Patients don't love being in the office. So, how do you get them to come in — and to come back? There are two things you can focus on for that to happen, and Kirk Behrendt brings back Miranda Beeson, ACT’s director of education and amazing coach, to share those secrets. By mastering the new patient phone call and new patient visit, you will create raving fans who help your practice thrive. To learn how to give patients the “wow” experience, listen to Episode 735 of The Best Practices Show!
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Episode Resources:
Main Takeaways:
Quotes:
“We want to make sure that this new patient experience makes other people's feelings count. How you make others feel matters more than anything you say or the beautiful crowns that you do. Getting them in quickly and efficiently, all those things are really, really important. But how you make them feel, and whether that's a positive or a negative, and influencing their decision-making is very important.” (5:43—6:05) -Miranda
“We're looking to build raving fans and patient loyalty. Every patient that walks through our door is going through that customer journey, that buying cycle for the services that we're providing, and we want to build raving fans. We have to create an experience that is elevated and leaves an impression — a positive impression — upon them in order to make that happen.” (6:51—7:11) -Miranda
“Your brand is on the line because every patient that calls your office and every patient that walks through the door is going to leave saying something about their experience — and we want it to be positive.” (7:25—7:36) -Miranda
“Do we have a healthy culture? Does everyone on our team support what we're all about here and what we're doing? If we aren't in a good place or we do have tensions, new patients feel that. Existing patients feel that. So, the team being aligned, knowing what we're doing and how we're going to do it, and then having that really trusting, strong, supportive culture behind it all is going to make for these experiences that foster strong patient relationships. They're going to want to be in your practice.” (9:13— 9:38) -Miranda
“Those of us who have been in dentistry for 20-plus years, it's easy to say, “At this point, I'm just showing up.’ But if we go into the day with intentionality, that we're going to do something a certain way to create a certain outcome or a certain experience, we're going to deliver a different level of care and a different level of experience. There's enormous power in being deliberate and strategic about our daily activities rather than just on autopilot. I could do a prophy with my eyes closed, at this point. But is that creating an experience for my patients if I'm sitting chairside? No. So, we have to move out of that autopilot comfort zone, and sometimes we have to align as a team and push ourselves to try something new or something different.” (9:55—10:37) -Miranda
“The phone is such a powerful tool in your office. A successful new patient call is really critical to, one, that patient deciding if they're going to be coming into your practice or not. And two, they're immediately forming an impression or opinion of what they think about you. Now, they could be coming to you from a myriad of different ways. It might be another patient in the practice sent them to the practice, and they're going to already have a little bit of trust built. It might have been a Google search for “dentists near me” and they're starting at ground zero. So, the way that we communicate during that new patient phone call is going to help us elevate or maybe even break some of the trust that we're starting to build, literally from the word hello.” (13:24—14:06) -Miranda
“A poorly handled phone call can cause risk to your reputation and risk to building that patient value and building your patient base.” (15:33—15:41) -Miranda
“The impressions that you leave matter a lot . . . It starts with a gracious greeting. When you're answering the phone, what does it sound like to the person on the other end? First impressions matter. So, if you have a warm, welcoming, positive, uplifting tone — you led in right at the beginning of the webinar with that concept of tone and how we sound and how we make people feel. You want to use your name when you're answering the phone. You want to use the practice’s name. Make it very clear. But the most important thing is how your tone and how your pace of that introduction are meeting the patient.” (16:48—17:30) -Miranda
“I'm a little bit of a stickler for language. So, I don't like, ‘How can I help you?’ I like, ‘How may I help you today?’ There are these little tendencies from “can” to “may” that elevate the conversation. But having an idea of how we're going to answer the phone, and what does our tone and our volume and our pace sound like? It's awesome to have a little mirror clipped to the side of your computer so that you can see your own self. Smile. Sit up straight when you answer the phone. Because if you're multitasking and you're taking this phone call and feeling like it's a burden, I guarantee you the person on the other end can hear it too.” (17:38—18:17) -Miranda
