It is quite normal to want to know the price of something before you pay for it.

You value your money, you work hard for it and times are getting tough for many people right now.

Then why do we get annoyed when people call our dental office asking about the cost of treatment and care?

Sometimes we even call the people calling our dental office asking for the price, names like, price shoppers and time wasters.

All terms that are not very kind.

You may have been told to hurry up and get these types of callers off the phone quickly.

So how should you be feeling about people who call your office asking for the price of a particular dental treatment?

You should be thinking that every call that comes into your dental office is a person with a dental problem or concern that has the potential to schedule an appointment, keep the appointment, re book treatment needed and their ongoing preventive care appointments, turning the “price shopper” caller into a long term, loyal, referring patient.

So how do your turn “price shopper” calls into valued patients?

The first step is to find out more from every caller.

Before you can properly answer any questions it is always best to gather more information first.

Did you know that a caller’s first question may not even be the most important thing they want to know?

Most callers don’t even know what they need to find out when they call your office.

Most people who call your dental practice have a dental problem and concern that you can help them with but how can you do that if you immediately answer the caller’s question regarding price?

When you immediately answer the price question in the first few seconds of the call, you then have nowhere to go in the conversation.

If the caller loves what you say then you have an opportunity to make and confirm an appointment but you know what usually happens next?

The caller says thank you and ends the call, only to add your prices to their list of comparison prices of all the other dental practices they have called!

You definitely don’t want to be running your dental practice on the hope that a patient believes your fees are cheap and they can’t be bothered making any more calls.

Now this is okay if your fees are the cheapest but you know, and I know that this is a dangerous game to play because someone will always be there to undercut any price or fee you set.

So what do you do? How do you tackle the price question on the phone call?

My advice has been the same for many years after working with many dental offices and seeing my advice work.

Address the price question further into the phone conversation.

I am going to share with you the best technique I have been teaching Dental Teams for many many years.

If you want to start asking your own questions after a caller has asked you an initial question then ask them this:

“John, so I can help you, do you mind if I ask you a few questions first?”

It’s what I call the “flip”.

Flip the conversation so you are the one now asking the questions. The caller then becomes the person answering the questions and doing most of the talking.

You are in control of the conversation.

You are finding out more and you are giving the caller an opportunity to tell their “dental story”.

When you get to hear the caller’s dental story you are now in a position to offer suggestions and the next step.

You can now make and confirm an appointment.

It does sound easy and with the proper training, guidance and practice, it is.

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