Phone Skills = First (or Last) Impression

Never underestimate the power of phone answering skills. The way a dental practice phone is answered can lead to a new patient appointment (or the lack of one). Good skills can lead to de-escalation of a frustrated patient and to the positive feeling of satisfaction while neutral or negative skills can unintentionally upset a patient or drive a patient away. Dr. Kuba and Bethany jump into this very important topic in today’s episode. When is the last time that you considered the way in which your phones are answered? The impact of the phone is incredible, so listen closely! 

Previous Episodes Worth Revisiting: 

The Basics of Team Building 

 How to Tackle Uncomfortable Conversations with Employees 

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Transcript

Are you looking for a podcast where you can hear from real people regarding their real dental drama? If so, then
0:09
you've come to the right place. Join hosts Bethany Penny and Dr. Reena Kuba
0:14
as we dive into the solutions we've created and the mistakes we've made while managing dental drama.
0:22
Let's get started. Um, morning, greetings, hello, etc., etc. I was kind of cranky in the other
0:29
podcast. I'm kind of cranky again today. What's up with the double crank? I know. I know. Uh maybe it's the Texas
0:37
heat that's just getting to me. I don't know. Um but this time I was full of
0:42
venom for the team last time and their lack of appreciation of the appreciation events we're trying to
0:48
hold. Um so uh but now I'm back with my venom pointed elsewhere.
0:54
Oh, okay. And and I've I've I'm always venomous about this. It's nothing new.
0:59
If y'all have been listening for a while, you've you've heard me. Um it's not insurance companies this time, but
1:04
maybe next week that's what I'll do. Um but this time, I just get so annoyed
1:11
at how medical gets away with their
1:16
ultra ultra subpar, and that's my nice word. I'm trying to I promised myself I
1:22
would try to watch my potty mouth on this podcast. I know I've been going a little crazy lately, so I'm that's I'm
1:27
making an effort. I'm going to call it subpar even though y'all can fill in whatever words you know that I want to
1:32
put in here. Uh customer service and they get away with it. And I am just appalled and
1:40
horrified and beyond annoyed that they get away with their subpar customer
1:47
service. Not even customer, there's lack of. Forget subpar. Like there's none.
1:52
It's not even subpar. It's zero. Um and and how do they get away with it and all
1:58
the things in dental that we have to do that we kill it and crush it? So anyway, um but the reason this is
2:06
coming up now is because I've I've dealt with a couple more recently. Like I think you know I go to a lot of uh
2:12
appointments with my parents. This summer was busy. I didn't get a chance to go a lot. So now I'm kind of throwing
2:17
myself back into rotation to kind of help. And so I'm reminded again of just
2:23
how crummy is that a better word? That's a good word. What I usually crummy um
2:28
that it is. And so it but it occurred to me to go, you know, I assume dental is
2:34
crushing it and killing it, but maybe we're not. And and not for lack of trying. I think we really do
2:40
try. Um and I guess where I wanted to kind of know. So, I will say I've not
2:47
I've not had a crummy experience with dental, but I I it did beg the question for me
2:55
to go, do we even know how our front is handling things or even our back if the
3:00
back like what are these interactions like? Because I know it's such a exhausting topic for me to go I don't
3:09
want to sit and like listen in at the front desk. I just don't want to. It's cringey. I know I'm going to find stuff
3:15
that I don't like just because it's the nature of business. Yeah.
3:20
And it's so much easier to say, I'm going to just bury my head and trust that it's okay. Yeah. Um, so the one example off the top
3:28
of my head um was my optometrist uh office and um and I do think of
3:35
optical almost like a little different than medical because there are optometrists all over the place and I
3:42
think they probably have to be a little more like dental rather than true medical. And maybe I'm wrong in all of
3:48
that and if there's some optometrist listening and going you're full of it. Yeah, you're right. I I don't I'm just speaking off the top of my head
3:54
from assumptions. Yeah. From assumptions, but I think like chiropractics and optometrists and us
4:00
are kind of we're not uh what do you call it? um elective necessarily like people need
4:07
glasses and need to see but at the same time I think there's a bunch of like in the mall
4:13
places and so to come to your office is a little bit of a um you know step away
4:20
from the person who's just like I'm just going to go to the mall and get my glasses from the big box places. I agree
4:26
or I could go to Costco or I could go to Walmart but I'm choosing to come to you optometrist separate. So, I do think
4:32
they have to have a little bit more customer service would be my assumption. So, I call um to make my appointment and
4:41
I I can just tell like my vision's changing. Like I've never been able to tell that before, but I can tell now getting older and trying to deal with
4:48
all of that, you know, realities of that. So anyway, I'm like I can't
4:53
remember when my last appointment was, but usually I get the card or a text reminder or something. And so I'm like,
5:00
I'm pretty sure I'm not due yet, but I need to invest in a new set of glasses,
5:05
so let me just um call and get that scheduled. So I call and I asked the
5:11
lady who answers and I said, "Hey, you know, I don't I don't think I'm due. So, if you could check that for me, if my
5:18
insurance will cover it or not. And um and I need to get in to see the doctor.
