March 2019--Helping people in our communities is a priority of Dental Associates and making a first great impression is essential to their decision to come to us for care. We want people to feel we not only have the expertise to help them but genuinely want to help them. Patient Prism software has been essential in improving how we communicate with new patients over the phone.
By using Patient Prism, we continuously identify what happens when patients are led to call us by our marketing but then don’t book appointments. One of the things we found was patients, who were in pain, were being turned away because of scheduling. We don’t want to turn away people in pain. We want to help them. So, one of our clinics created a policy that the staff member who answers the phone is not allowed to turn away a patient who is in pain unless they seek a supervisor or manager first to work with the dentist to find an available time. That location solved the identified problem.
By using Patient Prism, our team members on the phone have greater awareness of their conversations. They have coached feedback on what could have gone better, and they have more insight about the impact they are having on patients. They better recognize that callers are real people with real problems who need their help, and that we need to help them.
Patient Prism records the number of calls, new patient conversions, voicemails, hang ups, and lost revenue opportunities for any period. The dashboards even tell us the value of lost opportunities, reports how patients are finding us, and reports the reasons why patients do not book appointments. The Patient Prism artificial intelligence (AI) software can do this because it has been expertly trained to log keywords and phrases that occur on recorded new patient calls and evaluate those to log what patients are seeking and reasons why they do not appoint.
There is enough data to know if the problem was a one-time event or has occurred often. We see trends, the big picture, and can zoom in on the numbers associated with specific team members who have answered calls. We learn who needs to focus on developing better communication skills and who is uncomfortable answering specific types of questions. All types of problems have solutions. We just need to understand the scope of problems to appropriately address them.
The Patient Prism blog and the Patient Prism Academy video library feature hundreds of dental industry experts presenting recommendations and examples for leading and growing your dental practice, multi-practice group, or DSO. We have many videos from practice management coaches that provide advice for improving patient communication, converting new patients, and scheduling. We invite you to schedule a Patient Prism demo at a date and time that is convenient for you.