Pricing Questions: Can You Control the Call?

Why Communicating Pricing Information With New Patients Confidently Is Important

When a consumer knows they need specific dental treatment, they may call around to various dental practices to find out an estimate of how much that procedure may cost. Being able to speak to the consumer and engaging with them to build rapport will give you the opportunity to capture their trust and win them as a patient.

When calling in to schedule an appointment with a practice they’ve never been to before, the cost of a procedure may be a major concern to the potential patient. By discussing best practices, you’ll be able to redirect pricing calls in order to take the focus off of the cost of treatment and instead place it back on the value your practice has to offer.

Establishing a Successful Process

Setting Up For Success

Prior to speaking with new patients, ensure that all call handlers have completed their onboarding training as well as any training with SMC National. When call handlers are not properly trained, they lack the confidence needed in order to successfully lead a potential new patient to schedule an appointment.

Call handlers should be equipped with a reference sheet, recommended verbiage examples, and should not be distracted when taking potential new patient calls.

What Is Needed For Success

A Strong Greeting

• • Make sure every call handler knows the routine greeting that is to be used across the office. This should establish consistency.

• “Thank you for calling XYZ Dental, this is (your name), how can I help you today?”

• • Have a reference sheet available for call handlers to utilize while redirecting their call.
    • This should help them know what questions to ask next in order to control the call.

• “Who can we thank for referring you to our practice?” 

• “Is there an insurance you’d like us to courtesy bill for you?”

Rapport Building

• Have questions readily available in order to redirect calls after answering the phone (all-star greeting).
• Do not discuss pricing or insurance questions with potential new patients prior to building rapport.

Conversation Skills

• During phone training, your team members are provided verbiage examples they can utilize while speaking with potential new patients.
• Poor Conversation Skills = Poor Conversion Skills.

Pricing Ranges

• Pricing ranges for common procedures should be clearly outlined on the team’s reference sheet.
• Team members are NOT to provide pricing information prior to building rapport with potential new patients.

Importance of Redirect Questions

When a new patient calls in to schedule an appointment, most of the time they’re going to ask you a question right after you greet them. These questions may sound similar to “How much is an extraction?” or “Can you tell me how much this costs in your practice?” It’s critical that team members know how to handle these questions. When patients ask about pricing, it’s not necessarily about what we say rather than how we deliver it. Here’s two examples:

Example 1:

Call Handler: Thank you for calling XYZ Dental, this is Stacey. How can I assist you today?

Patient: How much is an extraction?

Call Handler: Extractions in our office range depending on if they’re surgical or simple extractions. I can’t give you a price over the phone.

Patient: Oh, alright. I guess I’ll call someone else.

Call Handler: Okay, well give us a call if you change your mind!

Example 2:

Call Handler: Thank you for calling XYZ Dental, this is Stacey. How can I assist you today?

Patient: How much is an extraction?

Call Handler: Great question! Let me look into that for you. While I’m checking, who do I have the pleasure of speaking with today?

Patient: My name is Tom.

Call Handler: Thank you so much Tom, it’s great to meet you! And who can we thank for referring you to our practice?

Patient: I just saw you online.

Call handler: That’s great, did you happen to see our reviews? We’re a #1 rated dentist in our area!

Patient: No, I didn’t. I’ll have to go take a look at them.

Call Handler: You sure will, we just love our patients! Alright Tom, now I know you said you were looking into an extraction. Let me ask you some questions about that! Have you been diagnosed as needing an extraction by a dental provider?

Patient: No, it just hurts really bad and needs to come out.

Call Handler: Oh, I am so sorry to hear it’s causing you pain! Do you happen to know what type of extraction is needed? Or if you’ll require bone graft or a membrane?

Patient: No, I’m not sure about that either.

Call Handler: No worries at all Tom, a lot of our patients wouldn’t know the answer to that. Let’s go ahead and get you scheduled for a consultation with the doctor. We’ll bring you in to meet the team and take a good look at that tooth to see what’s going on. We’ve got an opening today at 3 or tomorrow at 5, which do you prefer?

