Jennifer Schultz Blog

The Answer is Always Yes!

3/11/2015

I was recently at one of my favorite restaurants for dinner and asked the waiter if I could substitute a seaweed salad for the ginger salad? He looked up from his notebook and replied “No.” I hesitated slightly as I waited for him to say something else but that was it. I looked around at other tables and noticed other people eating seaweed salads. I turned around to look at him and said, “Okay.” After he left our table I thought to myself, did he mean that I just couldn’t substitute one salad for the other? I wondered if I could have had a seaweed salad for an additional fee. I would have gladly paid more for a salad that I wanted. He didn’t offer me that option though.

This experience reminded me of how important it is for us, as dental team members, to try to answer patient questions with a "Yes". Instead of focusing on what we don’t offer, discuss what we can assist with. For example, when a patient asks to make $100 payments on a $2000 treatment plan, if you spoke your initial response it might be "No, I'm sorry we don't offer in office payment plans past 90 days." Instead respond with what you can do. "Yes, we use Care Credit to offer low monthly payments for our patients."

So the next time a patient asks you a question, before responding consider how you can answer them with a “Yes…”.

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Insurance is Part of the Patient Experience

2/23/2015

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Every once in a while something happens that really validates what you are doing. This happened recently when a friend, Suzy told me a story about a couple of experiences she had with her dental practice.

Shortly after the first of the year, Suzy went for her dental hygiene appointment. Her insurance carrier had just changed and she had planned on checking to see if her current dentist was covered under the new plan, but she got busy and forgot. As soon as Suzy walked up to the front desk for her appointment, she realized that she forgot to check on the benefits of her new insurance. She asked Mary at the front desk if the dentist was in-network for the new insurance policy. Mary responded that she didn't know, but didn't offer to call her insurance company to find out.

Suzy said her first reaction was to leave and reschedule for another day after she checked her insurance benefits. She said she didn’t want to be stuck paying for the full amount if her insurance didn’t cover this dentist. Suzy said that Mary asked someone else in the practice if they were aware of this insurance, and then she asked the dentist. Mary finally said to Suzy, “Yeah, I think you should be fine.” Suzy stayed for the appointment, but she said was uneasy about it. She was laying in the chair thinking of her financial situation and how she hadn’t planned on paying for this appointment.

A few days later Suzy brought her two kids to the same dental practice for their 6-month appointment. As they were leaving Mary asked Suzy, “Does your insurance have a co-pay?” Suzy hadn’t really look into the details of her insurance, since at her last visit Mary said she thought she would be fine. Suzy said to me, “I was a little shocked that they would ask me about my insurance, aren’t they supposed to know?!”

Patients have an expectation that the dental office is going to know what their plan covers. When the bill comes back higher than the patient expects, it is the dental practice that they are going to be unhappy with, not the insurance company or themselves. Right or wrong, is not the issue. The question is how can we, as dental office team members, continually exceed our patient’s expectations?

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CREATING A SUPERIOR EXPERIENCE FROM THE START

8/5/2014

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The new patient phone call is more than just getting the patient on the schedule. It is critical to make sure the front office team is taking the time during that initial call to get all of the patient information to help make their first experience with your practice the best it can be. While it might seem like a good idea to keep it brief to be respectful of their time, spending a little more time upfront can pay off in the long run.

My client shared with me a prime example of how not taking the time to get all of the patient information from the first phone call can cause challenges. A new patient called the dental office to schedule their first appointment and asked if they were a provider for their insurance. Without checking on their specific plan they told the patient they were a provider and scheduled the appointment. After the appointment the office submitted the claim to the insurance company, and it was denied because the doctor was not an in-network provider for this particular plan. This made for an uncomfortable conversation with the patient who was understandably upset.

While the team member that took the new patient call had the best of intentions to try to keep the call short and not bother the new patient with too many questions, it ended up creating a very unhappy patient. A common business statistic shows that a dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their bad experience, so this not only affects your relationship with this patient, but could deter potential future patients from coming to your dental practice.

Patients have come to expect that their healthcare providers understand their specific insurance plan, and while we may not agree that should be part the job, it now goes hand-in-hand with a best-in-class patient experience. With that in mind, the objective of a new patient phone call should always be to get the patient scheduled AND get their insurance plan details. By taking a little more time during that initial call, the practice can be proactive in contacting the insurance company before the patient’s appointment. This provides them all of the information to make the first appointment as seamless and pleasant as possible.

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Keeping chairs full and maximizing revenue

7/23/2014

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We all know that full chairs equal increased revenue, and late cancelations and no shows can significantly cut into that revenue. While there is no one guaranteed way to eliminate late cancelations and no-shows, a well-trained staff can help make sure they are kept to a minimum.

Instituting key messages into the clinic protocol can help team members feel more comfortable addressing multiple situations regarding cancelations and no shows. These quick scripted responses will ensure that the team always acts in a professional and friendly manner, yet not be too lenient and let unreliable patients off the hook too easily.

SCHEDULING THE NEXT APPOINTMENT:
“I would like to see you in 6 months so we can check that molar on the upper right.”
When a patient is in your office and you are discussing their next appointment give them a reason to come back. Often we say “you will be due in 6 months for your next appointment”. Instead of just giving them a date, which like an oil change is a suggestion, give them a specific reason to return.

