The moment you end the New Patient phone call and the appointment has been made there are three things that can happen.
1. The New Patient will be looking forward to their upcoming Appointment and understand how important it is.
2. The New Patient will start to forget about how pleasant and engaging you were on the phone and what you chatted about.
3. The New Patient will have second thoughts about the importance of their Appointment and will call you to cancel.
How can you prevent the last two scenarios?
How can you reduce the New Patient Cancellations?
What does your Front Office Team do immediately after the New Patient Appointment is made?
What do they do again between that call and the actual New Patient Appointment?
Is your Front Office Team making the Appointment for the New Patient, and then doing nothing?
Are they just crossing their fingers and hoping the New Patient will keep that appointment?
Your office should always have a Next Step and another Next Step to follow once the Appointment is made.
What should you do?
You made a great First Impression on the Phone and that in itself was a big part of why the caller chose to make an appointment at your Dental Office.
Now send a Welcome Email or SMS as soon as you’ve finished on the phone after making their Appointment. You will surprise and impress your New Patient even more.
I recently visited Universal Studios in Orlando. Four Weeks before our booked date I started receiving emails anticipating my big day out there. The emails started to get me excited in anticipation and I really began looking forward to my upcoming visit. I even told people about the emails, simply because I never ever expected to receive them.
Your New Patient may not have the same anticipation about visiting the Dentist as I did about visiting Universal Studios (the ride in the Dental Chair is nowhere near as exciting), but keeping in touch with your customers in advance of their visit can be very similar!
There was no way I was going to be getting my days mixed up. And Universal was reminding me leading up to the event.
Calling your New Patient prior to their appointment, to check they received their Welcome Email/SMS is another great touch point that you can use. On this call you can cover any last minute questions the New Patient may still have.
Start doing this in your Dental Office and watch the difference in your numbers.
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
