Converting Patients to actual Appointments
Step One:Provide an energetic, friendly salutation when a call comes into the practice. Ex: Thank you for calling (Office)…My name is (name), I can help you.”
Step Two:The prospective new patient will do one of two things…Say “I would like to make an appointment” or ask a question (usually relevant to dental treatment, the doctor(s), location, etc)
Step Three:The front desk should make the appointment or answer the question. Note: If a question is asked, it should be answered succinctly, only with the necessary information to secure the appointment. In most cases, less is more.
Step Four: After answering the question, test close again and ask for the appointment. Ex: Lets say you get a teeth whitening question from prospect on how long it takes: Your response with a test close would be as follows. “Yes, Teeth Whitening takes about an hour and your smile can be up to 6 shades lighter…it can really make a difference …can I schedule you for an appointment?”
Step Five: The process is repeated until the patient makes an appointment or requests to call back whereby you request their name and number to call them back if they haven’t made contact again within 24 hours.
The key to learning this process and being effective is a combination of knowledge, believability and friendliness. Knowledge would be knowing the pricing and details of what you offer at your practice. Surprisingly, most staff members will not give accurate information over the phone when asked. They often do not know of any special pricing or what they should actually say regarding price. Think about it, if someone told you "We don't give out pricing here", would you buy from that place of business. That whole concept makes the office sound shady or over priced and will result almost always in a hang-up. We have yet to meet a dental office that is successful by not giving price or at least a believable explanation as to why an office cannot quote a price or range. These offices still get appointments, but rarely do they realize the amount of lost appointments and opportunites by not providing either a rational reason for not quoting a price or at least offering a Free Consultation where price can be discussed in person. Click Here for help with pricing rationale and scripting.
There is no reason a person who is answering the phone should not know everything about the office and the procedures before picking up the phone. You don't need to know everything but you should know more than the person calling on the phone. Nothing will kill a prospects interest faster than running into a staff member who does not know the details of their own promotion, the actual procedure information and practice details and location of the office. If you cannot competently answer any and all of these necessary topics, then spend the time to learn them and you would be better off with someone else who does answering the phone until you do.
The second part of this equation is attitude and basic customer service. So many front desk people when reviewing calls are shocked at how they really sound to patients over the phone. It doesn't take much in a busy office to really forget your attitude and pick-up the phone with the wrong one. A bad call from a family member, an argument with your child the morning before work, a busy office where you might be short handed all have to be forgotten when the phone rings and a prospect is on the phone for the first time.
When you think about it, whatever you say and do from that point forward could be the difference whether the office lands a big case or loses out to another office who has their act together. We have seen offices lose huge cases just from a front desk persons attitude and not making the prospect feel welcome and needed at the practice. This can mean a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in additional production when not realized and acted on by management.
The solution is simple. Treat every new patient like your best friend who you have not seen in years and treat every call like a new patient. We all like to buy from people we like. So before picking up that phone, a good sales person will turn off any personal issues, tune-out any problems and decide in their minds: "If this is a new patient, I am going to make an appointment and say and do what is necessary to convince them we are the best office they could choose for their needed dental work".
With a warm, inviting attitude full of the proper knowledge, a staff member is ready to handle most of the calls that come in and convert them to patients. With the added gift of persuasion, some people can excel at converting patients with their own style and scripting. However, we offer basic scripts for the most difficult of questions about price that can be converted to work in your own office.
Step Two:The prospective new patient will do one of two things…Say “I would like to make an appointment” or ask a question (usually relevant to dental treatment, the doctor(s), location, etc)
Step Three:The front desk should make the appointment or answer the question. Note: If a question is asked, it should be answered succinctly, only with the necessary information to secure the appointment. In most cases, less is more.
Step Four: After answering the question, test close again and ask for the appointment. Ex: Lets say you get a teeth whitening question from prospect on how long it takes: Your response with a test close would be as follows. “Yes, Teeth Whitening takes about an hour and your smile can be up to 6 shades lighter…it can really make a difference …can I schedule you for an appointment?”
Step Five: The process is repeated until the patient makes an appointment or requests to call back whereby you request their name and number to call them back if they haven’t made contact again within 24 hours.
The key to learning this process and being effective is a combination of knowledge, believability and friendliness. Knowledge would be knowing the pricing and details of what you offer at your practice. Surprisingly, most staff members will not give accurate information over the phone when asked. They often do not know of any special pricing or what they should actually say regarding price. Think about it, if someone told you "We don't give out pricing here", would you buy from that place of business. That whole concept makes the office sound shady or over priced and will result almost always in a hang-up. We have yet to meet a dental office that is successful by not giving price or at least a believable explanation as to why an office cannot quote a price or range. These offices still get appointments, but rarely do they realize the amount of lost appointments and opportunites by not providing either a rational reason for not quoting a price or at least offering a Free Consultation where price can be discussed in person. Click Here for help with pricing rationale and scripting.
There is no reason a person who is answering the phone should not know everything about the office and the procedures before picking up the phone. You don't need to know everything but you should know more than the person calling on the phone. Nothing will kill a prospects interest faster than running into a staff member who does not know the details of their own promotion, the actual procedure information and practice details and location of the office. If you cannot competently answer any and all of these necessary topics, then spend the time to learn them and you would be better off with someone else who does answering the phone until you do.
The second part of this equation is attitude and basic customer service. So many front desk people when reviewing calls are shocked at how they really sound to patients over the phone. It doesn't take much in a busy office to really forget your attitude and pick-up the phone with the wrong one. A bad call from a family member, an argument with your child the morning before work, a busy office where you might be short handed all have to be forgotten when the phone rings and a prospect is on the phone for the first time.
When you think about it, whatever you say and do from that point forward could be the difference whether the office lands a big case or loses out to another office who has their act together. We have seen offices lose huge cases just from a front desk persons attitude and not making the prospect feel welcome and needed at the practice. This can mean a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in additional production when not realized and acted on by management.
The solution is simple. Treat every new patient like your best friend who you have not seen in years and treat every call like a new patient. We all like to buy from people we like. So before picking up that phone, a good sales person will turn off any personal issues, tune-out any problems and decide in their minds: "If this is a new patient, I am going to make an appointment and say and do what is necessary to convince them we are the best office they could choose for their needed dental work".
With a warm, inviting attitude full of the proper knowledge, a staff member is ready to handle most of the calls that come in and convert them to patients. With the added gift of persuasion, some people can excel at converting patients with their own style and scripting. However, we offer basic scripts for the most difficult of questions about price that can be converted to work in your own office.
