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Retain Patients by Improving Your Practice’s Phone Skills

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Retain Patients by Improving Your Practice’s Phone Skills

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phone skills

Good patient relations can mean more than just reading a script when you’re talking to patients on the phone. In many cases, how you say something is just as important as the message you’re trying to convey.

Take, for example, what happens when a patient asks for an appointment and your front desk staff member replies with, “We don’t have any appointments available for two weeks.” That prospective patient is five times more likely to go to another practice than to make an appointment with yours. Certainly, you’ll come upon instances when you don’t have appointments available soon, but you can say it another way to keep the patient interested in your practice — and we’ve got the scoop on the right way to do it.

Get to know a few essential ways to boost your phone skills when talking to patients over the phone.

Check Your Tone of Voice

Someone calling your practice for the first time wants to feel welcomed, and even if your receptionist says all the right things, if their tone of voice is off, they won’t feel that way. When you’re working with your front desk on phone skills training, make sure they practice using a friendly, reassuring, and pleasant tone of voice rather than sounding rushed or annoyed.

Don’t Interrupt

Sometimes patients want to tell you the whole story of what’s going on with their health so you have a better understanding of who they need to see and how urgent the situation is. Although it can be hard to hear patients tell you details that go beyond a “need to know” basis, it’s important not to interrupt them. By listening to their story, you’ve shown them that you (and your practice) care about their story, and that they aren’t just a number.

Enunciate Your Words

When you talk to patients on the phone, be sure to speak slowly and clearly, enunciating your words carefully. Patients who are calling your practice may have cognitive or hearing deficits, or may simply be stressed about their health. So understanding what you’re saying the first time will provide them with the reassurance they need to move forward.

Ask Need-Defining Questions

You’ll want to go beyond pleasantries when talking to a patient, because you don’t want to have to call them back for more information after you hang up. That could cause them to lose confidence in your abilities, and may make them look elsewhere. Part of your phone skills training should help you get all the information you need during the initial call, whether it means giving a detailed message to the doctor or gathering insurance information before an appointment.

Be Careful When Discussing Access to Care

Access to care is critically important to patients, who may be worried about a health problem and want it addressed immediately. That means they don’t want to wait a few weeks for an appointment, and whether they leave your practice or wait for your next appointment will depend on how your front desk conveys this information.

Instead of saying, “We don’t have any appointments available,” you can find a gentler way to share your next available appointment. For instance, you might say, “Let me find an appointment. It looks like we have one open on September 20, would that work for you?”

Make Sure the Patient Doesn’t Have Additional Needs

When it comes time to end the call, ask one additional question before you go to ensure the patient that you aren’t simply providing them with a transactional phone call. For instance, you might say, “Thank you for calling today. Is there anything else you need?” Or perhaps you might say, “If you need anything else, please let me know or call me back and ask for me.”

Adding this to your phone skills training helps forge a relationship with the patient that will make them think fondly of your practice, even after they hang up the phone.

To learn more about the best way to handle patient phone calls, check out the online training session, Front Desk: First Rate Phone Etiquette Skills for Your Practice, presented by Tracy Bird, FACMPE, CPC, CPMA, CEMC, CPC-I. During the 60-minute training, you’ll find out how to perfect your patient phone calls to keep patients happy and coming back to your practice.


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