Why building rapport and identifying important information when speaking with patients is important
There are normally two ways a patient learns about a practice when they call to make a dental appointment. They either found the office online while seeking a dentist in their neighborhood, or they were referred by a friend, family member, or another dental institution. Call handlers must be able to differentiate between each caller and guide the discussion skillfully to establish rapport.
Communicating Effectively
New Patient Phone Calls
Depending on whether the patient was referred to the office or found online, the way team members approach conversations with new patients may vary. Call handlers should always start their responses to incoming patient calls with a 5-star greeting similar to the one below:
- Thank you for calling SMC Dental this is (your name). How can I help you?
- Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?
- Who may we thank for referring you? How did you hear about us?
- Do you have insurance you would like us to courtesy bill to?
- Are there any other family members you would like to schedule for?
Instead of reading from a form, we advise teams to tailor their language to meet their personalities. This makes the interaction more approachable.
Marketing vs. Referred
When using the 5-star greeting, one question that should always be asked is how the patient heard about the practice – and the sooner into the call, the better! The reason we recommend asking this question isn’t that we don’t like specific patients who come from specific leads, but because it can help us speak with them more efficiently.
When you ask a patient how they heard about the practice and they said they were referred by someone, this call is going to be easier to convert into a scheduled appointment. Someone who referred this patient has instilled trust in them already.
Marketing patients are patients who derive from digital leads or other forms of marketing. Oftentimes, they don’t know much about the practice. They’ve gone to Google, typed in “Dentist near me” and your office was probably one of the top four. When a team member asks a patient how they heard about the practice and they say they saw it online, this is a key for that team member to edify the practice. Here’s an example:
“Oh, you saw us online? We love to hear that! Did you happen to see our reviews? Our doctors are 5-star rated dentists on Google. You chose the right place!”
As marketing patients search the web for their new provider, keep in mind this similar to what they might see:
New Patient Appointment
Think about the last time you were a new patient in a practice, whether it be dental or medical. When you arrived for the appointment, did you have a specific expectation of the level of care you were about to receive? When new patients arrive for their appointment, team members must roll out the red carpet for them and welcome them.
Here are some touchpoints that can help the team over-communicate with the patient and build rapport:
- Standing up to greet the patient when they enter the practice
- Offer a refreshment or form of entertainment while they wait
- Chat with them and provide any updates on expected wait times
- Provide clinical team members with information for them to call patients back in a personal way
- Ask questions to build rapport
- How are you?
- How’s your day going so far?
- What brought you in to see the dentist today?
- Can you tell me more about that?
- Get personal with the patient, don’t feel like your conversation can only include dental topics. Is there anything important going on in their life?
- Get excited with the patient. If the office sets a tone of excitement, the patient is sure to feel it.
- Trust Transfers
- Each team member should introduce the next team member who will be assisting the patient before removing themselves from the situation.
- A successful Trust Transfer must have all parties present, including the patient, and must include the patient’s “WHY” as well as any potential barriers they may have regarding moving forward with treatment.
Low Trust Patients
When we think about new patients, we can identify a million different things that can drive them into practice. Is it pain? Do they have cosmetic wants? This will vary for each patient in the practice.
When we talk about Low Trust Patients, these are the patients who don’t have someone referring them into the practice. They’ve gone online, looked at your reviews, and decided to schedule an appointment. Low Trust Patients are scalable and predictable in terms of marketing. While they may not be the target avatar for the practice, they’re a patient who is seeking a dental professional who can assist with their issue.
Low Trust Patients require things to be about them. This is not the place to make conversations about the office or what you’ll need from the patient, they need to know that the office has their ultimate concerns at top priority. Patient education in regards to treatment is going to be incredibly important here – do they understand the treatment fully and why it is necessary?
Authenticity
Patients value getting to know their providers on a personal level. When doctors step into an appointment and are very transactional with their patients, a lot of times they don’t end up establishing a positive relationship. What are some ways your doctor (and the rest of the team) can build a stronger relationship with patients of the practice?
Being authentic is a large area of opportunity for dental practice team members to establish relationships with their patients. A lot of times, team members get so focused on helping patients and making it through the motions that they forget to let their personalities shine through. Patients feel much more comfortable when they’re conversing with another human being. Ask yourself, are the team members in your practice doing any of the following:
- Building relationships with others by bonding over commonalities
- Encouraging productive and open conversations
- Taking the time to get personal with other team members or patients and have conversations outside of dentistry
- Bringing their passions into the practice
If not, as a leadership team this may be a good time to ask yourself if the practice is fostering an environment that allows team members to show up as their true selves.
Trust
Thinking about trust, that’s a word that holds a lot of value. We trust a lot throughout our lives. We trust our alarms to go off and wake us up in the morning, we trust other drivers to respect the space of those driving around them, and we trust our team members to show up and put their best foot forward every single day. Do your patients trust the practice and the providers in the practice?
A lot of times, dental practices get busy and team members are moving through the motions to try and stay on schedule and to keep patients satisfied. An unfortunate aspect of this is it means pleasantries and opportunities to build trust get passed along. When speaking with a patient, every patient, be sure to take the time to:
- Show empathy, an empathetic statement can go so incredibly far
- Make it personal, don’t always jump right into dentistry. Rule of thumb: before you see in their mouth, you should know at least 3 personal things about the patient – and not just what their chief complaint is.
- Maintain eye contact. Anytime you’re facing the patient, hold eye contact with them and get on their level if possible. This helps conversations be less daunting.
- Actively listen. Let the patient speak. When patients can voice their concerns, it creates an environment for your problem-solving team to step in and help them find a solution.
- Don’t treat them like a patient. This is your reminder that patients are human and deserve to be treated as such. If you don’t take the time to get personal and build trust with them, odds are they won’t feel valued or comfortable in the practice and won’t accept comprehensive treatment.
Empathy
Empathy is such an important factor when it comes to dealing with patients in the practice, but oftentimes gets overlooked. As we spend a lot of time in patient care, we can get jaded to the concerns of our patients. Acting with empathy not only fosters an open communication environment but also lets the patient know you understand what they’re going through and will do your very best to help resolve the situation.
Prepare an empathy statement to use in times when you need to build rapport with the patient. An empathy statement is a short phrase that helps team members to establish a connection with the patient they’re speaking with. There are many ways this can look, but here are a few examples:
- I’m so sorry to hear you’re experiencing that.
- I can understand how that would be frustrating.
- I want to make sure that I fully understand your concerns.
- I would feel (insert emotion) too in that situation.
- You’re right.
- I appreciate you providing me with this information.
- I can see how difficult this has been for you.
- I hear what you’re saying.
- It’s totally understandable that you feel this way.
Remember, for empathy statements to be effective, they must come from an authentic, genuine place.