“We should be grateful for every patient that's calling the office. I often say the doctor doesn't pay you, the patients pay you. If there are no patients showing up to your practice, do we even have jobs anymore? So, we can't look at the new patient calling — or any patient calling — as a burden or something that's disrupting our agenda or the checklist we're working through for the day. We have to look at that phone ringing and be grateful. I am grateful that a new patient is calling right now because I want to be able to help them, and I know it's also going to help our practice. So, approach it from an intentional standpoint of gratitude and have warmth, positivity, and enthusiasm when we pick up the phone.” (19:54—20:37) -Miranda
“We have to discover what the patient's needs, desires, concerns, and expectations are to help drive them into the right path in which they're going to join the practice.” (25:12—25:22) -Miranda
“Don't sell dentistry. Sell relationships.” (27:51—27:53) -Kirk
“You want to focus on reserving time, really summarizing what's going to be happening during that visit, how long [patients] are going to be here. I often say that you should say how long they're going to be in the chair at least three times. I say that because I was a dental hygienist, and anyone that's listening that works in the clinical part of the office knows that patients will tell you, ‘Well, I only have 20 minutes today. No one told me that I was going to be here for an hour.’ My new patient visits were two hours, as a hygienist, and the number of times it was like, ‘Well, I didn't plan on being here for two hours,’ but I know that our admin team mentioned it at least three times because it's part of our system. They're always going to rely on you not actually having a system or communicating those things. It happens all the time, clinically.” (32:30—33:14) -Miranda
“Most of your patients have family members, and most of them have teeth. What an incredible opportunity to bring in a great family that way.” (34:22—34:30) -Kirk
“If nothing else, it’s planting a seed for them that, ‘Your whole family is welcome here. It doesn't have to just be you.’ So, that's a bonus, not only asking them to schedule but also asking them, ‘Who else within your family might we be able to schedule for you?’” (35:01—35:14) -Miranda
“Potential patients are often calling multiple offices. We want to be the one that stands out, and the three A's that can help a lot in this part of it is active listening through demonstrating focused attention. We talked about patients can hear when you're multitasking. You want to really dig in and be focused and giving your full attention to this caller at this time. Your attitude is really important throughout this call, and they can hear that attitude. We talked about an attitude of gratitude when we pick up the phone. We want them to feel like we're really grateful that they called, and that we're enthusiastic, and this is a positive experience because they can feel that through the phone.” (36:12—36:55) -Miranda
“We do have to be able to adapt. A lot of times, we have a system or a checklist or an agenda that we're following as administrative team members answering the phone. But every now and then, we need to shift gears. We have to shift gears and we have to meet the needs of the person on the other end of the phone. So, if we're giving our full attention, we're demonstrating a really positive, enthusiastic, grateful attitude and adapting as need be throughout that call, it's going to be a different experience than what they're getting when they're calling other offices and possibly inquiring about joining as a new patient. And even if you are out-of-network, they still might choose to come see you because they can tell it's going to feel different.” (36:56—37:36) -Miranda
“I've actually heard, listening to new patient calls, like, ‘Well, let me just get this in the computer. Give me a minute while I pull up the computer.’ And if I'm on the other end of the phone for that, the computer feels more important than I do, in that moment. You getting it in the computer is your biggest goal, not helping me and figuring out a little bit more about me.” (38:52—39:09) -Miranda
“That new patient intake form, which is the last piece on this resource, you want it to be a bright, bold piece of paper. Now, some people are “green”. We want to be concerned about using too much paper. So, laminate it and use a dry erase marker. That's fine. But you want it to be a piece of paper. You're writing down, and you're focused. If we're tapping away on the computer, and if you work in an office where you get Yappy or Weave pop-ups, now you're typing and you're entering their information and you're also distracted by the text message that just came in from the patient you've been waiting to hear back from. No. We want to give all of our focused attention. So, using this bright-colored piece of paper so that everyone who walks up front knows they're on an important phone call right now — we need to give them that undivided attention with the patient and we're writing it down. We're not tapping away. We're building connection. It's really all about building connection.” (39:16—40:05) -Miranda
“The logistics have to come last . . . If we jump right into, ‘When was your last dental visit? Will you be able to have X-rays sent over? Can you give me your birthday and email and social security number?’ and all of these things when we haven't built a connection or started to build a relationship with the patient — they're not even sure yet if you're the right fit for them and they're giving you their social security number. That's pretty private information. So, we want to leave the logistics for last.” (40:06—40:31) -Miranda
