Well, if they’ve followed some of the suggestions we’ve outlined in the last few articles, our very quiet dental clinic should be less quiet, with prospects coming through the doors.
By way of reminder, in previous articles we have covered engaging potential prospects face-to-face, advertising in the local paper, using social media and letter boxing.
Of course, the prospect of many potential patients flocking through the doors gladdens one’s heart but it’s worth taking a breather and asking, “How will the majority of them come through those doors?”
Very few of them will actually walk through the doors, that’s a metaphorical expression for making contact. Most initial contact will be by phone; web enquiry or email will be a minor part. (Because this practice is located in a shopping centre and it’s convenient it could be expected to have a bigger percentage of “walk in” enquirers than most free standing practices.)
So, a couple of questions are, “How are the team handling the phone?” and “Are the enquiries being converted into appointments?”
The answer to the questions are often “poorly” and “no”.” call.
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What are the phone skills like? Generally team members have been chosen for reasons other than their phone ability and it is assumed they will have the necessary phone skills. In fact, a sad condemnation of most businesses is that managers rarely ensure all team members have been trained to answer the phone properly, particularly the new prospect enquiry.
Properly trained, the conversion rate of enquiries to business should be at least 80% and reach almost 100% where the team take it seriously and have a mantra of “this is the way we do things around here!”
The questions: There are three cardinal questions which must be asked when a phone enquiry is received. In the case of the dental clinic, they are:
- How did you find out about us? We need to ascertain this to find out the source of the business, so we know which of our marketing efforts are working and/or to reward referrers.
- Tell me, how much do you know about dentistry? This is a great question because the prospect will often answer something like “not much” or “it’s painful” and that allows the call taker to control of the conversation by responding “well that’s great, but there are three important things you should know about going to the dentist.” Almost invariably the caller will ask what they are…
- What are your contact details? Always get at least name and phone number. It’s almost a mortal sin not to get this information because, when an appointment isn’t achieved, a follow up call a few days later will often result in an appointment.
A great script: As this post is already turning into a small novel, next time I’ll have a look at how these questions can be put together in a form that the team are happy to use in dealing with the dreaded, “How much is that?” call.
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