I recently did a presentation for a group of Physiotherapists where I analyzed a common call that 99% of clinics get wrong. The kind of call that causes them to lose patients to their competitors.

In fact, we analyzed over 103,000 calls last month from clinics who use Callhero, our call recording and conversation analysis software and we see this mistake happening all the time.

This is why it’s so important to use call recording. The call I analyzed is below and in this blog I'll show you how she should have handled it to save the appointment.

Watch this video for your reference...

Transcript:

Front Desk (FD): Hi my name is ____ how are you?

Patient: I'm good, how are you?

FD: I'm alright

Patient: I'm calling because I have a weird question for you. I woke myself up last night at 3:30. I rolled over and said Oh lord the whole room is spinning. I think I just gave myself some vertigo

FD: Oh no

Patient: I know and I got a major ski trip planned leaving this saturday early in the morning. So these two things don't work together very well. Not too safe. Do you guys have any availabilities tomorrow to do a vertigo treatment?

FD: Umm lets see. I do have an open spot and it's the only one left. Are you a new patient with ____.

Patient: Yea I'm new to the area and I've been just calling around to see what to do because if I wake up tomorrow and it's still like this.

FD: OH I see. What would happen is it would have to me an initial evaluation with one of our doctors. The only one we have is at 7:30am with Dr. ____

Patient: Shoot I have a meeting at 8 am that's in person.

FD: Ah yes a session would normally take an hour. Give or take especially for the first session.

Patient: Oh ok. Well I'll keep calling around. Thanks so much for looking.

FD: Sure thing ____ have a great rest of your day.

Patient: You too. Bye bye.

Do You Think This Was a Good or Bad Call?

What would you do differently?

Let's get into it...

For one they didn't connect with the patient.

This is #1 in my 'Turn Callers Into Patients' Framework.

How To Turn Shopping Around Callers Into Patients Right Away

1. Connect With The Patient

For example, they should have said… 

"Good morning, this is ____ speaking. May I take your name please?

Hey ____ what can I help you with today?

Saying a person’s name is one of the best ways to create rapport with someone. People love hearing their own name.

2. Show Empathy and Urgency

Next did they show empathy and urgency? 

No, They should have asked questions to show empathy and urgency.

Here’s how...

"I'm sorry to hear you're in pain right now {patients name}."

Imagine if your grandma called you and said she is in pain. You would say something like above to show empathy to her. Wouldn't you?

Your front desk should treat each call like they are talking to their grandma.

Next you should say...

"How long have you been suffering with or fighting this pain {first name}?"

“How much pain are you in, say from 1 to 100?”

Next you want to get their primary motivation.

Now the patient on the call said her primary motivation was to get this fixed so she could go skiing without the whole world spinning. One great question to ask to get their primary motivation is…

“What has held you back from calling us until now?”

This is a great and subtle question to ask.

PS. Check out this post to learn the #1 mistake your front desk shouldn't be making:

3. Share Results and Patient Stories

In the call, did they share results and patient stories? Social proof? No

Instead they should have said something like this… 

"I hear your story a lot ... in fact we just recently helped a lady very similar to you. You've called the right place because we are experts in {their pain} treatment. Can I make a recommendation...?

Then you want to explain how exactly it works and make it so desirable so that they book with you instead of just shopping around.

Now this is the only part of the 'turn callers into patients' framework. If you would like to get the full framework that the best clinics use to turn callers into patients right away, then I'd like to invite you to take the FREE Mystery Caller Audit.

We'll call your front desk and tell you what they did well, what they need to work on, and exactly how to handle the objections they had trouble with to dramatically boost your booking rate from your phones.

We will also give you the phone scripts playbook that contains 9 proven phone scripts to help you turn more callers into patients and confidently handle virtually any objection they’ll throw at you. You can take the FREE Mystery Caller Audit Here

1. What do we say if we don’t have any availability at that time?

You use the squeeze play. I give you the script for the 'squeeze play' inside of our Phone Scripts Playbook that you receive when you take the free mystery caller audit.

2. How can I introduce the idea of a phone script to my front desk staff?

Hold a meeting or training session to discuss the benefits of using a phone script. Provide examples and explain how it can improve their work efficiency, help more patients, and lead to higher patient satisfaction.

3. How do I get them to use phone scripts consistently?

You can talk to your front desk about how using them will allow you to help even more patients in your community.