Are you managing your time wisely yet or still leaving destiny to chance?
Treatment coordination is the crucial moment in which your patient exits the consultation with you and is now convinced that you are the right choice. This is when you hand him/her over to your team.
All team members need to internalise the different steps to a point where it comes absolutely natural to them to finalise the appointment and get a solid commitment in form of a deposit and a date of treatment.
Many people are commitment phobic – they avoid locking anything in solid.
Many people say, “Let me get back to you, I don’t know my schedule.”
A significant percentage of patients get lost at this point of the patient experience.
The common things heard by the front team even after they’ve said yes to you in your consult room and agreed to go ahead with you at the treatment coordination stage, they tell your front team that they want to think about it, or they want to check their schedule, or they want to discuss it with their partner.
And hence they leave without making any commitment, and most of the times they don’t show up.
This particular strategy is to make it as strong as possible for the patient to make a commitment and not leave it to hope.
So, the million-dollar question is – How do you do that?
THE HANDOVER
You must handle the handover.
Let me give you an example.
“Hey, Sylvia. Bob has agreed to go up with the 10 veneers, so we’re going to transform his smile. Yes, Bob, yes?”
Notice that it’s “Yes, Bob.”
I ask Bob to follow the ‘yes’ commitment by nodding and saying ‘yes’. I turn to my receptionist and say, “Sylvia, that’s fantastic. Please arrange the necessary paperwork. Bob, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you next time.”
I look at Sylvia, and then I look at Bob and say ‘yes’.
How effective is that simple handover?
Then, Sylvia would say, “Okay. My pleasure, Bob.” And I will walk away to help the next patient.
THE TAKEOVER
From the handover, comes the takeover. There are 10 steps involved in the takeover and it is super important that your Treatment Coordinator adheres to each step.
Step 1: Sylvia would say, “Bob, how was your consultation with Dr. Shah?” And then “Fantastic. All right Bob. Let’s go over what Dr Shah recommended as a treatment. Let’s go over your plan of the veneers.”
Step 2: By that time, it’s been printed out, she goes over the plan and tells you what the final cost is. This is the step payment plans are discussed as well.
“This is the cost and Dr. Shah said this would be done over two appointments”
“The first appointment is a two-hour booking and there’s a deposit of $500 for that to secure your exclusive appointment.” The word we use is ‘to secure your appointment’. We educate our clients to understand that the time is exclusively booked for them with Dr. Shah and their deposit goes towards their treatment.
I call it the ‘SET Principle’ – Secure, Exclusive and Towards.
Did you know that 90%–95% of practices don’t take deposits? It a major pain point for most dentists.
When people pay a deposit, they are serious.
In our practice, 99% of patients leave a deposit with this strategy.
If a client said, “I need to look into my funds,” I’ll say, “Fantastic. I’ll temporary book you an appointment. This will remain active for 24 hours. What time tomorrow morning can I call you? I can take a payment over the phone.”
They usually say, “Okay. 10:00 in the morning.” We will call at 10am.
The whole idea is that if you want to grow this practice, all these strategies need to be in place. You can’t not be seeing patients for one hour, because as dentists, if you’re sitting idle and people don’t show up, your business can’t be sustained.
You need to have less cancellations and more serious appointments.
The key of a successful treatment coordination is to make the patient feel looked after and reinforced to have made the right decision by choosing you!
There are 8 more steps which are required for a successful treatment coordination. Want to learn more? You can reach out to me for a complimentary strategy session to find out what it takes to double your productivity and profits.
Take Action, Stay Tuned and Get Excited for the next edition featuring the one and only Follow Up and Follow Through Strategy you dental team needs to master!
Dr Kinnar Shah (BDS)
Certified High Performance Coach
Certified Gallup Strengths Coach
NLP Leadership & Business Coach
Advanced Psych-K Facilitator
Digital Marketing Specialist
