Dentaltown February 2018 - 14

howard speaks
column

let's talk about it."
Again, for the average dental off ice,
100 people have to land on your website for
5 percent to call. I bet when you add a video
featuring your doctors, as opposed to just a
stock photo, it could add another 5 percent. I
think that when your office manager or your
treatment plan coordinator talks about money,

Riverside, California

Wyoming Dental Assocation

Next month: Why you need to be able to
talk about budget-based treatment priorities
with your patients.

Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, is an international speaker who
has written books and dozens of articles. To schedule Howard
to speak at your next national, state or local dental meeting,
email rebecca@farranmedia.com.

2018

MARCH
7

APRIL
13

14

Irvine Study Group
Irvine, California

Brace Place Orthodontics
New Jersey

Townie Meeting
Orlando, Florida

APRIL
20

Oklahoma Dental Association

MAY
15

Riverside/Corona Study Club

JUNE
15

Conversion conversations
When potential patients finally call your
office, an average of three people have to call
before one can be persuaded to come in. What
happens if someone calls your office to ask how
much a crown is, and your receptionist says
$1,000? They'll say, "Thank you very much,"
and hang up. Fix that!
Two out of every three people who call
Today's Dental convert to scheduled appointments. Train your receptionists in conversion
techniques. You can do it yourself with the
right background, or there's an entire industry-hundreds of dental consultants-who
specialize in phone training and conversions.
You also can get your current customers
to buy more frequently. At the end of the day,
after you've had eight people come in with
your hygienist in Room 1 for cleanings, do
you check how many of them scheduled to
come back and get their teeth cleaned again
on recall? If it's only six out of eight, you just
lost 25 percent of your practice that day. Fix
that right then, before you go home: Get the
hygienist, receptionist, someone on the phone
to call that person and say, "Hey, you got your
teeth cleaned today and you didn't reschedule
for your next appointment. Let's do that now."
When someone says, "I'd like to come in
and get my teeth cleaned," unless they're an
orphan from a foreign country, chances are
they have family members, too. When are
their appointments? If a mom calls to say she
wants to bring in her daughter who fell down
and bumped her tooth on the coffee table, say
OK and ask if there are any other children,
too-offer to schedule them all to come in
for a cleaning, exam and X-rays. And then
when you're done say, "Now, what about your
husband?" If you can't upsell 1 out of every
5 calls to make an appointment for another
member in their family, you're not even trying. ■

See Howard Live!

FEB.
21

it could add another 5 percent. Try that.

Oklahoma City

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

FEBRUARY 2018 // dentaltown.com
http://www.dentaltown.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown February 2018
