Who’s in your hot seat?

In terms of impact on patient satisfaction, your front desk trumps the operating room. The reception area sets the tone for a patient’s experience and it can be the difference between a happy lifelong patient or the patient who’s not coming back.

It’s therefore imperative for clinics and practices to have their front desk as optimised as possible. When I say ‘optimised’, I mean that every minute touch point with the prospective patient is as good as it can be.

Marketing dollars are spent driving leads to the front desk, however often the staff have no idea how to convert these leads; they think they are simply taking bookings.

Helping your staff understand where they fit into the sales process will help guide this process. Talk to them about the sales funnel for your practice, how it works and what outcomes you are looking for, i.e. patients re-entering the funnel down the pointy end through cross selling.

Are your staff aware of the USPs (unique selling points) of your practice? Can these USPs roll off their tongue? Do they know when to use them in the booking process?

Front desk staff checklist

Here are some points from my checklist for staff to tick off to ensure they are amazing at converting those front desk leads:

Be confident and ‘know your stuff’

Confidence is so important – and you can hear it through the phone, whether the call is inbound or outbound. For anyone to make an appointment with your clinic, buy from you or take the action you want, they have to see you as someone who knows what you’re talking about!

Confidence comes from knowing what you are trying to achieve and ensuring the pathway to that consultation booking is smooth. Ensure you have asked the right questions and given the right sort of information for the patient to book.

In order to be confident, you need to ensure that you understand the products or service you’re selling. Be composed at the start of the call, build rapport and ask the questions needed to show the patient the pathway through the practice. Your goal is to make it understandable and easy for the patient.

One of the biggest mistakes I hear people make on the telephone is to sound too ‘weak and wimpy’ – meaning that the people on the other end of the phone don’t take them seriously.

Be natural

This is why I prefer ‘cheat sheets’ to scripts. Scripts sound false and inauthentic.

Use your cheat sheets wisely, then put your own personality into the call. This sounds more natural, as once you’ve mastered the words, you start to put your own voice inflections and tonality onto the cheat sheet so it sounds natural and fluid. And remember to practice.

Be friendly

It’s possible to remain professional and courteous and still be friendly. This is easily achieved by using good inflection and modulation in your voice, by showing an interest in your caller’s conversation and by sharing laughter and light-hearted moments when the opportunity to do so arises during the call.

Enjoy your rapport-building. It will make your calls more productive and pleasant for both you and your caller.

Use descriptive words

These paint a picture when you’re talking. Remember, the other person can’t see you or your beautiful practice, so it means the picture you paint has to come with the words you say and how you say them.

Ask their name and use it

In the first 10 seconds, ask the caller’s name and use it throughout the conversation. Always have the person’s name on a piece of paper in front of you. The last thing you want is to forget the name they gave you, so write it down!

Limit the background noise

Some background noise is fine, but you certainly don’t want the caller to hear any loud music or the sound of informal activities going on in the background.

Don’t be distracted

It’s easy to be distracted by an email or other items popping up on your computer while you’re taking a call. Be focused. Because you can’t see the caller it’s easy to have your attention diverted by what’s in front of you, but allowing yourself to become distracted may easily cause you to miss a key point.

Never be the first person to hang up the phone

Always allow the other person to disconnect first – for starters, it sounds terrible when the phone is hung up in your ear.

Prepare for common objections

Get to know the kinds of questions – and objections or sticking points – patients typically have. Prepare for common objections by creating a bullet pointed cheat sheet so you can feel confident at all times.

This is the time to really show off your practice’s USPs. All practices have them; make sure you know yours inside and out to truly make your practice shine and stand out in a crowded marketplace. AMP

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