1. Phone Training That Will Help Your
Practice Succeed!

2. • First Contact (Inbound call handling, specializing in converting
new leads to consults)
• ACE (Actual Consumer Experience) Phone Training
• Boomerang – outbound patient reactivation calls and scheduling
• On-line Chat

3. Why are we qualified?
• We have taken over
2,000,000 patient phone
calls
• We worked with over 300
practices nationwide
• We work closely with
practices on the front lines
of all their business
development efforts
• We get to experience first
hand what is working from
practice across the country

4. Today’s Speakers
• Bill Mercier – President
of OptiCall
• Dylan Kemna – Director
of Business
Development for
OptiCall

5. What We Will Cover Today
✓Current trends and challenges for today’s
practices
✓Why customer service is such a key part of the
phone call process
✓How to create a phone plan with a customer
service mindset
✓Steps we take at OptiCall during our own
training and hiring process

6. Poll 1:
Who is the most important person in
your practice?

7. Patient Care BEGINS at the FRONT DESK
Yet, these are the employees that usually:
• Receive the least medical
education
• Are put in cramped cubicles
or “out of sight, out of
mind” in triage centers of
separate buildings
• Are expected to multi task:
check patients in, collect co-
payments, schedule clinical
follow-up appts, order
test, and handle walk-in
appts

8. Fun Facts!
✓45% of consumers initiated a purchase over the
phone in the last year
✓Of those callers, 70% were put on hold!
✓The average hold time was 57 seconds
✓Business executives spend an average of 15
minutes PER DAY on hold
Sources:
ohma.org
messageonhold.us.com
voicestamps.com/phone_versus_internet.html

9. More Fun Facts!
✓94% of most marketing budgets are spent
persuading a customer to call
✓6% of most marketing budgets are spent on
handing the customers call
Sources:
ohma.org
messageonhold.us.com
voicestamps.com/phone_versus_internet.html

10. More Fun Facts!
34% of callers who hang up do not call back!

11. Poll 2:
Why do 45% of most customers not
book at the first place they call?

12. 45% Do Not Book Due to Poor
Customer Service
• Contributing Factors
– Patient felt they were
kept on hold too long
– They had to repeat
information to multiple
people
– Felt representative was
not knowledgeable or
could not solve problems
– Responses to patient’s
messages or email were
too slow

13. Reasons Control is Lost on the Phones
• Wrong people
answering the phone
• Improper training or no
training
• Phone staff is
multitasking
• Staff turnover

14. The Practice and the Staff Must have a
Customer Service Mindset

15. To Succeed in Business You Must Have
• Excellent Product
• Excellent Delivery System
• Excellent Customer Service Mindset

16. Creating an Effective Phone Plan
• Having the right people
• Creating the right scripting with a customer
service mindset

17. Hiring the Right People
• Demeanor
• Willing, Able, Committed
• Phone Voice
• Paint Customer Service
Scenarios (i.e. How do
you respond when you
don’t know the answer?)

18. Quantity vs. Quality-Where The Best
Hires Come From
• Only 7% of job applicants come from
referrals, but they make up 40% of the hires
• Retention rates after 3 years are 47% for
referrals vs. 14% for job board applicants
• Consider the Source - "A" players typically
hang out with other highly motivated, hard
working people. On the flip side, "C" players
hang around other "C" players.

19. New hires gain experience by secret
shopping practices
• This provides first hand
experience of what
other practices sound
like across the country.
• We use this step to
identify opportunities
to improve calls during
our training.

20. Job Shadowing
Who does it best currently in your office?
3 Steps to our Process
• Watching
• Typing
• Taking Calls

21. Create the Right Culture

22. If a telephone call
comes in from...
•Existing patient
•Vendor Rep
•Family member
•Pizza Delivery Person
•Fed Ex Delivery Person
•Wrong number
Who Is The Consumer?