5:23
So, so she decides to tackle tackle the insurance part of it first, which I did ask. Yeah.
5:28
You know, and so she's like, "Okay, so what's your name? What's your whatever?" And she's like, "Oh, yep. You're not
5:35
showing that you have any coverage." And I'm thinking she's an idiot. So, I'm just like, "My insurance hasn't changed.
5:42
I've been a patient there for 20 years maybe and I've had the same insurance
5:47
for the last 15 so should be the same. Yeah, I'm not showing the chimney coverage this or
5:52
that like whatever. Anyway, she gets stuck on this insurance piece and I finally was just like okay you know what
5:58
I will look into that. Can I make an appointment though? like and I guess
6:04
because we have spent so much money and time over the years going through scheduling institute training and we do
6:10
their phone training every year at least every other year and again they're not called scheduling institute anymore
6:15
whatever they're called now but they even had like another spin-off and they've been spending all this time and money telling us like this part of it
6:21
does this and I'm like who cares if anybody from SI is listening I I don't really get why we care like as long as
6:28
you're offering your same great trainings what do I care like is the phone number change like is that the only thing I need to know? I don't
6:35
care. Whatever. It clearly it's important to them for some reason and I haven't caught on to why it's important
6:40
yet. I keep getting these mailers but I keep not reading them cuz I don't care. Anywh who, so to me already the fact
6:46
that this woman allowed insurance before she put me on the books.
6:52
You messed up, right? Like you should have gotten me on the books and then said let's look at your insurance. Um and I wonder if a lot of our offices
6:59
do that in dental. Oh yes. because a patient is calling to ask about their insurance and we're
7:06
trying to be helpful and answer the question because I'm betting what this woman is thinking is that if insurance
7:11
isn't going to cover it, I'm not going to schedule it. That's probably what she's thinking. Yeah. Um and I'm like, "No, I'm still going to
7:18
schedule. I just want to know if I have any coverage or not. And if I don't, I need to be prepared to bring my money.
7:23
But I've gone to this practice for 15 years. I really don't want to change now." Right? and I might. But I already
7:31
told you, I didn't say if it's not covered, then I'm not going to come. If
7:37
it's covered, then schedule me. I said I'm calling for two things. One, I don't think I don't think I'm due yet, so I
7:43
don't know if insurance is going to cover it, but I also need to schedule an appointment. Right? So, you're not listening to what I'm saying, and you're missing
7:48
opportunities. And even if I was one that called to say, "Well, I'm not going to schedule if insurance isn't covering
7:53
it." You're still missing the opportunity because you should try to get me on the books. Yes. You should you should be the one
8:00
reminding me that I've been a patient for 15 years and what I'm going to go like over a couple hundred bucks. I'm going to go somewhere else when this
8:07
doctor's the one who knows my history. Oh, of course you're not going to do that. It's okay. I'm sure you work for a reason. You can pay this if insurance
8:13
isn't going to cover it. But I know you want the same standard of care that you've always had and you've been choosing to come to our facility for 15
8:19
years for a reason. It's not for insurance. It's cuz you like the doctor and you like our team and we're happy to serve you. And of course, we will
8:25
continue to serve you even if your insurance won't cover it. Right. That's what she should be saying. And I
8:30
don't think most dental offices, no, do that. This is a failure in most offices. Huge, y'all. Huge. So, listen to what
8:38
your teams are saying. And I know even from we just had the phone training a
8:43
couple of months ago in our office. And when scheduling institute comes in to do that training, we cold call other
8:48
offices. So, I know that the phones aren't being answered cuz we called two of my colleagues in our area. And it was
8:55
cringey cringeworthy how my colleagues were answering their phones um or their teams were. Anywh who so now I finally
9:03
was like okay you know what I will call my insurance and figure that out. Can I get on the schedule? And she hits me
9:09
with the next wrong thing. Well when do you want to come? And I was already annoyed with this insurance part. Right.
9:15
So and I was like I was this close to being my sarcastic cranky pants self.