“I have reserved time for you with Dr. Smith on Monday at 4:00.”
Once that patient has scheduled the appointment make sure they know the appointment is a reserved time specifically for them. Sometimes they assume if they don’t show up for their appointment that the dental office can easily schedule another patient in their place.

CONFIRMATION CALLS:
“Hi Joe, I wanted to let you know that Mary is looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday at 3:00.”
Although, we call them “confirmation calls” it is best to avoid the word confirm when calling to remind a patient about their upcoming appointment. Confirm implies that the appointment was not confirmed prior to the phone call. You also want to avoid saying things like “Will you be able to make it?” or “If you can’t make it just let us know.” These all give the patient an easy out, and allow them to easily cancel or reschedule. Instead simply let the patient know that the clinical team member is looking forward to seeing them.

CALLING REGARDING A MISSED APPOINTMENT:
“We had time reserved for you today with Dr. Smith at 1:00. Please return our call at 555-333-1234.”
When a patient has missed an appointment let them know in a friendly, yet disappointed, manner. If a patient apologizes in office for missing an appointment simply respond with “Yes, we missed you.” It can be very easy to respond with “that’s ok, those things happen”. While we don’t want to scold the patient, it is important to not tell the patient that it is okay.

RESCHEDULING A MISSED APPOINTMENT:
“Our schedule is pretty full, we could see you next month on the third at 2:00.”
When re-scheduling a patient that has missed an appointment do not schedule them within the next few weeks, even if you have an opening. Schedule them a month or two out to build a higher perceived value for your time. You can always call them back the next day to say there was a change in your schedule and you thought of them.

SCHEDULING A PATIENT WITH MULTIPLE NO-SHOWS:
“It looks like we are having difficulty finding a time that works for your schedule. Why don’t you call our office on a day when you have availability, and should we have a change in our schedule we will contact you.”
It is important to track how often a patient misses their appointments and develop a protocol to determine when a patient will only be eligible for same day appointments. For these chronic no-show patients it is better for the practice not to hold an appointment time that could be scheduled with another patient.

These are some simple things every practice can do to help decrease the number of cancelations and no-shows. Having all team members trained on how to talk to patients in each of these situations is a big first step in keeping your chairs full and maximizing revenue.

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What's more important than new patients?

7/8/2014

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We all understand the importance of new patients. Most dental practices track closely how many new patients come to their office each month, and a significant amount of time and money is spent on marketing to bring in new patients. But after that first appointment then what happens? Many times the energy put into that patient often fades and reverts back to getting additional new patients.

A business rule of thumb says that attracting a new customer costs five times more than keeping an existing one. This statistic suggests that dental practices should be refocusing their efforts to put more emphasis on keeping their current patients coming back on a regular basis.

In working with dental offices over the years in many different capacities, I have seen hundreds of patients that once were new to the practice not coming back. Most of which had a good experience with the practice and know how great the doctor and team are, but have just forgotten to make an appointment. My experience shows that when these patients are contacted many will return.

The office team typically has every intention of contacting them, but continuing care follow-up can easily be brushed aside when there are so many other tasks to complete. A proactive patient reactivation program is critical to making sure your practice isn’t losing the patients with whom you have already established a relationship.

An effective program includes a set schedule and multiple forms of communication, including phone calls, postcards, letters and email. Some patients will be more receptive to certain types of communications, and utilizing multiple contact methods will keep you top-of-mind and increase the likelihood that they will schedule their next appointment. This type of program not only helps ensure patients return to the dental practice, but also makes it easier to fill last minute openings in the schedule.

Having a formal program in place with specific time scheduled for it each week will ensure that continuing care is made a priority. This type of program is also something that can be easily outsourced to a dental office virtual assistant, so your office team can focus on patient care. The result will be keeping the patients active in your practice that you worked so hard to get in the first place.

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Is the Lowest Price Really What They Want?

9/2/2013

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Recently we took a trip out to Colorado and called six different rafting companies. Every company recommended the same river for our family. With each call I stated the ages of our kids and asked for their recommendation. They all were recommending the same river, so I followed that up with "How much does it cost?" In my mind all rafting companies were the same and the only thing that differentiated one company from the next was the price.

I was about to hang up on the last phone call that I made when she said, "Well let me tell you a little bit about our company." She went on to tell me that every guide with their company has a minimum of ten years of experience. That they sterilize their wet suits after every use and that the owner still rafts and takes safety very seriously. As a mother taking our kids white water rafting she was speaking to my heart and what I wanted (which was to keep my entire family in the raft). I knew immediately that we would be booking with this company, even though they were not the least expensive.

Originally when I made the phone calls I thought that the only difference between rafting companies was the price. After speaking with Shelly, I understood that there is much more to consider than price and that price actually wasn't my top priority.

As a dental office manager, it made me think about how many clients are basing their dental decisions only on price. How much potential business could be gained by making sure the entire dental staff understands the added-value they bring and making sure they are communicating it to their clients?

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The Answer is Always Yes!

Insurance is Part of the Patient Experience

CREATING A SUPERIOR EXPERIENCE FROM THE START

Keeping chairs full and maximizing revenue

What's more important than new patients?

Is the Lowest Price Really What They Want?

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