
Click here on this link to register.
Sydney Master Class- Friday 16th November 2018.
Click here on this link to register.
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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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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