9:23
And the only reason I didn't is because I love this old doctor and it's a small office and I know it would have gotten back to him that I was nasty and he
9:30
thinks I'm just the sweetest little delightful thing and I didn't want to ruin that and have to admit to him that
9:35
I gave his front desk a hard time. So I was like okay shut it Kuba just shut it and just so I did. But when she said,
9:42
"Well, when would you like to come in?" I wanted to say and you know I would
9:48
like to come in at 11 am on Sunday and just to see her reaction of what a
9:53
stupid question. Why are you asking me when I want to come in when you're not
9:58
open 24 hours right? So you're going to be like what ma'am
10:03
Sunday? We're not open Sunday. No no no like I'm waiting for her but you're the who asked the question to make me
10:09
feel like the You're the idiot who asked me when do you want to come in? So, I'm telling you when I want to come in. So, anyway, I behaved. I didn't
10:15
do that to her, but I was like, "Well, when is the doctor around? When does he have available?" So, then she's like,
10:21
"Um, well, he's got the 18th at 8:30, but that's all he has."
10:27
What does that mean? That's all he has that day. Is that the last appointment of his career? Is the last, you know
10:34
what I mean? Like, what what does that mean? What does that even mean? Why are you offering up that information? And then why would you even preede that
10:40
with when do you want to come in? Right. What does that makes that question even stupider than it already was? Right.
10:46
Exactly. So now I So then I I couldn't help it. So I said, "What does that mean? That's all he has. All he has that
10:53
day. All he has that morning. All he has that week." And then I stopped cuz I was about to say that's all he has before he
11:00
retires. Like is this his last? You know, I was like, "Okay, be nice. Be nice." Like clearly this woman isn't the
11:06
sharpest. Um and then I say, "But are you not the sharpest or have you not had
11:11
training?" And I guess that's kind of where I'm going with this podcast is, "Hey docs, do you even know what your teams are saying on the phone?"
11:18
Exactly. Um, and I would say a lot of you don't because we've cold called you and and it's cringey.
11:23
Um, and so are you letting opportunities for patient scheduling go out the
11:29
window, right? So even after that, then I said, "Well, that's all he has. What does that mean? That morning, that day?" Well, that day
11:35
that's pause. Nothing else. Well, what else does he have? Is he
11:41
working later that week? Does he have it? Because I'm like, okay, I don't have the rest of my life to schedule this appointment. So, I'm gonna ask for what
11:47
works for me, right? Which is what she was trying to ask at the beginning. Well, would you like to come in? But again, I'm like, you're an
11:53
idiot for asking it that way. Right. So, um, what she should have said was giving me some options. Yes. What works
12:00
for you, morning or afternoon? Mondays or Wednesdays? This is when this doctor is here. They're the one that you want to see. So, I said something like, "Does
12:06
he have Wednesday?" "Yes, he has a 1:00. Okay. Can you put me down for that 1:00?" and then I will look into the
12:11
insurance stuff later. I mean, that call took far longer than it should have. And in this day and age
12:17
where people are busy, nobody wants to talk to you anyway. So, if you don't have online scheduling, like that's a
12:22
whole another that's of course my opinion. But that to me, like because I don't like to talk to somebody, that's dragging my feet. Making that eye
12:28
appointment has been on my to-do list for 3 weeks and I avoided it because I didn't want to have these stupid interactions conversations. Yep.
12:34
And here you go. I did it. And was hoping to be pleasantly surprised and I was not. I was not. It was quite
12:40
unpleasant. Yeah. And thankfully, you were pushy enough to still get your appointment.
12:47
But how many people might have just bailed off the call once the call became too difficult? Which is why I can't
12:53
stand the when do you want to come in question? That question can be overwhelming for people cuz their mind
13:00
goes to Sunday through Saturday and they think about not only their whole schedule this week, their whole schedule
13:06
yet next week. They think about their own schedule, their kids schedules, their husband's schedule. They think about work schedule, when they're going
13:12
to be off, when And it's like it can like deer in the headlight. And it's also you're setting yourself up
13:18
for failure cuz how many times you have to say no. Yeah. Nope, we don't have that. Nope, we don't have that. Nope, we don't have that. And
13:25
now you seem very unaccommodating. And they're going to call somebody else. And then maybe that other office is
13:30
either going to have a Saturday, Sunday appointment or they're going to answer the phone better and guide and take control of that call better. and you
13:37
lost out. The other thing is I mean I guess one thing that this lady did right which you
13:44
would be surprised how many times this is missed is that she actually answered the phone.
13:50
Yes. True. But it did go through a phone tree and but but she did answer. Yes, she answered. So you got through to
13:55
somebody. I can't tell you how many times I'd look at reports from my dental offices and they're missing a ton of
14:02
phone calls. I myself tried to call and make an appointment at an elective type place and nobody answered the phone.
