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671: Part 2 – Top 10 Phone Skills for Tackling the Toughest Patient Questions! – Miranda Beeson
Episode 671 • 22nd December 2023 • The Best Practices Show with Kirk Behrendt • ACT Dental
00:00:00 00:53:17

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671: Part 2 – Top 10 Phone Skills for Tackling the Toughest Patient Questions! – Miranda Beeson

Patients ask the toughest questions — and your team has a tough time answering them. To help them navigate the most difficult questions they will encounter, Kirk Behrendt returns with Miranda Beeson to finish Part 2 of ACT’s training webinar. Equip your team with critical phone skills to make your practice thrive! To learn how, listen to Episode 671 of The Best Practices Show!

Episode Resources:

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Watch Episode 671 of The Best Practices Show: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videos

Main Takeaways:

Have preset solutions in place for common patient problems.

Give patients the opportunity to tell you about themselves.

Don't make it easy for patients to cancel appointments.

Angry patients just want to be heard. Learn to listen.

Have conflict resolution simulations with your team.

Start listening to and evaluating your own calls.

Be mindful of the verbiage you use.

Quotes:

“You're going to start to recognize patterns with the problems that patients have. One of them is, ‘I can't get a ride.’ Okay. You, as a team member, should be equipped with a very definitive solution. I like the idea of having a 3x5 card. When somebody says, ‘I can't get a ride,’ we have four solutions. Number one, ‘I'll come get you.’ Number two, ‘I'll send an Uber for you.’ [Ariel] even said, ‘Can you ride a bike?’” (1:23—1:46) -Kirk

“[Patients will say], ‘I can't find a ride.’ That's going to happen a lot. It will. It might happen for larger appointments. I would do this. If I was [on] the admin team, I'd say, ‘Don't worry, I got you. I'll send an Uber for you right now.’ See how that's a very clear solution? They can't say no. I wouldn't make them say no. If they say, ‘I don't want to take an Uber,’ I would say, ‘This is a four-hour appointment. I don't want to tell Dr. Straub you're not coming. I actually will come get you. I'll be there in five minutes. I'll bring you back. You'll be 15 minutes late for the appointment, but you could still make it.’ You see how I'm not going to let you out of this four-hour appointment?” (2:01—2:37) -Kirk

“When it comes down to that solution — you've asked open-ended questions, you've gotten the information about what their chief concern is, what they need, what they want, there is a solution. I'm here to help you. ‘Great news. I'm here to help you, and here's what we can do to help.’ And so, when you talked about your example, they can say that exact thing of, ‘I'm really struggling to find a ride. I don't think I'm going to be able to make it today.’ ‘Hey, I'm here to help you. This is not the first time someone has experienced that. Let's try this,’ and we provide a solution. Again, it's about building rapport. It's about, we're here to serve. So, I'm not annoyed by you. I'm not frustrated by you. I'm here to help you.” (3:04—3:42) -Miranda

“It's really important to make sure that once a problem has been solved, you've developed a solution, you know what the plan is, that you summarize it, and that you repeat it back . . . We want to make sure that we have a summary in place to recap what we've decided, what we've concluded is the solution. You're on board, and I'm on board. Great. We have a plan.” (4:27—4:50) -Miranda

“We want to make sure that we have the right information in our practice management software. This is one of the most simple, logistical parts of phone skills. We want to identify who we're talking to. Pull up their chart right away. Hopefully, we all have digital charts at this point. Sometimes, we're still working with paper charts. But if we can, pull it up right away so we can see a bit of history about who it is that we're talking to.” (5:02—5:26) -Miranda

“We talk a lot in ACT around patient identification. I'm going to be able to see, is this an A patient, a B patient, or a C patient that I'm talking to? I want to confirm that their data is accurate and updated, if necessary. If it's been a while since they've been in and I see it's been a year or a year-and-a-half, ‘Joe, I see it's been a little while since you've been in. I want to take a moment to make sure that we have all the accurate data for you. Are you still at this address? Is this still your phone number?’ Do they have an existing treatment recommendation that could pertain to their call or request? So, perhaps Joe hasn't been in in a year-and-a-half, and the last time Joe was in, we recommended he have a tooth extracted on the lower right, and Joe is calling today with some pain and throbbing on the lower right. We can see that we've already talked about this with Joe and that there was already a plan in place, and we may be able to navigate what the most appropriate next step is without an extra step in the middle so that we can start working on getting Joe out of pain and discomfort.” (5:26—6:21) -Miranda

“This fits into the data piece, but I also think this could fit in multiple other areas of the phone call. If we go through all of that, we make sure everything is updated, all this information is still correct, [we need to ask], ‘Joe, is there anything else that I should know?’ And it might just be, ‘No,’ because this is a closed-ended question. It might just be, ‘No, I think that's everything.’ But it might be like, ‘Oh, you know what I should tell you? I also had surgery about three months ago and I had a stent placed.’ ‘That is really important to know. I'm going to send you a medical history update that may change the timing in which we help you with this problem.’” (6:44—7:20) -Miranda

