Attract, Convert and Deliver: Patient Communication

You're listening to the Phil Klein Dental Podcast We all know as dental professionals the importance of good patient communication. It's a very important aspect of our practice. To give us some insight into patient communication and what we should be thinking about in our practice and actually doing is our guest, Dr. Todd Snyder. Dr. Snyder is a regular contributor to VivaLearning.com. He's a cosmetic dentist, international author, lecturer, and consultant to a variety of dental companies. He can be reached online at legion.dentist. Dr. Snyder will be joining us in one second, but first, we all know that to achieve healthy, beautiful smiles, we sometimes need to align the teeth. And to do so, aligner therapy is a great option. So why not set your practice apart with 3M Clarity Aligners Flex, designed for comfort? Clarity Aligners Flex feature a thin, flexible design, yet they deliver excellent force persistence over a two-week period. Plus, they resist scratching and stains, and they're backed by a dedicated clinician team providing support every step of the way. With a variety of affordable case-type options, single or dual-arch, Clarity Aligners Flex offer a great value to your patients and practice. To learn more, visit 3M.com slash clarity dash aligners dash flex. Dr. Snyder, thanks for joining us. Great to be here, Phil. So let's start with dental marketing. Now marketing is a big part of patient communication. So as a practice continues to get more leads through various marketing initiatives, what are some common problems that an office runs into? I'd say the biggest thing that I've seen, and it's been shown throughout lots of research from different dental manufacturing companies, as far as the ability for the front office to have been trained properly to be able to answer a phone call in such a manner that motivates the patient to see this office as the place to be. And so call recordings where companies go back and listen to an employee on how they... phone calls. It's amazing the recordings over time that you can hear of literally front offices turning away patients almost just because of the verbiage they choose to utilize and the way they interact with the consumer. So I'd say the first thing to look at is definitely training your front office because they are the lifeblood of your practice as far as I'm concerned. They will make and break you. If you can have a phenomenal person up front that's great at motivating people that you're the office to be seen at, then you're gold. So spending money on that becomes quite valuable as far as training and holding people accountable and listening to actual phone calls. Yeah, so that person who you hire for the front office or that front desk who's getting those calls, you really need to be careful on that hire. We're going to be talking about that in a later podcast that we're going to be doing, talking about the value of employees as it pertains to the success of the practice. So do you recommend doing a survey afterwards to that patient? sending them a survey saying, hey, you know, you spoke to Sarah. How'd she do? Did she answer all your questions? Are you satisfied with your conversation? Is that something that you recommend? You know, that's interesting. I haven't done one of those, but that might be a fun thing to look into. You know, I've listened to recordings and I've had people grade our recordings and my employees know that they're always going to be listened to and they've had training on it. So in that sense, I haven't really been overly concerned with asking the client, but that becomes something I should think of and should be doing potentially. It seems to me if I was answering the phone and I knew that the person I'm talking to is going to be evaluating me in about five minutes. I'm going to be awfully careful of how I address that person and answer their needs. So you talked about training. How does an office train their staff on patient follow-up and communication? As far as the communication skill set, I use a company known as All-Star Dental Academy. I've been using them for numerous years. I don't have time like most dentists. We don't have time to train our employees. And so hence, if we don't have time, then we have employees that are not trained. correctly. And so research has shown like 99% of ops don't train their employees. So we assume that they're doing the best and yet we don't train them. We don't hold them accountable. We don't, you know. follow up on things. So I would say get the front office train. There's training 24-7 online. From there, have some type of platform that allows you to go back and listen to phone calls. And so me, I was content with the training and their skill set on the phone, but I never thought of like, well, maybe the patient perceives something different than what I perceive because I think phone calls are going great. So I'm going to definitely look into that. That's the only one I know that does incredible phone training. I know there's other... you know, practice management people out there that probably do walk through that. The thing I like about this is it's all pre-recorded so people can listen to it as often as they want, whenever they want. So I find that to be great value for myself and my employees. We'll be right back with Dr. Snyder in a moment. But first, as a dental professional, you spend a large part of your day in the operatory. That's why partnering with the right dental company for the best dental equipment is so important to you and your practice. The folks at DentalEase understand that every practice is different, so they've created a customizable suite of treatment room packages to fit every need. Whether you have lots of room or need to be super efficient with your space, DentalEase has a configuration that will work for you. Known for its