Communicating Confidently With Patients When Leading Them To Their Appointments Is Crucial.
When calling to schedule an appointment with a practice they’ve never been to before, a potential new patient might be concerned about how quickly they can get an appointment. Being able to speak to the patient and engage with them confidently, you have the opportunity to capture their trust and win them as a patient.
When a patient calls into a dental practice to schedule an appointment, typically they’ll hope to be seen within three business days. By being mindful of best practices, you’ll be able to build rapport with these potential new patients and establish relationships with them in order to control the call.
Fostering Relationships
Building Rapport with Patients
Think about a time when you called to schedule an appointment for yourself, as a consumer. Maybe you called to schedule your own dental appointment, schedule a veterinary appointment for your pet, or called a salon to schedule a haircut.
- How did the representative on the other end speak to you, and how did it make you feel?
- Were they able to schedule you when you were hoping to come in for your appointment?
- Were they friendly and conversational?
When scheduling new patient appointments, you may need to work a bit harder if you know your practice is experiencing a capacity issue where patients may have to wait longer than 24-72 hours. It’s up to you to set a strong first impression for the practice, build rapport with the caller, and lead them to a successfully scheduled appointment. What does this look like?
A Strong Introduction
Oftentimes, when new patients call in, they ask what we refer to as a “Bait Question”. We call it a bait question because if we as the call handler address the patient’s question right away, we often don’t end up successfully scheduling the call. We recommend utilizing an “All-Star Greeting” at the beginning of each phone call in order to build rapport with the caller, gain control of the call and lead them to an appointment.
For more information on an All-Star Greeting, please review this document: All-Star Greeting
Reducing No-Shows
If your office has a capacity issue and is booking out a bit further than usual, communicating with patients is of utmost importance. There are a few tips and tricks you can implement in order to reduce the number of patients not showing up for their appointments.
- Schedule patient’s within 24-72 hours when possible
- We know this isn’t always an option, but the best results will be within 24-72 hours.
- Set your practice apart by being so personable and conversational on the initial phone call, the patient can’t help but remember you and your office!
- The tone of the first phone call is what sets the first impression for the practice. Be sure to be upbeat, friendly, and engaging!
- Have a solid confirmation process and keep the team accountable.
- Each patient should be communicated with several times prior to their appointment. If they’re unconfirmed, the team should be emailing, texting, calling, etc in order to reestablish that contact between the office and the patient.
- Patients should be informed of any cancellation requirements during the confirmation of an appointment. Does your team ask for 48 hours of notice prior to rescheduling any appointment? Let them know!
- Use the confirmation process as an opportunity to train new patient’s on what to expect from you and what you expect from them from the very start of your relationship.
- Welcome Calls
- Welcome calls are such a golden opportunity for practices to build rapport, strengthen the first impression made of the practice, and transfer trust to the team in the office.
- More information on Welcome Calls here: Welcome Calls
- Remember the 3 E’s (Energy, Empathy, and Edification)
- Energy refers to the tone that we bring to the call. Be honest with yourself, are you answering the call in a kind, polite, energetic way? Or are you feeling rushed and ready to get off the phone?
- If a patient is having an issue such as pain, offering empathy goes a long way.
- This can be something as simple as saying “I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing this!”
- Edification is a fancy way of saying “BE YOUR TEAM’S HYPE-MAN!”. It’s up to the call handler on the phone to paint a picture of the treatment they’ll be receiving in the practice, and what better way to do that than to talk about how amazing your team is?
- This can be something as simple as, “I know you’re feeling overwhelmed with the pain you’re experiencing. The great news is our doctors are 5-star rated dentists on Google, and they’ll do everything they can to help alleviate that pain for you!”
