Telephone skills

It may surprise you to learn that one of the most important pieces of equipment in your surgery is the telephone. It has the power to expand your patient base and is the first port of call for many of your existing customers. Despite this, very few of us know how to use it effectively. In the dental industry serious implications can arise from practice staff not having a professional and friendly telephone manner.

Every year practices will plough thousands of pounds into marketing, whether this is in the shape of their website or more conventional forms of advertisement. The goal of this is to get people visiting, emailing or phoning the practice. If the person answering your phones does not have the correct skills to convert a phone call enquiry into a new patient then this marketing money is essentially wasted.

The problems that most practices suffer from are that the people who answer their phones tend to be too brash, discourteous and don’t listen because they are preoccupied with other things going on in the practice. The initial engagement on the phone is very important, after all, the person calling could be looking to spend thousands on a treatment plan, so it is important to make the correct impression right away.