Dentaltown April 2020 - 86

just like other teams to understand promotions
and procedures, so they can expertly handle any
questions. To keep staff up to date so they will be
equipped to help patients, hold weekly staff meetings
to brief your team on any active promotions,
resolve problem areas on the phone, and review
staff performance from the previous week.
Reviewing every phone call with every staff
member is not realistic, but every manager can
meet weekly to go over staff performance and
resolve problems.

Ingredient #4:
Long hold times
A long hold can be the difference between a
patient scheduling with your practice or the office
down the road. On average, people lose patience
and hang up on hold after 30 seconds.
No practice trains their staffers to leave
callers on hold, but patients in the office
are often viewed as a priority over a
ringing phone.
However, consider which patient
has more potential value to your practice: the
caller or the person standing in the office? Phone
patients should get priority attention because they're
the least engaged-they have not yet booked an
appointment. The patient in the office, meanwhile,
has already committed to an appointment with
your practice and has already been sold on your
services. By prioritizing a potential patient on the
phone over a patient at the front desk for a few
minutes, you'll eliminate hold time and convert
more calls to booked appointments.

Ingredient #5:
No follow-up
What does patient follow-up look like at
your practice: Do you have a follow-up process
in place? Every practice needs a healthy outbound
calling process to pursue their patients and put
in extra effort. At a minimum, outbound calls
should be made for appointment reminders, recall
efforts and mishandled scheduling opportunities.
What if a potential patient calls to ask about
pricing for a particular service, but doesn't book
an appointment? This is the perfect opportunity
to initiate an outbound call to the patient. It's as
simple as calling to say, "I wanted to follow up
with you in regard to your inquiry about teeth
whitening yesterday. Other than our pricing, is
there anything else we can help you with?"
This reopens the conversation for a potential
appointment booking. It also provides the opportunity to mention any specials your practice is
running, or payment plans your practice offers
that weren't discussed on the initial call.

Last bite
Developing a recipe for excellent patient
experience is crucial for practices that want to
prosper in a competitive market. When done
well, connecting callers, comprehensively answering questions, and providing appointment options
that are most convenient can completely alter a
patient's experience.
Paired with consistent follow-up processes and
limited hold time, your practice will be set up to
stand out in the industry. ■

APRIL 2020 // dentaltown.com

DT0420_Johnson_Phones_AG.indd 86

3/19/20 12:42 PM

http://www.dentaltown.com

Dentaltown April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown April 2020