“We want to make sure that we collect these logistics last. Same thing with insurance. They're going to ask questions about insurance. They're going to. It's part of the process. But we're an insurance-friendly practice. Whether we're in-network, out-of-network, or fee-for-service, ‘We are an insurance-friendly practice, and we're going to help you maximize your benefits.’ It's as simple as that. So, we can address that at the top of the call, and then let them know that we're going to reserve some very specific time to customize and learn about their particular policy before we get off the phone today. So, again, it's still at the latter part of the call. Relationship at the top. Let's make some connection first. Build value and differentiate ourselves. And then, we can move into collecting all of that really important data that your office will determine are the most important pieces that you need when scheduling a new patient.” (40:54—41:45) -Miranda
“The more you talk about insurance, the more your patients are going to care about insurance. So, minimizing that insurance conversation is certainly going to set the tone for how we function around or within insurance here in this practice. We're not going to ignore it. It's a very important thing, and we do want to maximize benefits for our patients. ‘We're going to be here. The liaison is doing all the legwork to help you maximize the benefits that you can from your plan. We just want to make sure that you know that it's not always the most important thing in decision-making when it comes to choosing a new provider or determining if you want to move forward with dentistry.’” (43:09—43:43) -Miranda
“We want to make patients feel welcome. We want to roll out the red carpet. We want to have a fresh welcome mat. I often encourage teams to think about a new patient joining your practice — and really, an existing patient should get some sweet treatment too. We're welcoming them in as their hosts. We want to make them feel very warm and welcome, and we want them to feel like they're a special guest. So, we want to welcome them with enthusiasm. Be prepared for their arrival. Know when new patients are on the schedule and be ready when they show up. Share new patient information at your team huddle in the morning. ‘At 10:00, we have a new patient, Mrs. Jones, coming in. She is leaving a practice that she was in for 40 years, so she's a little nervous about finding a new provider. Let's give her a nice, warm welcome today.’ And now, the whole team is ready around 10:00 a.m. to be on the lookout for Mrs. Jones and make her feel really warm and welcome when she shows up in the practice.” (45:03—46:00) -Miranda
“If you know [your new patient is] showing up at 10:00 and you can see that she has or hasn't submitted her new patient forms just yet, have everything as ready as possible right then and there. Let's not scramble around and look like we don't have our act together when she walks through the door and says, ‘Hi. I'm Mrs. Jones, your new patient.’ We want to know she's showing up at 10:00, be ready for her to walk through the door, and say, ‘Mrs. Jones! Welcome to the office. I have everything you need right here,’ or, ‘Thank you so much for completing all of your paperwork online. That was amazing. Gold star, right off the jump. So glad to have you.’ When you know what time they're scheduled and you're eagerly awaiting their arrival, it makes them feel special.” (46:01—46:43) -Miranda
“You want to make it a personal experience. You want to make it a warm, welcoming experience. You don't want them to feel like just a number because, ultimately, the type of practice that you're creating — if you are trying to differentiate yourself and if you are building an excellent, elevated new patient experience, I would venture to guess you're trying to differentiate yourself from the guy down the street. You want it to be a customized, personalized experience. So, we want to provide a very personal approach when they first introduce themselves into the office.” (47:29—47:59) -Miranda
“Just picture it. You walk in as a new patient, and somebody is on the phone, and they're writing something down, and they're shuffling things around, and you're kind of an afterthought, versus they walk through the door, and that person looks up, conveys genuine gratitude, ‘You must be Mrs. Jones. I'm Miranda. We spoke a couple of weeks ago when you made your appointment. I'm so glad you found everything okay. You're right on time. This is awesome.’ Better yet, if you can stand up to greet them — if you can. If your facility or your physical space allows for you to stand up.” (48:30—49:05) -Miranda
“What does our office look like from the patients’ perspective? Is the office clean? Is the front desk area organized? I'm going to sit on a little mountain top here for a minute, a little pedestal. The number of times that I've walked into a medical office myself and there are cups everywhere, Stanleys, their lunch wrapper is still sitting up there, and they have their snacks out on the counter, and piles of stuff everywhere — that doesn't make me feel super confident that this office is clean and organized and professional.” (49:50—50:24) -Miranda