14:09
They had a messaging system. I messaged and said, "Hey, I'm trying to look for an appointment. I happen to be off and
14:15
it was weeks in advance. I happened to be off on this day. Do you happen to have any availability?" The response
14:21
was, "No, we don't have any availability that day." Done. Nobody ever called me.
14:26
Nobody ever followed up. So, it's like, how many times is that happening on dental teams? And I can tell you it's a
14:33
lot more than doctors know. And I will say even my team that I'm so proud of all the training we've spent. I
14:38
catch my own team. And I'm like, you've been through the training. What is your excuse? Laziness. Oh, I got busy. I got
14:46
careless. So even with the best of intentions, you still have to stay on them to try.
14:52
It was one I think I talked about it on a podcast a year ago or earlier this year where it was I happened to be the
14:58
one to sit at that computer and I saw the weave message coming in and it was a mom that said, "Oh, I've got to cancel
15:04
this appointment." Okay, great. Got you canled. Yeah. What are you doing? You've been trained.
15:10
What are you doing? You need to get back on and say, "Hey, what else? Where else can we put you? We're sorry we missed
15:16
you on this one. Where else can we But you're letting that walk through the door." Like, what what are you doing? Right. Right. And I do think this is an
15:23
area of blindness because it can be overwhelming. So a practice owner or manager even may be like, "Hey, what's
15:30
being done is done. It's fine. Production numbers are fine. New patient numbers are fine. Our schedule's fine.
15:37
It's fine. Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine." And that may be the case that there's not a pressing need to actually
15:45
do something about this. But I would argue even if the schedule's full, even if we're productive, even if our
15:52
patients are seem to be satisfied, how many are you losing out the back door because of interactions like this
16:00
that occur that you're completely unaware of? I guess to me, the other thing I think about, and maybe I think
16:05
about it because I'm sitting in Dallas in the metroplex, so maybe maybe it is different in smaller towns, but I feel
16:11
like competition is always there. And if you if you are not taking the patient,
16:18
the patient will find a spot to go. Yep. So, are you really okay with you really
16:24
can't accommodate any more patients and you really are making all the money you want to make and you really have all the equipment and all the staff? Like, maybe
16:31
maybe you are there, but I just start going, I don't know. That's weird to me
16:37
that you wouldn't want to keep your doors fully booked at all times,
16:44
right? And if you think you are fully booked, are you? Yeah. So I I I doubt that too.
16:51
Yeah, I agree. And I would say some of my favorite features that have come out
16:57
over the last few years in particular are the call records. I even though it makes everybody sick. I
17:05
remember when we first started listening to calls, you um were like, I want to stick my head in the sand. It makes me
17:12
so sick to listen to these phone calls. But to me, we don't know what we don't know. And even that team member who took
17:19
the phone call often times oftentimes will remember the phone call differently. So they they have played it
17:25
back in their heads differently than it actually went. And then when you hear the phone call, they're like, "Oh my
17:31
gosh, I totally mishandled that." You're like, "Yeah, yeah, you kind of did. Let's go back and let's learn from
17:37
this." We can't learn. We can talk all day in theory about how great it is to answer the phone a certain way, but if
17:44
we're not going back and evaluating, are we doing that, yes or no, then we don't
17:49
have any idea of knowing if we're doing a good job. So to me, if I would say one
17:55
key takeaway on this is if you're not if you don't have call records, you need to add call records to your package.
18:02
However, I mean, every phone company out there has those now. And then number two is you need to be listening to them. Not
18:09
only just the business team members setting the expectation that they're listening, which I know you do in your
18:14
practice, but even the practice owner listening to it doesn't have to be much, but one or two phone calls just to go,
18:21
hey, it are they living up to my expectations or did I find a and you
18:27
don't go looking for a bad call. just randomly select how did that phone call go and see if you feel satisfied with
18:34
those phone calls at you as a patient. Would you have been satisfied with the way that that patient was treated and if
18:41
the answer is no, don't bury your head in the sand and ignore it. Do something about it. So, you know, my front gets
18:47
the double whammy because through scheduling institute they get a mystery call every month and that call gets
18:53
recorded and gets rated by, you know, by scheduling institute. So to me that's like a neutral party.
18:58
I'm not the one picking on you. They're the ones who are telling you, right? Um but then we do call audits in our
19:04
office. We have Weave and Weave records the calls. And so now we used to have it only like
19:10
one or two team members would audit the calls. And I was like, "No, this is a learning opportunity for all of us
19:15
because if Sweet Sally mishandled that call, I'm not picking on Sweet Sally. I could have mishandled that call.
