What Messages Are You Sending Through the Phone Line? Telephone interactions in your elective surgery practice are vitally important to your reputation and your bottom line. Every time your staff answers or makes a phone call they are sending an impression about your practice. Are those impressions: Positive: Friendly, knowledgeable, forthcoming, helpful Negative: Rushed, secretive, pushy, uncaring A positive patient experience extends beyond your office doors. While you probably (hopefully) place a great deal of effort to make patients in your office feel welcome and comfortable, some practices neglect to extend that same feeling into their phone interactions. The truth is that some people may be quite nervous to call your office; they may feel unsure about pursuing a medical procedure that they don’t necessarily “need.” They may be very anxious about asking the cost of the procedure. And they may not really know what they want – and just know that they aren’t happy with their current situation (the state of their vision, their body image, their appearance, etc.). All of these different scenarios require your staff to get to the real root of the call, provide as much detailed information as possible and give the caller the opportunity for success – all with a friendly, caring attitude. This is a skill that doesn’t always come naturally to people, but it can be learned through training and practice. If you aren’t quite sure how your staff handles phone calls, have someone “secret shop” your practice right away. And if your staff doesn’t have a concrete plan of action to address every type of caller, register for our medical marketing webinar, “6 Steps to Effective Elective Surgery Phone Sales,” on Aug. 22 at 12:00pm EDT or Aug. 28 at 3:30pm EDT. You will learn 6 steps to make your elective surgery phone sales more productive. Register today!