“Another question that's the same question said a different way is, ‘What else would you like for me to know about you?’ I like that one because I'm like, ‘Okay, there are a couple of other things that are important to me,’ or, ‘I'm a pilot.’ Given the door, they will tell you some very unique things about them that become incredible trust builders or relationship builders as they come into your practice. So, give them the opportunity to tell you something unique about them, or something else that they're dying to tell you.” (7:23—7:57) -Kirk

“If your practice doesn't accept certain insurances or programs, how do you go about asking or letting them know that we cannot accept it? I'm thinking about the situation with Joe that I just mentioned. Maybe Joe tells me, ‘Oh, you know what I have now? I have MetLife insurance. I didn't have that before,’ and maybe we're not a participating provider with MetLife. ‘Joe, thank you so much for giving me that information and letting me know that that information had changed. We do have a different relationship with MetLife than we do with Delta, who you had before. I'd love to share with you what the difference is for you and how that will look here in the practice. Let me go ahead and finish making sure that I'm on the right track for what it is that you need from us first.’ And so, again, I'm going to set that insurance question right over here, and I'm going to come back to it.” (8:02—8:51)

“It's really, really important that unless it's an insurance that you cannot file — like, I can't file Medicaid, or I can't file that because it's an HMO — you do, in fact — you can, I should say — take that insurance. I want to make sure that that's super clear, the difference between we can or can't take it. If they have no out-of-network benefits, it's an HMO or a Medicaid that I can't even file on your behalf, that's very different. That's something that you truly cannot take, versus I'm a fee-for-service practice and I'm not contracted with any PPO plans. I can still take your insurance, so that's a yes. That goes back to our key phrase of, ‘Yes, we do. Yes, we do work with MetLife. It's a little different, what it looks like, but I'd be happy to share with you what that looks like here.’” (8:52—9:38) -Miranda

“Even if you're completely fee-for-service, you have to be an insurance-friendly practice because you can't say the word “no”. People [aren't] even going to entertain it. Even the doctors we support that are 100% fee-for-service, seven out of ten calls are, ‘Do you take my lousy insurance?’ People aren't going to call you with wads of cash going, ‘Hey, listen. I know you don't accept insurance. I've got a ton of money. Can you just prep all these teeth?’” (10:27—10:55) -Kirk

“The worst thing you can say is, ‘No, we are not contracted with [X insurance].’ And then, silence. ‘Well, what do I do now?’ ‘Well, you can look on the back of the card. There's a number, or you can go online.’ Like, what? No, no, no, no, no. We want to say yes. ‘Even if we can't file it, you can still come here. Even if it is one that we can't take because we can't even file it based on the type of plan that it is, you're welcome to be a patient here. We would absolutely love to take care of you. What that means is, we'd be very transparent with your fees up front. We'd help you find ways to approach investments in your care, but it would be your responsibility without the support of an insurance benefit plan. But you're welcome to come here, absolutely.’” (10:55—11:41) -Miranda

“We will break a chain in trust if we commit to something and say we're going to do it, and then we don't follow through. So, do what you say. Offer efficient action, and then do it. If you don't know, say that you don't know. Do not provide an answer that's off the cuff, shooting from the hip, just rolling with it. It's okay to say, ‘I don't know, but I'm going to find out for you, and I'll get back to you within 24 hours with that answer.’ But then, just like point number one says, if you say, ‘I'm going to get back to you within 24 hours with an answer,’ you're going to do it. And I would caution people on “as soon as I can”, because as soon as you can might be three days from now, and to a patient it's an hour from now. So, I would give a specific timeframe that's relative and relevant to what it is that you're getting back to them for, and then do it within that timeframe. And you want to confirm that you've resolved their concern. So, once you place that timestamp on it or this action item to it, does that resolve the concern? ‘Is that going to work for you, Mrs. Jones? What else could I help you with, Mrs. Jones, aside from that?’ Make sure that we're getting a, ‘You know what? I think that's everything, Miranda. Thank you so much.’” (12:16—13:35) -Miranda

“The true nature of what happens up front is it can be chaos. And you, as a dentist, if you're listening to this, this is why systems are so important. One big piece that we as coaches do is make teams develop systems. What I mean by that is that you have these scenarios, and there's nothing better than hearing an admin team member say, ‘Right after this call, I'm going to send you an email,’ and it's already been created. They're not uniquely coming up with solutions all the time, all day long. That would burn me out if I work for you, if I've got to figure out what to do, and then I've got to put it all together, and then I've got to email it or send it to the patient. Get me out of here. You should create well-designed systems that make the team member — it should take 60 seconds for me to send that to you, a click of a button. Could you imagine, I call your office and you go, ‘These are great questions. Now, I'm going to schedule you with our doctor. I'm also going to get you scheduled for hygiene. After I hang up, you're going to get an email from me, and it's going to explain everything we discussed.’ I'm already thinking, ‘You guys know your stuff! You really know what you're doing.’ That's why systems development helps with follow-through. So, make sure you support your teams with great systems.” (13:40—14:56) -Kirk

