Chris (00:01.676)
What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to the No BS Dental Growth podcast. I’m Chris Pistorius, and today we’re getting into something that I see killing dental practices every single week. And guess what? It has nothing to do with your SEO, your Google ads or your social media. It’s your phones. Now, before you roll your eyes and say, Chris, my front desk is great. They’ve been with me for years. Just tear me out. OK.
because I promise you something on this list is happening in your practice right now. And it is costing you money, maybe even thousand dollars a month, depending on what type of practice you are. And it’s costing you money in appointments that never made it onto your schedule. We’re talking about the five phone calls that are quietly killing your schedule. So let’s get into it. And hey, if you’re getting value out of this show, do me a favor, hit subscribe wherever you’re listening.
We put out new episodes every week specifically for independent dentists who want to grow their practices the right way. Now let’s go. So, okay, call number one. I call this the information dump. A potential new patient calls in, they’re interested. They say, hey, I’m looking about coming in for a cleaning. Do you guys accept my insurance? And your front desk person launches into a five minute monologue about your insurance policies.
Your fees, your hours, your doctor’s credentials, the technology you use. And by the end of it, the patient is overwhelmed and they say, okay, I’ll call back. And they never do. Here’s the problem. Your job on that first phone call is not to inform them of everything. It’s to schedule. That’s it. Answer the specific question that they asked, confirm you can help them, and then get them onto the calendar. Everything else, the insurance breakdown, the treatment details, the patient paperwork.
happens after they’re already booked. Get them on the schedule first. The information dump signals to the patient that your practice is complicated. And complicated means they started shopping around. That they will start shopping around. So keep it simple. Answer, confirm, schedule. Now call number two is what I call the price shopper fumble. Someone calls and asks, how much does a crown cost?
Chris (02:16.747)
and your front desk person either gives them an exact number, which immediately opens the door to price comparison, or they say, I’m not sure, I’d have to ask the doctor, and they put them on hold for three minutes or more while the patient hangs up. Neither of those is right, by the way. The correct move here is to acknowledge the question, validate that cost is important, and then bridge to value. Something like, great question, our fees, they’ll really depend on what’s going on with your specific situation.
and we never want to quote you something inaccurate. What we can do though is get you in for a quick exam so Dr. Taylor can give you an exact number and walk you through your options. We have some openings this week. Does Tuesday or Thursday work better for you? Notice there was no hesitation there. I went right to assuming to the scheduling.
So you didn’t dodge the question. You reacted and you respected their time and you moved towards a booking. That’s how you handle a price shopper. Not with a number, but with a plan. Call number three is what I call the dead end hold. And this one makes me cringe every time I hear it on a call recording. The patient calls, they’re greeted and they immediately, can you hold please? Click hold music. Sometimes they come back in 30 seconds. Sometimes it’s three minutes and sometimes
This actually happens, they forget the patient is on hold entirely. I just saw this happen last week when I was listening to some calls. Even if they come back quickly, you’ve already created friction. This just pisses people off. mean, put yourself in those shoes, right? The patient feels like an afterthought and first impressions are everything, especially for a new patient calling for the very first time. The fix here though is simple, but it does require training.
If you absolutely must put somebody on hold, you ask permission first. I don’t want to make sure I give you, I want to make sure I give you my full attention. Do you mind if I put you on hold for just a moment? And then you get back to them in under 60 seconds every time. Better yet, invest in a system that handles overflow calls. So no new patient ever hits hold peak, during peak hours. Your front desk should not have to break or choose between helping someone standing in front of them.
Chris (04:34.803)
and a new patient calling on the line.
Call number four, the voicemail black hole. This one isn’t about what happens during the call. It’s more about what happens when there is no call because the patient went to voicemail and nobody called them back. Or it’s just a bad idea in today’s age to go to voicemail at all and answering services honestly are worse. But I’ve seen practices where new patient voicemails sit for 24, 48, sometimes 72 hours before anyone follows up. Now by that time, they’ve already booked somewhere else.
And quite frankly, probably they booked someone else within 10 minutes. Studies show if you don’t respond to a new patient inquiry within five minutes, your chances of connecting them with them drop over 80%. Five minutes, that’s not a whole lot of room for error. Now I get it, you’re busy. Your front desk is juggling check-ins, insurance, phone calls, and a waiting room full of people. This is exactly why we recommend AI follow-up and after hours voice solutions. If a patient calls at 7 p.m.,
they should be getting a response with somebody that can actually interact with them, even though it is an automated one.
The voicemail black hole is a silent revenue killer and most practice owners have no idea how many leads they’re actually going to, they’re losing to this every single month. finally call number five, the no confirmation chaos. This is specifically about how your practice handles appointment confirmations or more accurately how it doesn’t. Let’s say a patient books, they’re on the schedule and then nothing, no confirmation call, no text reminder, no email.
Chris (06:12.67)
They show up or they don’t. And when they don’t, you’re left with a hole in your schedule that you scrambled to fill at the last minute. Or on the flip side, your front desk calls to confirm. The patient says they need to reschedule and there’s no system to immediately backfill that slot, so it just sits empty. Every no-show and last-minute cancellation that you don’t have a system to handle is money walking out the door. You need a multi-touch confirmation sequence. Text, email, maybe a call.
And you need a wait list system so that when a slot opens up, you’re filling it in within the hour, not leaving it empty. This isn’t about nagging patients. It’s about professional communication and practices that do this right. See no show rates drop dramatically. All right. So there they are. The five phone calls that are killing your schedule, the information dump, the price shopper fumble, the dead end hold, the voicemail black hole.
and the no confirmation chaos. Here’s the thing, none of these are your front desk team’s fault. They are systems problems. And system problems have system solutions. The first step is just number one, knowing they exist, acknowledge them and do something about them, right? In its simplest form. If you want to know exactly how your phones are performing right now, we offer call tracking and analysis as part of our 90 day sprint program. You might be shocked at what you hear by that.
That’s it for today’s episode. If this was useful, and I think it was, I hope so, please take two seconds and hit subscribe on whatever platform you’re listening on. It helps more independent dentists like you find this show. And that’s exactly who I’m making it for. And if you want to talk about what’s really holding your practice back from growth, head over to kickstartdentalmarketing.com, book a free discovery call with me. We’ll look at your numbers, your systems, and tell you exactly where the leak is. I’m Chris Pistorius.
I’ll see you on the next episode.