“You can walk around the office. You can walk through the door and pretend that you're a new patient. What do I see? What do I see in the reception area? What do I see when I look over the counter at my admin team who would be greeting the new patient? What's the body language of the person who's sitting at the front desk, that admin team member who's checking patients in, your patient care coordinator or scheduling specialist — whatever you might call them in your office because they're not a “front desk”. What is the body position of that person? How are they greeting people? What does that tone sound like? So, just like we can listen to our calls and evaluate the experience that our patients are having on the other end of the phone, we can also evaluate the practice and that entire arrival sequence to determine what we're setting that patient up for from their perspective.” (50:28—51:18) -Miranda
“When you sit down or walk through [your office], you're just looking at what you're doing. [Your patients] sit down, and they start looking up, looking around, and looking at the floor. They are going to look and see if there's dust accumulated in the corner. They're going to notice — a lot of offices have those LED lights with the flat cover — if there are little flies laying in there. I know that sounds gross and super minutiae, but a patient sees that and they're docking. Right? They're docking points with every little thing that they see around the office.” (53:11—53:42) -Miranda
“How are we going to create a “wow” new patient experience? We might work on that with a team, and they're thinking like, ‘We'll get blankets with our logo on them.’ And it's like swag. It's an investment. Well, we can't always invest in things like that in bulk. You could invest literally nothing on certain things and make a huge impact in that new patient experience. So, when you said costs nothing, costs a little, costs a lot — great. Make a list. But cleaning up the front door and making sure it doesn't have smudge marks all over it when someone walks through costs nothing but your time.” (54:50—55:25) -Miranda
“Stop labeling your patients. This is a simple one too. A lot of times, we judge our patients before we even know their story. Maybe they're a little irritating. Maybe they don't seem that friendly. Maybe we're judging their outward appearance when they walk through the door. Every single person that walks in, every new patient that shows up in your office — and again, a lot of this applies to your existing patients too — we want to make their experience about more than just a dental appointment. To do that, we have to eliminate bias, and we have to look at them as human beings with their own backstory, with their own feelings, with their own agendas, and perspectives. And so, let's stop labeling our patients and leave that judgment at the door. Let's get to know them. Let's uncover what they're really all about.” (55:56—56:34) -Miranda
“Know their preferred name. That's something you can add into your new patient intake form. ‘Mrs. Jones, when you arrive on March 5th at 3:00 for your two-hour visit, how would you like for us to greet you? What name do you prefer?’ She may say, ‘I actually prefer you to call me Mrs. Jones.’ She might say, ‘Please call me Kim.’ Once we know that, we can use that name over and over, and it's a much more personal greeting than just, ‘Hi. What's your name?’ Because a lot of times it's like, ‘Sign in here,’ or, ‘What's your name?’ and we don't even realize like, ‘Oh, this is our new patient. We should be wowing that person right now.’” (56:44—57:19) -Miranda
“Make sure that we're paying attention to time, bringing them back on time. If they showed up on time and we're expecting them to honor that time, we want to thank them for their prompt arrival and we want to bring them back on time. If, for some reason, we're not on time, we need to let them know so that they're not sitting there wondering like, ‘What happened? I was supposed to be in at 10:00. It's 10:05 now. It's 10:10.’” (57:27—57:50) -Miranda
“When we bring them back, let's do an office tour. This doesn't have to be elaborate. It can literally be just pointing a few things out that build value in the practice on the way to the operatory. You don't necessarily have to walk them around if you have a big facility, the whole circle into the consult room and into the bathroom. But along the way, if you see another team member in the hallway, ‘Oh, Julie. This is Mrs. Jones. She's a new patient with us today.’ And Julie gives her a warm smile. We pass our 3D printers, and we can talk about how we do innovative technology here in the practice to make sure that we're always up to par on what the newest, latest and greatest things for our patients are. We can show them, ‘We have an open bay for our sterilization area because we always want to be really transparent with you about the cleanliness and safety in our office.’ These can be little mentions that you do as you're walking the patient back to the operatory or to the consult room to talk with them.” (57:51—58:51) -Miranda
“Whether it be a short tour or a little bit more of a comprehensive tour, practice it. Do it with great intention. Don't do it as an ad hoc thing.” (58:55—59:03) -Kirk
