Is Your Dental Practice Guilty Of Making This Simple, But Very Expensive Mistake?

Every dental practice is making this simple mistake.

Every day.

Of every week.

Day after day after day.

And this simple mistake, repeated over and over and over day in and day out, week in and week out, is costing you and your dental practice a veritable fortune.

The money you are losing in your dental practice is money that could be used to be sending your children to a better school.

And its money that you could be spending on an overseas vacation for you and your spouse [and children] each and every year.

It’s money that you could be using to reward your valuable staff for their continued help…

This mistake your practice is making REPEATEDLY day after day is costing you your health.

Because you are having to work longer hours, and for more years, just to claw yourself back to the position you should be in if your practice WAS NOT making this mistake.

The good news is that every dental practice out there is making this mistake.

The bad news is that just because everybody else is foolishly doing it doesn’t make it ok for your practice to be doing this.

What is the mistake that is being made that should not be being made?

Putting it simply, the mistake that dental practices are making is to turn away patients without finding out sufficiently what that patient is in need of and whether or not we are able to help that patient.

This is being done every hour of every day in every dental practice.

Someone calls up your dental practice and asks a simple question.

Your receptionist answers the question asked with the answer that SHE THINKS is best FOR YOUR PRACTICE  without finding out a little bit more information from the caller.

And without that extra information, the receptionist answers the question THAT SHE THINKS SHE HEARS, rather than clarifying a few things with the caller so that she is able to help the caller with the true reason that the caller has called in the first place.

I was telling this story to my fencer….

I was telling this story to my fencer. Well he’s not really my fencer. He’s a guy who has come and helped me replace all the fences on my property, as well as perform several planting and tree lopping jobs as well.

So he’s really his own self.

Anyway, to protect the innocent, let’s call the fencing guy Bob. [Bob is not his real name].

So I was telling Bob about how the act of poorly answering dental phones can see valuable patients that need significant amounts of dentistry just slip right out of the dental practice because the dental receptionist has answered the question she THOUGHT that she heard the caller ask.

Instead of clarifying a few things with the caller and uncovering the true reason for the call.

So Bob [not his real name] also does some lawnmowing work for a local contractor.

Here’s a story Bob [not his real name] then shared with me.

A while back, Bob sees a “Lawnmower required” sign in his travels and he rings the number, talks to the guy who needs the lawnmower, and does a site inspection.

The site that needs mowing is a new development, so there are a significant number of vacant lots that need to be maintained so potential buyers can walk those lots. There are also some nature strips to do along with a communal park where residents’ children play.

The problem is, the lawnmowing contractor that Bob [not his real name] works for, thinks that the job is a little too far to travel for. So the contractor refers the job to a friend of his who does smaller mowing jobs but lives closer to the development.

To cut a long story short, the friend gets the contract. It’s a weekly mow [the lots need to look spick and span each week for selling] and the job pays $2300 per week, and the contract is for over a year.

That’s a $115000.00 per year contract that the contractor just turned down…

When the contractor was looking for work at that time.

Bob [not his real name] could not believe it.

And the beauty about grass, is that it grows and it grows and it grows.

There’s a lot of long term repeat business mowing lawns.

How does this relate to dentistry?

A caller to your office asks:

“How much do you guys charge for a clean?”

The dental receptionist answers:

“We can’t see you until November, we’re fully booked”

And so the caller hangs up and calls elsewhere.

What the dental receptionist failed to ask was the REAL REASON why that person was calling about teeth cleaning.

What the dental receptionist failed to find out was that the caller had just ended their marriage, and they really were interested in veneers and crowns and a full mouth makeover to get back at their cheating husband….

The thing is, it was just that the caller didn’t know what to ask first….

And it’s a pity that the dental receptionist did not know how to ask the best questions to tease out the real reason and purpose of the phone call.

This is sort of thing is happening every hour of every day in every dental practice.

I know because we’re listening to the good practices who are trying to rectify this problem.

The bad practices?

They’re just bumbling along trying to save a few pennies while the big dollars are blowing away from right under their owners’ noses…

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Need your phones monitored?

Are you concerned about the number of calls that are not being answered as best they can be?

You need Call Tracking Excellence.

For the cost of a less than one cleaning per week, you could have your phones being answered much much better….

Convert more calls into appointments…Click the link: http://www.calltrackingexcellence.com

Call Jayne on 1300 378 044 or email Jayne@theDPE.com  for more details.

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Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

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The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com