“[We need] commitment and confirmation that we've solved the problem, that we have a plan. [The patient agrees] and knows what it is, that we've scheduled an appointment. We all are in agreement that this is a commitment that we're making within our schedule. So, number one, first and foremost, is we want to build an efficient schedule for the office first. Before any of the rest of this comes into play, we want to have intentional scheduling built out for the office first.” (15:17—15:46) -Miranda

“[Have] systems for your admin team so that your admin team knows where I schedule a crown, where I schedule a new patient, where I schedule an emergency. And so, it's not this crazy, chaotic, ten minutes of like, ‘Well, what about this? What about that?’ It’s super easy, clearly displayed right in front of your administrative team member that we don't see emergencies at 4:00 p.m. We don't do that here. Now, we don't have to say we don't do that here. What we would say is, ‘We help our emergency patients at 12:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and at 10:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Which of those works best for you, patient?’ And so, now we build a couple of these in together, but we're going to put them where we know it fits our schedule best because we've designed that systematically and we don't have to guess. It's right there in front of us through efficient block scheduling. And then, we're going to guide them to that appropriate time because we know where the best time in our schedule for our team and for our doctor is. And then, we're going to provide them with an alternative choice. That's what I did a moment ago with helping that patient to still be in control of the outcome, but we're still going to help them end up where we want them to be. So, they're still going to be in an emergency block at either 12:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or at 10:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays. But they get some level of control over that by deciding which of those options they prefer.” (15:47—17:11) -Miranda

“Never, ever, ever say the phrase, ‘What works for you?’ Don't ever say that . . . And then, the alternative choice — I agree. It is proven that patients feel powerful when you give them two choices. But whoever is teaching this should be banned. Like, don't ever ask a patient, ‘Do mornings or afternoons work for you?’ Don't do that.” (17:18—17:53) -Kirk

“The only exception to [not asking patients mornings or afternoons] might be if your practice had — say someone is scheduling a crown or a new patient, and you have a morning appointment for new patients available that week, and you have an afternoon appointment available that week. You could very well say, to play devil's advocate, ‘What do you prefer, mornings or afternoons?’ because you do have one of each. But if you only see new patients at the beginning of the day and you ask someone, ‘What do you prefer?’ and they like 4:00, well, now you've set them up for failure.” (17:56—18:26) -Miranda

“Sometimes, people will say, ‘I really like morning appointments.’ Great. What does morning mean to you? Because we start at 7:00, but morning for you might be 11:00.” (18:44—18:53) -Miranda

“What happens when [patients] say, ‘I can't do mornings. I can only do afternoons’? Because now, if I'm not a strong administrative team member with confidence in this yet, I'm going to be like, ‘Oh, okay. I'm going to dig through the schedule and try to see if there's an afternoon that looks like maybe I could make it work. It's outside of the block, but they can't do mornings.’ No — what I would say is, ‘I completely understand where you're coming from. Other patients have felt the same way. What I can do, if it works better for you, is look another week or two out to give you more time to prepare your schedule for having the morning here with us. But I do have crown appointments at 7:00 and 9:00, and that's really where we're at. So, if going two weeks out helps, that might allow for you to have a little more time to have flexibility in your schedule and plan things. How does that work for you?’” (19:46—20:37) -Miranda

“People will go, ‘Well, I want to come in tomorrow.’ That's another question that people will often ask with the same concept, is like, maybe your next available is three weeks out. ‘That's three weeks from now. I don't want to wait three weeks.’ ‘I completely understand, but the doctor is going on vacation, and then we have a hygienist out.’ And the patient is like, ‘I don't care if he's going on vacation. I have a toothache.’ Instead, use a simple phrase. ‘I completely understand. We're fully committed until the date I offered you. However, I can put you on a priority list. If something becomes available sooner — I know you're eager to come in — we'll give you a call right away.’ “Fully committed” is a perfect phrase. I have a pet peeve. We talk about being candid about telling people that the doctor is on vacation. Granted, the doctor deserves a vacation — I do believe in that. But I think we have to [say], ‘Our schedule is fully committed,’ even if there are blocks open. This is what people struggle with . . . They're going to see like, ‘I do have time open, though. I know I have this emergency, and my emergency block is already full for today, but that primary tomorrow is still wide open. I could put it right there, but it's not a primary. I'm not supposed to put it there.’ No — we have to look at that blocked time as if it's fully committed. It is not an option unless it's that type of dentistry. And so, the easiest thing to remind ourselves is, the blocks, even if they're open between now and three weeks from now, your schedule is still fully committed.” (20:48—22:24) -Miranda

“One of the biggest issues is cancellations in anybody's schedule. Short notice, same-day changes in the schedule — it's a problem for every dental office, ever. And so, the more that we do these steps that we've tackled so far, all the way from one through seven, and then we commit, summarize, reconfirm, allow them to make the choice in terms of where they end up in the schedule, all of these things combined are going to reduce the cancellations because we've built value, we've built rapport, and we've repetitively confirmed with them over and over the commitment to that time that we've reserved. And expectations should be clear around the reservation from the jump. We want to repeat, repeat, repeat. When you do a self-evaluation,...

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