Are You Accidentally Turning New Patients Away?

You may scoff at this question and assume that your office would never turn a new patient away, especially considering how difficult it can be to bring them in. However, you and your staff could inadvertently be turning patients away during the very first phone call or office visit without even knowing it. 

How To Make Sure You’re Welcoming All Potential Patients

There are three main ways to ensure that every patient calling, or visiting your office is being welcomed:

1. How questions are being answered – When a patient calls your office, their very first questions will probably be about insurance issues and cost. However, odds are that the real reason for their call is related to pain or the need for a dental procedure. Instead of teaching your staff to simply answer questions and hang up, make sure they’re asking follow up questions. An example can be “Yes, I can answer your insurance questions. But I’d also like to ask what motivated your call today? What are your concerns about your oral health?” This will immediately allow your staff to bond with patients and answer more in-depth questions.
    
2. How the patient learned about your office – The next question to ask a potential patient is how he or she learned about your office. This will also allow your staff to bond with the patient and to say a few great things about your practice. For example, if your patient found your practice on their PPO list, you can say, “Yes, we have many long-term patients from X Insurance. They love Dr. Smith and I think you will, too!”
    
3. Use names – Once your staff learns the name of the potential patient, make sure they’re using it throughout the phone call, appointment, or other interactions. People love to hear their own names, just make sure you don’t overdo it!

For advice on how to bring in new dental patients, or how to retain the ones you already have, please contact CTC National today. The better you and your staff care for your patients, the more loyalty they’ll have to your practice!