Important tips –

Step 1: Promptly Answer All Calls

Once a potential patient has decided to explore your services, every interaction must facilitate their journey to a “yes.”

This usually begins with their first phone call to your office.

To make the best first impression and avoid losing a potential patient, ensure your staff makes it a priority to answer all calls promptly.

This will be the first point of contact any new patient has with your clinic, so you need to ensure your staff is addressing each call politely and professionally.

For an added personal touch, have your staff note their own name when greeting callers in addition to your clinic’s name.

Step 2: Make Scheduling an Appointment Easy

During this first call, the prospect may be ready to schedule an appointment without prompting.

Make the process straightforward.

Gather only information that is absolutely necessary for booking the appointment over the phone; you can request more detailed information when they arrive for their appointment.

For deciding on which appointment time to offer them, have your staff ask what days or times are most convenient for the patient before offering options.

Doing so will allow you to offer better times that suit the patient’s schedule and will cut down on time deciding on an appropriate appointment slot.

The more your staff impresses potential patients on this first call, the more trust these patients will place in you during their first in-person consultation.

Step 3: Properly Train Staff to Handle Patient Questions

Many potential patients may have questions about your procedures and prices during this first call.

These questions must be answered with great care. This first point of communication will go a long way to solidifying their expectations in terms of trustworthiness, outcome, and cost, so staff training is crucial.

All staff must be a great ambassador for your practice, so training those who will be answering the phones using standard examples of the kinds of calls they may receive can be very beneficial.

Bonus Tip: Hire a Care Coordinator

You may decide that any questions beyond the most routine FAQs should be handled by a specially trained staff member or patient care coordinator.

While all staff must professionally represent your clinic to prospective patients, your care coordinator should be the go-to person for anything above and beyond basic questions.

A care coordinator essentially serves as a sales person.

He or she must represent your philosophy and have a deep understanding of the treatments your clinic offers, being able to answer all questions, make suggestions to the prospective patient, and eventually book them in for a professional consultation.

In other words, your care coordinator speaks to prospective patients on your behalf to establish a relationship you will continue to develop in your consultations and subsequent treatment sessions.