September 2022--Dental practice phone receptionists need to be prepared to prequalify dental implant treatment leads.
Why?
Most callers inquiring about implant services are somewhat familiar with implant treatments.
They called you because of your messaging or reputation. Over the phone, your team members have the task of determining whether an implant treatment caller is a great or even good lead.
You can pre-educate your leads through your website and landing pages that are linked to your social media and ad campaigns. Your online content needs to educate readers about:
Your Implant Services or Procedures pages, blog articles about the benefits of implants and frequently asked implant questions, and your “Paying for Your Implant Treatment” page should include these types of statements:
We never want cost to stop you from achieving your oral health goals. We take the time to make sure you understand your treatment options, as well as the costs associated with each option.
We also specialize in phasing treatment at a pace that is financially comfortable for you. Although many of our patients opt for treatment that delivers immediate results, such as All-on-4 Implant Placement, we also have patients with a 2-year to 5-year plan to restore their full dental function with dental implants.
It is our job to find the right balance for each patient between treatment options and financial feasibility.
We work with the following lenders to help our patients secure financing that may make their treatment more fiscally comfortable: CareCredit and Citi Health Financing.
You may apply for a loan online prior to treatment. We will be happy to assist you in doing this while you are in our office reviewing your treatment plan and the associated fees with our expert patient coordinator.
On an implant call, the caller is seeking information (often cost and the availability of an initial appointment). The receptionist is seeking to prequalify the lead for a consultation with the doctor. Thus, the receptionist needs to know:
If you have multiple team members answering the phone, all should be well informed on qualifying leads and at least one should know all your implant messages and ads backward and forward so when a question comes up, there is a “go-to” person to continue the call.
To qualify a lead and to best help the caller, you need to build immediate rapport, which can be as simple as a friendly introduction, listening attentively and politely to hear the caller’s desires, needs, and concerns, and being empathetic, relevant, and helpful in how you respond. Tips for building rapport are in multiple downloadable Patient Prism resources.
Sometimes you will immediately hear everything you need to know to judge the quality of a lead, and other times you will need to prompt the caller to disclose that information. Remember, you want to know if the caller has some understanding about implant treatment, can afford or finance treatment, and if the caller is genuinely interested in scheduling an appointment to learn what treatments the doctor says are appropriate for their situation.
The ideal lead is a person who indicates they want to move forward. Said in another way, this person gives an indication that they are already invested in wanting implant treatment. It’s likely they have presold themselves on getting treatment but have some questions to ask and need to feel they have called the right place. Your assurances and enthusiasm for implant treatment will help these individuals decide they want to move forward with an initial appointment.
Because the cost of implant treatment is the most frequent obstacle in callers’ minds, the caller needs to feel they deserve this treatment. The caller needs to envision an improved life and smile that is well worth the investment. While you are gathering qualifying information and answering the caller’s questions, express how delighted your implant patients have been with their treatment and that your treatment coordinator has expertise in helping patients work out payment plans.
Does the caller have some understanding of implant treatments?
To prompt callers for information that gauges their level of understanding about implant treatment, you might want to say:
Keep in mind that many callers scan headlines, intend to do research, or do minimal research before responding to your ads. They may not have a good understanding of dental implant treatment. If you recognize this is the situation, the caller might not be “ready” to move ahead with an initial consult. Stay in the question long enough with the caller to evaluate whether the caller is a good implant lead you should encourage to schedule an appointment now or is someone you should nurture and follow up with on a call-back “strategy call.” Nurturing leads is discussed below.
Does the prospective patient have the means to pay for treatment?
To prompt callers for information that helps both them and you determine their ability to pay, you might want to say:
Keep in mind that most people are concerned about the cost. Patients may come for an initial consultation and then say, “I have to think about it,” when the treatment coordinator presents the treatment fee(s). This does not mean they will not schedule treatment after digesting the cost of treatment and deciding how they will pay. Many times, they call back.
Because the front office and clinical team have already invested time in developing this lead, this is a good person to put on your list for nurturing with a check-in call in a week or two.
Does the caller indicate they are internally motivated to schedule the initial appointment?
You do not want to push callers, who are not “ready,” into scheduling an implant consultation appointment. They may not show. They might cancel. If the appointment is complimentary, they might inappropriately waste the doctor’s valuable time.
If someone is just kicking the tires and starting to imagine implant treatment as a possibility, they might say something that indicates they are in hesitancy mode. For example:
If someone is keenly interested in implant treatment and ready to move forward, he or she might say something like this:
Sometimes it isn’t easy to discern if a caller is leaning towards doing implant treatment. If they are or you think they might be, you can say something like one of the following:
Keep in mind that many leads, who are not “great leads” the first time they call you, could become great leads in the future with nurturing.
Dental implant patients can take a long time to move forward, and you do not want to crowd your docket with patients who are not ready. Some callers will be just starting their inquiry into implant treatment and are apt to make numerous calls to multiple implant providers. From each conversation they have, they hope to glean more information and, perhaps, more motivation for treatment. They are in the process of feeling their way.
As they have conversations, they are likely to hear from multiple providers that the cost of their treatment cannot be known prior to a consultation and diagnostics. By doing online research, callers might see reported ranges of fees. By reading implant doctors’ websites, they will learn about implant terminology and procedures. They will become more comfortable talking about implant treatment and discerning their questions. They will become more comfortable thinking about financing their care. They will recognize the benefits of implants and begin committing to finding a way to afford the treatment they know will improve their lives.
Your front desk will stand out if they are always compassionately striving to help the caller move forward, and their tone of voice indicates they are friendly, well-informed, understanding, and happy to help.
On a call, it is okay for a receptionist to summarize a conversation that is not going to end in a booked appointment and say, “It sounds like you are in process with your thinking and not ready to schedule an appointment just yet, but would you mind if I give you a few suggestions about how to proceed?”
To nurture the relationship and impress upon the caller that they can call you back. You might say:
Schedule times to make nurturing “strategy calls” that help potential implant patients move forward with implant treatment. At Patient Prism, we call these “Re-Engage Lost Opportunity” or “RELO” calls.
The Patient Prism call tracking and coaching platform will automatically monitor and keep track of all calls that mention implant treatment.
Unique phone numbers on your implant ads will enable Patient Prism to track leads generated from specific ads.
If a caller does not schedule an appointment with you after talking about implant treatment, the call information is recorded and Patient Prism alerts you to a Re-Engage Lost Opportunity (RELO), so you can later call back and nurture the lead. And, if the lead becomes “ready,” you can convert that lead to an initial implant consultation.
Patient Prism users that do RELO callbacks typically increase general new patient conversion by 25 to 35%. In the case of implant callers, callbacks might not develop “qualified” leads at such a high rate. But you will be able to find leads who do become ready to move forward. Because these patients will be accepting high-value treatment, converting one or more new “qualified” implant patients a week will substantially increase practice revenue.
Patient Prism tracks and reports RELO call success and the estimated revenue for each scheduled new patient. Patient Prism users can log the actual revenue collected.
Patient Prism data will enable you to track and compare call performance and implant patient growth--week over week, month over month, year over year--in one location and across multiple locations in your group practice or dental support organization (DSO).
If you haven’t seen a demonstration of Patient Prism’s full call tracking and coaching capabilities and its robust analytics, you owe it to your practice to request a demonstration today!