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Howard Speaks: It's What You Say—And How You Say It by Dr. Howard Farran

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Categories: Practice Management, HR and Accounting;
Howard Speaks: It's What You Say—And How You Say It 

by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, publisher, Dentaltown magazine

The adage goes, “It’s not what you say but how you say it,” but that’s not true when it comes to how you and your staff communicate with patients. In that case, it is what you say, and also how you say it!

I recently filmed a quick Dentistry Uncensored video with Amy, one of our team members at Today’s Dental. In the video, she shares some great advice to help treatment coordinators make sure they’re guiding patients straight into scheduling their next appointment. A few examples:

 Leading the way toward a successful conversation

If a patient calls to cancel an appointment, Amy says, the response should be something like this: “OK, I’ll cancel this appointment, and let’s get you rescheduled. How about Monday at [this time]?” Suggest an exact time while the patient is still on the phone, so the conversation is not, “Would you like to reschedule?” but, “For your next appointment, would this window work for you?”

At the end of a patient appointment, the treatment coordinator should say, “Let’s get you checked out. I’m going to look up your insurance right now and once I find out your coverage, I’ll schedule you for our next opening.” Don’t ask if the patient wants to schedule—start the scheduling process for them. Steer your conversations toward the goal of acceptance!

 Flexibility isn’t really feasible in the dental practice schedule

The same principle applies when you need to have uncomfortable conversations, too. For instance, I’ve noticed that patients seem to consider it less important to be on time for their appointments recently. I suspect this stems from how before the coronavirus pandemic, patients often were coming to their appointments from an office environment, which is more regimented and fussier about schedules and “on-the-clock” time. Now, many people have shifted to a work-from-home environment, which often treats time as a more flexible, malleable concept. As many companies have discovered, you don’t always need employees’ butts parked in their chairs during a specified time frame for them to get things done. (Maybe they take a long afternoon break to pick up their kids from school, but catch up after dinner, for example.)

But some patients seem to consider their dental appointments as having similar elasticity—they’re more likely to drift in 15 minutes late nowadays. (If you find this to be true, too, leave a comment below! I miss hearing from Townies.)

 Being thoughtful, kind and firm

At Today’s Dental, we explain to patients that if they’re more than 15 minutes late, they’ll automatically be rescheduled. We position this in the context of fairness:
  • If we were to try to squeeze in all the work in such a compressed time frame, it’s not fair to the patient. If the hygienist has to rush through treatment, for example, the patient will miss out on a truly thorough cleaning.
  • If they arrive late and expect the full treatment time, it’s not fair to the next patient, whose window will then be pushed later or compressed. Even in “right-to-work” states, firing an employee can be problematic from a legal standpoint. To protect your business, you need to demonstrate that you’ve given an employee multiple opportunities to correct the issue at hand, and you can’t do that unless you discuss it with them.
Every person who works in a dental practice has the opportunity to practice and employ the principles of thoughtful communication, which will lead to higher patient acceptance—of treatments, of payment plans and of appointments. It’s up to you and your team to master these techniques to ensure your practice is as productive as it can be!

Learn more about patient communication
and earn CE credits
Dentaltown’s online CE includes several courses from some of the dental industry’s best-known experts—Fred Joyal, Sandy Pardue, Laura Hatch and more—that discuss how communication techniques affect every section of your practice, from case acceptance to hygiene recommendations to appointment scheduling. To bone up, click here to see the many courses offered in the Practice Management, HR and Accounting category.
 

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