Front office staff are the face of your practice. Whether it’s the FedEx delivery driver, a new patient walking through the door for their first appointment, or a loyal patient of 10+ years, your front office staff set the tone for each person’s experience with your practice. But for most people, the very first interaction with your office won’t be in-person, but on the phone. So, how does your practice sound to prospective patients?
Phone training is one of Prosperity Dental Solution’s critical training services. If your practice is not instructing all front office staff on proper phone etiquette and scripting you should be! Phone training should consist of more than simply how to handle the phone system; every staff member should understand how to clearly deliver valuable information in a courteous, professional way to give a great first impression to every person who calls. This will give your prospective patients confidence that they are making the right decision in a dental provider.
As a full-service dental practice management consultant, Jennifer Pearce can offer the complete services you need to help grow your practice and love your life! Receive one-on-one guidance from a proven leader in dental practice management through our Practice Management Coaching program, along with a la carte services such as Prosperous Annual Planning Team Workshop, Phone Training, New Hire Assistance, and more. Contact our team today to schedule a call with Jennifer!
Not Just a “Hello”
It’s important to view your practice’s phone system as a critical conversion channel that can have a tremendous effect on new patient acquisition and retention. By emphasizing in-depth phone training during new hire training, you’ll show your team members that answering the phone is an important customer service-centric role — not something squeezed in between more meaningful tasks.
Never Underestimate the Basics
As part of our Phone Training coaching, we offer verbiage for both routine and challenging conversations, as well as give an effective case presentation to help instruct by example. However, it’s always a good idea to start with the very basics of phone etiquette. Not all new hires may have extensive experience answering the phone. Therefore, it’s important to ensure basic communication skills are second-nature to those key team members who will be speaking with prospective and returning patients, community members, insurance representatives, and other individuals on the phone. These include:
- Using a warm, friendly tone when greeting the caller.
- Never multi-tasking while speaking on the phone.
- Noting the caller’s name and phone number at the first opportunity.
- Always asking for permission to place a caller on hold before doing so.
- Knowing the next available appointment when answering the phone.
As part of our Phone Training coaching, we role play with your key front office staff, via phone or Zoom Conferencing, to ensure that their phone delivery is giving a positive and professional impression of your office.
Making the Most of Your Phone
For practices who may not fully understand their phone metrics, investing in a phone system that offers added features such as daily call reports, call transcripts, or visual tracking information can help you gain a better understanding of how your patients communicate with your staff. All of these tools can help you increase the effectiveness of your phone channel and provide benchmarks for goal-setting and improvement.
Improve Your Practice’s Phone Performance with Prosperity Dental Solutions
As your practice’s first impression, improving your phone communication performance can mean increased revenues and greater patient satisfaction. But you don’t have to handle it alone; Prosperity can help you achieve it through our Phone Training a la carte service! When you’re ready, send us a message (or, give us a call!).