revolutionary J-chair and designer-friendly forest equipment, such as lighting and sturdy ergonomic chairs, Dentalese combines comfort, beauty, and efficiency into its state-of-the-art operatory equipment. And when it comes to utility room equipment, nothing beats RAMVAC. It's quiet, reliable, and backed by industry-leading warranties. To learn more about how Dentalese can customize and transform your operatory into one that you'll be proud of, visit dentalese.com. When you talk about communication in the dental practice, how do you define the term communication? Give us a general concept on that. Well, you know, it's interesting because there's a lot of different types of communications. If we're talking about marketing, I call it the legion trifecta. You have to attract and convert, and then you get to deliver. So there's three sides to it. So we talked about marketing. Now we're talking about communication, which is converting someone. When someone calls in on the phone, they have not made an appointment. They're trying to communicate in such a manner to feel out that this is going to be the right home for them. And so that conversion, that's the first point of touch with your front office employee. Now, should they do a great job and that patient moves forward, they show up in your office. Now it's their front office job again to convert this person to feel good that they're in the right place and to make it easy and convenient. And then the next part becomes the next employee handoff. you know, whoever that is, they have to communicate in such a fashion to make this person feel like they're in the right place. And then finally it comes down to the dentist because there's a lot of times people come in for consultations and the dentist blows it somehow. And so the communication between the dentist and the patient is critical for success, especially if you're trying to do these big, you know, if you're marketing for your platinum offer that might be, you know, 10,000 plus, you have to do a great job of communicating. And they don't teach us that in dental school. So unless you've gone out and taken communication courses and psychology classes and learned how to interact with someone and speak in a manner that propels them to want to move forward and say yes, then there's a good chance you could be repelling someone based on your interaction. Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts to the whole communication process. the different stages of where the patient is in the process of getting part of that office and continuing with treatment. And, you know, it's like anything else. It takes a lot of work and diligence to get that patient, to get them to engage with your office and accept treatment. But it could take one bad experience, a bad communication with one employee, and that patient doesn't come back anymore. It's just that fast because it's an emotional thing on the patient side. It's just an emotional thing. It's like, I'm not spending my money here because that person was just rude to me. That's how it goes. The dentist is working so hard and they don't exactly know what's going on around them with their employees. Last question for this podcast, how do you communicate to patients in a manner that motivates them in different ways? Not only motivates them to get their friends to come to the office, to get their family to come to the office, but for them to do more treatment if necessary and get the confidence that they need that this office is the perfect office for them. You know, it's a long conversation. We call it inception. So the ability to communicate with someone in such a manner where you're asking questions and you're leading someone based on your line of questioning to to have them have a certain mindset. We call it framing their mindset to think a certain way that they're going to come to the conclusion you wanted them to come to by your line of questioning. And by doing this, someone comes up with the answer on their own or they think they did it on their own, even though you were guiding them and you're questioning. And when someone comes up with their own kind of concepts or solutions, that's tied to them in a manner that's different than us telling someone they need something done. So emotionally, you said it a minute ago, they are emotionally connected when it's their belief and their opinion. They're more inclined to pay for something and do something when they feel that they are the ones choosing to spend their money. versus you telling them they need it and telling them they have to spend money, they're not as interested. And that's why people will pay crazy amounts of money for cars and shoes and jewelry and everything else because even though it does nothing for them in their world, emotionally it makes them feel like they will be somebody different or makes them feel better about themselves when they interact with others, whatever that is. And so they're willing to part with money because of the value they created for themselves when they own that tangible item. So if they can create value for themselves for dentistry based on the line of questioning, they will be more at ease in spending their money and getting treatment done. That is a totally different type of concept and communication that is typically not done in dentistry. It's usually, hey, you've got a cavity. You need it fixed. It's X amount of dollars. See the lady at the front to schedule. Thank you very much, Dr. Snyder. Again, great stuff. We'll see you on the next podcast, which is going to be talking about reliable and efficient systems. Until then, have a great evening. Thank you, Phil. If you're enjoying this podcast, please leave a review or follow us on your favorite podcast platform. It's a great way to support our program and spread the word to others. Thanks so much for listening. See you in the next episode.