“We're not just getting the patient to our room. We are, with intention, building value with every step in the process, which includes that walk to our operatory.” (1:00:04—1:00:14) -Miranda
“Skills practice is really, really important. Take turns at a team meeting going through what that office tour looks and sounds like. A lot of patients — we all know they're anxious. How many times do we hear, ‘I hate the dentist’? Like, thank you. Appreciate that. They don't love being in the office. So, this is something that — we don't rush into that operatory where all the vulnerability is. It creates familiarity. It relieves some tension. They can see where they need to go, where the bathroom is. All the exits are clearly marked, and they have a little bit of safety, security, and familiarity before they get themselves into the operatory into that more vulnerable position.” (1:00:17—1:01:02) -Miranda
“This doesn't have to be complex, but we want to possibly consider a new patient interview. Now, sometimes people do build these into very intentional questions. We sit in a consult room before we move to the operatory. And so, it certainly can be complex. There's a lot of science behind taking our time to get to know someone prior to going into the op. It can also be something that we do chairside. Maybe we don't have a consult room, and maybe hygienists see the new patients first. But rather than jumping right into the FMX, we take three to five minutes and we ask a few open-ended questions to better understand the patients’ needs, preferences, and expectations. It actually surprises patients quite a bit when you ask them these questions because people don't ask these questions. So, if you want to differentiate yourself, stop and ask them, ‘What do you want out of me today? What's something that's happened in your past at a dental office that wasn't pleasant so that I can be sure to not repeat that? What are you hoping that you're going to get out of your visit today? What expectations do you have for today's visit?’” (1:01:59—1:03:02) -Miranda
“If we want to have a patient-centered practice, a relationship-driven practice, then we want to make sure we're learning about the patient as much as possible, asking open-ended questions, listening, and learning.” (1:04:34—1:04:46) -Miranda
“A couple of language options. ‘So that I can serve you best today, what are your expectations for your visit? What would you need from us to feel comfortable today? What are your goals for your oral health?’ You can say things a million different ways. These are a few that come top of mind that I've used over the years or that I've heard from my teams that I work with that work really well. I really like, ‘What would you need from us to feel comfortable today?’ because that could be as simple as like, ‘Keep me posted. Let me know each step. I get a little nervous, so let me know what's coming next.’ Or it might be a blanket. It might be a neck pillow. It could be something really simple. And just that one little thing, if we hadn't asked — we delivered a “wow” now that we wouldn't have otherwise known was even available to us.” (1:05:07—1:05:53) -Miranda
“We want to deliver personalized care. Every patient is unique and wants to feel special, so we need to customize treatment plans to those specific needs and goals.” (1:06:01—1:06:10) -Miranda
“A lot of our patients do have phobias. It's important to uncover that during this new patient experience, if so, so that we can do modifications like hiding the syringe and not making it very obvious when we're loading it up. It's like, right there in front of their face. We want to make sure that if they need stress balls, or they like quiet — maybe we know they like headphones. Knowing if they're phobic or not — which a lot of people are — can be a huge win. If you can make someone feel comfortable in what they consider to be a very uncomfortable situation — again, raving fan. They're going to be coming back to you over, and over, and over again because they know you can manage and help that anxiety and you're not passing judgment.” (1:09:06—1:09:49) -Miranda
“If they're at a high level of anxiety, if we haven't addressed some of those other things around their phobia or the concerns or objections, if we haven't made a warm, welcome space for them to place their objections and they feel like they can't be open with us, then when we're talking about treatment, we may not know if they're really on board with those recommendations. So, customizing the treatment plans to fit their goals, and then making sure that we leave that open space for, ‘What other information can help you to make a decision today, Mrs. Jones? What other information do you need from me? I'm going to sit here until you feel comfortable and that all of your questions have been answered. So, you just let me know. What else can I answer for you?’ so that they don't feel like it's a burden. Like, ‘There are no dumb questions. Bring them on. Some patients have five questions. Some patients have no questions. But everybody has at least one, Mrs. Jones. What's your question?’ Make sure that they feel comfortable sharing that with you.” (1:11:02—1:11:56) -Miranda
