I’ve noticed a few articles doing the rounds
recently about how new patient telephone calls are handled – or
mishandled – in practices. No practice is ever perfect at
answering the phone, and although I know that it’s only the practices
that have a dedicated team member in a quiet room away from the desk who
can handle all calls perfectly every time, I also know that almost all
practices can improve hugely on how they encourage new patients to feel
welcome and ‘safe’ to visit the practice. A brilliant phone
handler can make all the difference to your new patient numbers, patient
expectations and patient satisfaction.
I regularly conduct – or have conducted for me
- mystery new patient calls, and am frequently appalled at how I’m
‘dealt with’ – even by the friendliest and the best receptionists in the
best practices. I know receptionists are busy – but that’s not
the patient’s fault. I’m even more often appalled at the scarcity
of encouraging information and necessary facts I’m provided with by most
receptionists – and that’s not always the receptionists’ fault either.
We need an answer to this problem.
Most thriving retailers now hire permanent
‘mystery shoppers’ to interact with and report on staff attitudes and
behaviour, but the retailers also provide regular in-house training, one
to one guidance and team discussions on how to keep their competitive
edge too. These focus on both product knowledge, and behaviour and
skills training, and both are also necessary in the dental practice. In
no particular order, here’s my top seven most frequent action points
for practices that need to up the game in this respect
- Lose the too-easy-to-switch-on answering service – dental
practices are about relationships and trust, and no patient feels good
when leaving a message.
- Give your reception team a good grounding in what happens to
patients in the surgeries – they need to talk about what’s involved in a
dental health check and hygiene visit with some feeling and knowledge.
- Agree priorities and processes for when a receptionist has two
live patients to deal with and the phone rings. (My view – with the live
patients’ permission, answer the phone, agree to ring back – never ask
to hold – and make sure the ring back happens within 30 minutes or at
the agreed time.)
- Make sure your receptionist has a great opening line about what
happens on a first visit, what it costs, what it entails, and what that
means to patients. (NB it’s NOT a ‘check up and scale and
polish/treatment plan’.)
- Encourage your receptionist to engage with patients – ask them
relevant questions about their dental experiences (and, for example, ‘Is
it just for you, or are there others at home who need to see a
dentist?’) before agreeing a first appointment.
- Be upfront about fees – your patients will appreciate your transparency.
- Practice some new patient calls with your receptionists frequently and agree improvements regularly.
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