Patient: Well, I’ll take today at 3 because I’m in so much pain, but can’t you tell me how much it’s going to cost so I’m prepared?

Call Handler:  I understand your concern Tom! Because we don’t know the answers to the questions I was asking you, unfortunately I can’t give you an exact cost for an extraction. Once we get you in here for your consultation, we’ll be able to give you the EXACT cost. Until then, I can let you know that extractions typically range from $300-600 at our practice. Tom, what’s a good callback number for you in case we get disconnected?

When we reflect on these examples, we can see that Stacey was able to confidently lead Tom to an appointment in example #2. In the first example, there was no rapport building or assistance offered for the patient’s concern. Stacey didn’t try to help Tom solve his problem so he’s going to call someone else who will. Most marketing patients will call between 4-5 various offices before deciding to schedule with one. Is your team taking the patient experience to the next level?

Importance of Building Rapport

Think of a time that you called in to make an appointment somewhere recently. Maybe it was for your daughter’s eye glasses appointment. Maybe it was for your routine maintenance oil change. Maybe it was a call to the vet to find Cujo a new veterinary office. When you call various places as a consumer, there’s a certain standard that you expect the team member on the other end of the phone to uphold. If the call handler has a mean tone and sounds like they’re having the worst day of their lives, would you schedule an appointment? Probably not.

Consumers don’t want to speak to Dental Scheduling Robot #592. They want to speak with the team members who are in the practice and are going to know them when they come in for their appointment. By having personal conversations and building rapport with potential new patients, we create a patient experience that is personable and memorable. When your call handlers are friendly and welcoming, patients are enticed to schedule an appointment.

Rapport Building Verbiage Examples

• Do you prefer to be called [FIRST NAME] OR [MR. OR MRS. X]?

• What’s the weather like where you are today?

• Are you originally from [CITY]?

• What I will do for you now is [LET PATIENT KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING FOR THEM].

• This will be fixed for you by [ACCURATE DEADLINE], [PATIENT NAME].

• My name is [NAME], if you need anything at all please feel free to give me a call.

How Much Will It Cost? 

• That’s a common question and we understand that you want to make sure you can fit the cost of the dental care you need into your budget.
  
• We never want there to be any surprises, and if your plan doesn’t cover as much as you expect, we have some financing options that can fill in the gap. 

• When you come in for your appointment, the doctor will see what you need to fix the problem that you called us about today.

• Our goal is to always provide high-quality care at an affordable cost and you’ll find that our prices are right in line with other dentists in this area.

• Once we see what you need, we can talk about all of your options for treatment and the best way to fit any costs not covered by insurance into your family budget. 

• A lot of people prefer a monthly payment plan. We offer [CareCredit, in-house financing, etc].

• We have a lot of options to help you fit the care you need into your family budget.
• We understand that your dental care has to financially make sense for you and your family. Allow our treatment experts help you find the best solution that fits your financial needs.

Providing Pricing Ranges

When potential patients call in to speak with us, they’re already at a certain spot within the buying cycle. These days, most people aren’t calling around asking dental practices how much a crown is for fun! 

As a team member, taking pricing calls can be daunting, especially if they’re not allowed to provide a pricing range as this is commonly what potential patients are seeking. When we as a call handler say, “Unfortunately I can’t provide pricing over the phone,” it’s as if we’re putting up a barrier with the patient before we’ve even had the opportunity to remove it. When team members confidently implement this pricing call best practice, they’re able to successfully lead patients to a scheduled new patient appointment.

Conclusion

The most important thing to remember when speaking with a potential new patient is that this is the first impression of your practice. Utilize this time to build rapport with the caller by actively listening, asking valuable questions, and offering your next available appointment. Cost of treatment is not the priority, getting the patient access to the dental care they need is!