How to Coach Your Front Desk to Schedule More Dental Patients

Note: This article describes a previous version of Patient Prism. You can read about the latest version of Patient Prism, V3, here.

February 2020--The Patient Experience Manager of Dental Associates, Christina Villarreal, says Patient Prism RELO alerts (RELOs) have motivated those answering the phones at Dental Associates to try harder to sell new patient appointments.

What are Patient Prism RELOs?

One of the most powerful tools Patient Prism offers is the Re-Engage Lost Opportunity (RELO) alerts. These alerts, that we refer to as RELOs, are sent out to our teams via email or text message within 30 minutes of when a call from a potential new patient failed to book an appointment.

This is how it works. As a call is recorded, Patient Prism’s artificial intelligence (AI) software is gathering intelligence from keywords and phrases it has been trained to use in evaluating and extrapolating the results of the call. Patient Prism’s live coaches in Tampa, Florida, then review the results and send out the RELO with feedback notes and links to appropriate, short training videos.

Failed calls cost you future revenue, so you especially want to know about any high-value dental services mentioned during the call. Callers who mention high-value services are the ones you especially want to make sure you win. The AI software is trained to identify high-value services, so RELOs include specifics to help our receptionists prepare to call back the potential patient. If a patient coordinator or a certain receptionist is more adept at conversing about those services, the receptionist who took the original call can refer the callback to the more adept team member. We’re in this together. We’re a team.

How are RELOs increasing new patient conversion?

Data collected from millions of calls recorded by Patient Prism nationwide have demonstrated two positive trends.

1. Callbacks are resulting in 30% conversion if the second call occurs within one hour of the first call. This is due to management’s expectation that callbacks be made, to the fast alerts, and to the preparatory feedback from Patient Prism call coaches.
2. Dental phone receptionists are converting a significantly higher % of new patients on the first call. This is due to management’s monitoring of conversion and expectation for conversion to improve, and the training automated by Patient Prism’s short training videos and call coaches’ notes.

At Dental Associates, the ROI is clear.

At Dental Associates, our phone receptionists are learning the principles of optimizing phone conversations. We actively monitor the Patient Prism dashboards and expect our team members respond quickly to lost opportunities. They know that if they are not booking that new patient appointment, that RELO alert is going to come right to them. So, they’re working a lot harder to get that appointment booked on the first call.

The results we see are higher conversion rates that have reduced the cost of new patient acquisition; team members who are more confident, competent, and energized to convert new patients; higher downstream revenue; and even team excitement for how this has improved the patient experience from the moment the new patient calls. They’ve already made a connection with that new patient and when the patient arrives, the patient feels they have an advocate and friend looking forward to meeting them in person.

More Resources

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.