23. Everyone is a Consumer!
First impressions matter:
✓Who you are as a practice
✓How knowledgeable you
are
✓Is this a caring practice
✓Will I be taken care of
✓Are people professional
✓Should I come to this
practice
✓Should I STAY in this
practice

24. Creating A Phone Plan
With A Customer Service Mindset

25. 9 Tips for Better Phone Conversions
• Capture every lead routinely
• Ensure that calls follow a format that maximizes the potential of gaining
new business
• Assign informed and well educated counselors to handle your
refractive/elective calls
• Script your calls in advance so you can dependably predict the outcome
• Ensure that your staff is kind and correct on every call
• Call your own office as a patient to experience and improve upon your
own front office
• Research your competition and improve upon their style
• Allow your staff to answer your refractive/elective calls uninterrupted
• Prepare to make mistakes and accept that they will be made. The key is to
learn from them while
• maintaining morale which ultimately reflects on your call quality

26. The Anatomy Of A Call
“Logical Progression”
•The Introduction
•Exploration- learn about the caller and their
needs
•Education- what to do next
•Closing- appointment, or info only?

27. Step 1
Be Prepared
and Smile!
Verbal Handshake

28. The Greeting
Sample Script:
• “Thank you for calling ______!
This is _____ how may I help
you?” 58% do this!
• Response “Great, I can help
you with that!”
• May I ask for your name?
Thanks (name) and how are
you today? 3.67% do this!
• May I have a number in case
we get disconnected?
Why Do this?
• A proper greeting gives a
great first impression
• Using their name creates a
personal relationship with
the caller
• Dale Carnegie says a
person’s first name is their
favorite word

29. How did you hear about us?
Script:
• “(Name) are you a patient
of ours already?” 7%!
• If they are not an existing
patient…”May I ask how you
heard about us?”
Why do this?
• This is the beginning of
establishing rapport and
creating a conversation
• Practices spend a lot of
money on marketing and
need to know what’s
working

30. Exploration
Script:
• What procedure are you
interested in? 61%!
• What are your goals for
having the procedure?
• Pull vs. Push
communication style
Why do this?
• These questions ENGAGE the
caller caller while also
controlling and leading the
conversation. Building
Rapport-Gaining Trust-
Creating Comfort
• This question may help reveal
any disqualifying conditions
and/or the need for further
discussion requirements for
the first step.

31. How to handle price?
• Do not avoid price
question, caller may lose
trust and find someone
that will give price.
• Have script prepared
whether it is a range or
specific price.
• “Is that about what you
were expecting?”
• Validate why your price is
worth it!

32. Education
• “Have you ever been in
to see if you are a
candidate for this
procedure?”
• Paint a picture of the
next step
– Is it free?
– Who they meet with?
– How long?
– Any Expectations you
want them to have.

33. The Call to Action
Be proactive…invite them in!
Script
• Assumptive close: “I have
next Tuesday at 2 or
Wednesday at 3 available,
would either of those work
for you?”
• Asking permission: “Would
you like me to check my
calendar to see what I have
available? What do and/or
time works best for you?
Why do this?
• Many offices will talk about
the first step but then wait
for the patient to request
the consult.
• Often, a patient is let off the
phone without anything
happening.

34. Each call should accomplish
1 of 2 goals:
•Book an appointment
•Capture the lead if the patient does not book, so
you can follow up and cultivate (do this by
offering to send information)

35. Don’t Fumble
At The 1 Yard Line!
Create a follow
up plan and
mine your
active leads

36. Persistency of Response
•Total average responses (all types)
•Average number of phone calls made to new leads:
•Average # of emails sent to new leads:
•Percent if companies that never responded:
2.2!
1.0!
0.9!
51.4%!
Source: 2012 Retrospect LRM Study

37. The Importance of Prompt Follow Up
Results from MIT Lead
Response Study:
www.leadresponsemanag
ement.org/lrm_study

38. Training is ongoing…Be great at who
you are and you become AWESOME at
what you do!

39. Results and Monitoring

40. Poll 3:
Have you ever done a mystery shop on your
practice to get an idea of how well you
practice is converting leads?

41. Do you have a way to review calls
internally?

42. Inspect What You Expect From Your Staff
• Complimentary Mystery
Shop for Webinar
Attendees ($350 Value:
5 recorded spy calls to
your practice)
www.opticall.com/site/f
ree-practice-phone-
assessment.htm
• Please complete the
survey to advantage of
this offer

43. Thank You!
Bill Mercier - President
bmercier@opticall.com
Dylan Kemna –Director of
Business Development
dkemna@opticall.com
941-893-2400
www.opticall.com
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www.slideshare.net/opticall
www.twitter.com/opticall