More Dental New Patients When We Free Phone Lines
More dental new patients means you must free up your phones! Seriously!! How many new patient calls do you miss each day? You may not have any idea! But chances are.. you are!! Especially during those busy times. And that’s when it happens. When every phone line in the office rings. And patients check-in and others check-out.
Denial is not going to help you here! Take a good look at your office phones! Is there always someone available to answer each and every call? Or is your dental front office team helping in the back too? Maybe the phones are rolling over to voicemail. It could be lunch time. But that is also your lost new patient’s lunch time too! And what about those insurance calls?
Free up phones and watch what happens! Really! It could be that you are missing as many or even more calls as you receive each day! If you think you should be seeing more new patients in the schedule, let’s make a couple of changes. And see if anything happens. Try this for one month and track your new patient numbers. Just be sure you’ve got time set aside in your schedule too!
Someone Must Be Available To Answer The Phones
The phones must always be attended. Always! This is not negotiable. No voicemail during business hours. No sharing the front office with the back office. If anything, it would be in reverse. Share the back office with the front. Especially during your busy times. Whatever that looks like. And if you need someone part-time to support the front and/or back office, do that too! Just be sure it’s covered.
Stagger lunch hour breaks. It’s fun when everyone can have lunch together. I get it! But many businesses take lunch at the same time of day. So, it makes sense to have someone on your phones during lunch time. And maybe this is when you want to have an additional part-time person to help. I have found that the hours of 10 – 2 to be busiest with phones and desk activity. My recommendation is to put extra coverage at the desk during those hours. Even if it comes from within the office team.
More Dental New Patients With Phone Training
Phone training is absolutely necessary! Before any new team member is placed on our office phones, we must provide them with the absolute best we have to offer. Be sure your team can answer your phones with the polish and expertise your patients truly deserve. Because it is our trust and reputation on the line. And our dental office team is a reflection of the training and attention we provide in our business leadership.