“The fifth piece of the new patient visit and elevating that experience is a memorable follow-up. So, the most important thing for this is to remember that the new patient experience doesn't end when the patient leaves the office. We need to be responsible for making sure that we have a thoughtful and timely follow-up that demonstrates an ongoing commitment to care. Now, whether that is a handwritten thank-you note, a follow up-call — if it was maybe an emergency visit where we performed some treatment and we know they were uncomfortable, maybe it's sending them home with personalized education resources, or maybe we have a customized follow-up email. You can even do a templated version that then, per that person, you customize and build in the things that were important to them or that you talked about.” (1:12:38—1:13:26) -Miranda
“Help them schedule the appointment. They listen to you. Right? A new patient came in and they have advanced perio. We've told them, ‘We think you might be losing a few teeth, Mrs. Jones. I know your goal was to not lose teeth, but we're seeing some signs here that you might. I have a specialist that I really trust that I'd love for you to go see so that they can also put their mind in on what we're going to do here and create a plan to take care of you, because we're going to take really good care of you.’ Mrs. Jones is overwhelmed. And then, we give her a slip and we tell her to go call. She doesn't know what to say. She doesn't really remember exactly everything that we talked about. She's calling. They're asking, ‘What do you need an appointment for?’ ‘I don't really know. They just told me to call you.’ No. Let's call for them. Let's take a moment. ‘Would you like for me to go ahead and call over to the office for you, Mrs. Jones, and help you set up an appointment?’ Nine times out of ten, they're like, ‘Oh my goodness, that would be amazing,’ because they feel so uncomfortable.” (1:15:27—1:16:24) -Miranda
“We have to be intentional about the different phases of our new patient experience if we want it to be exceptional. And so, it starts with mindset. We have to know our philosophy and what we're trying to create. If we know we're trying to create a unique, special experience for our patients, and we want them to have a relationship with us that goes on and on and they become raving fans, then we have to be intentional about how we build in systems into our new patient experience. The second piece of that is they have to be written down. You say all the time, if it's not written down, it doesn't exist. We have to document these systems for the new patient experience. We have to write down and build a new patient intake form that follows the flow of what we're trying to do on the phone. We have to write down, what do we do when a new patient shows up? How do we greet them? What is our office tour? We have to practice it.” (1:18:53—1:19:46) -Miranda
“You can integrate these strategies into creating exceptional experiences for your existing patients too. We don't want to leave them out. Our existing patients are really important to us also. So, there are things about this that will trickle into that existing patient process also.” (1:20:14— 1:20:29) -Miranda
“At the end of the day, people won't remember what you said or what you did. Remember, they don't know a crown from a crown most of the time. But they're going to remember how you made them feel. And so, so much of this is all about that experience that we're trying to create so that people feel cared about and feel like we are grateful for them joining our practice.” (1:21:04—1:21:23) -Miranda
Snippets:
0:00 Introduction.
0:55 About ACT’s TTT, BPA, and Pro Coaching.
5:17 Why this is an important topic.
8:57 Be aligned, smart, and healthy.
9:39 Intentionality, explained.
11:21 Two aspects of the new patient process.
13:02 Why the new patient call is so important.
16:51 Start with a gracious greeting.
20:38 Discover your patient’s objectives.
27:42 Sell relationships, not dentistry.
29:52 Practice your new patient conversations.
31:43 Schedule strategically.
35:15 Give a “wow” experience.
37:41 Focus on the patient, not the computer.
40:05 Leave the logistics for last.
41:47 How to have the insurance conversation.
44:55 Make patients feel welcome.
49:35 Evaluate your office from the patient’s perspective.
55:55 Stop labeling your patients.
56:35 Know your patient’s preferred name.
57:20 Honor the schedule.
57:51 Give patients a tour.
1:01:57 Consider a new patient interview.
1:05:07 Questions to ask before getting started.
1:05:54 Deliver personalized care.
1:09:03 Address your patient’s phobias and anxiety.
1:12:36 Do a memorable follow-up.
1:13:27 Nurture new patients that don't schedule.
1:13:48 Make patients feel connected.
1:18:41 Final takeaways.
Miranda Beeson, MS, BSDH Bio:
Miranda Beeson, MS, BSDH, has over 25 years of clinical dental hygiene, front office, practice administration, and speaking experience. She is enthusiastic about communication and loves helping others find the power that words can bring to their patient interactions and practice dynamics. As a Lead Practice Coach, she is driven to create opportunities to find value in experiences and cultivate new approaches.
Miranda graduated from Old Dominion University, and enjoys spending time with her husband, Chuck, and her children, Trent, Mallory, and Cassidy. Family time is the best time, and is often spent on a golf course, a volleyball court, or spending the day boating at the beach.