19:21
patients are calling in with all sorts of weirdo scenarios and accents and
19:28
demands and situations and so we we could all learn from how to handle this.
19:34
Yes, in my office I do believe in cross trainining too. So the RDAs will have to
19:39
answer the phones. as a hygienist when you're trying to make calls to get patients back on for the recre like overdue recre like so we we all can
19:47
benefit from this and it's an area where things come up that you're like why did that patient ask that or why did they
19:54
say that like what would I answer to that it's people are weird and there's
19:59
weird stuff being asked or assumed on the phone and we could all benefit from
20:05
talking about that so we have it where we make every team member we've got a protocol call sheet that every month or
20:11
every however often we do it is it monthly. So it might be, you know, Mary's turn this month and we've got a
20:19
protocol like log into Weave. Once you get into Weave, pick three calls from
20:24
three different days. This is how you grade these calls. Like what did you like about the call? What didn't you
20:29
like? Was the information that they were given accurate? Like were they told that we are in network with Delta Dentl?
20:35
That's a problem cuz we're not like you know what I mean? Like are they getting accurate information? If the parent is calling and saying, "Oh, we had a my kid
20:43
tripped and fell." And the employee was like, "Okay, that's too bad. Well, we'll see you in three weeks. We don't have an opening sooner than that." That's a huge
20:49
problem. You know what I mean? So, like there's all sorts of opportunities to learn to where we can all kind of figure out how
20:56
we should handle these different scenarios. So, one person's tasked with doing three
21:01
three call audits. That's all we do for the month. Yeah. And then when you come in, we go over
21:06
those. So, you're coming in, I think this Thursday, and uh that's on the agenda is for you to just as a group for
21:13
us to listen to three calls. If we have more time, then we'll go over more. So, for those of you that don't have a Bethany that's coming in, then I would
21:19
urge you to once a month or at least once a quarter or every other month, block off a longer lunch, order in pizza
21:27
for 60 bucks, and sit down and have pizza and y'all all as a team go through
21:32
these calls together. And I will tell you, I'm I would be one of the worst picking up the phones
21:38
because And I listen to I'm like, "Dude, I would have said this." And usually you're like, "No, no, no, no, you can't say
21:45
that." I'm like, "We can't say that." Like, I'm the one who handles these really poorly. Yeah. Um, so, but I learned too to go, okay,
21:52
first of all, if nothing else, it's a humbling experience to go, God bless these ladies and what they deal with answering these phones, but also like,
21:59
okay, maybe that was a clinical issue. maybe we should have said it this way before we release that patient so that
22:05
that parent won't even be calling in to have that thing like it's it helps everybody's communication.
22:11
Yes. I one of the things I love about the audit so if you think about the way that you have it set up one person and
22:19
it's rotating is auditing the calls but the team is not experiencing that if we
22:24
don't play the calls for the team. the team is not learning that. Even though you have various team members auditing,
22:30
they might do that one to two times a year. And there's really not much that
22:36
they're going to learn from that other than listening and and filling out the audit sheet. The real value comes from
22:42
choosing to display these for the team and allowing them to hear what the team
22:47
thinks about it. Plus, we go over the call auditor's notes. This is what the call auditor said on this. And so a lot
22:54
of times I'll get this um feedback from teams because especially the teams that I travel to. I'm almost always listening
23:02
forcing us to listen to some phone calls because I'm normally visiting people if I'm traveling it's like quarterly or
23:08
every other month at the most. And so it's like oh it's been a while. Let's make sure that we're listening to these
23:13
phone calls. And so while I'm there we'll play a couple of phone calls and listen and evaluate. And some of the
23:19
feedback that I get is from our business team members are like it's really not fair that we're playing this for the
23:26
whole team cuz they feel like they're being put under a microscope that we're all super judgy. And I get that it's
23:33
like super humbling to hear yourself over the phone. But it is not meant to go, Sally, you're terrible at your job.
23:41
It's meant to go, "Wow, look at the crap that Sally gets to put up with over the phone. Thank you, Sally. because I would
23:47
never be able to do that. Now, Sally, let's all learn from this conversation. This is removing you from it. We're
23:54
looking at this neutrally as a conversation to go, what are the key points that we could take away? So, I don't
23:59
I think reminding people, too, like I think most of us are like this where something happens and you're like, man,
24:05
I should have come back with this, but we're forgetting Sally is on the spot.
24:10
like this patient is calling in real time and s Sally's having to handle this in real time probably checking in a
24:15
patient checking out a patient coming up with an estimate and now she's got this patient on the phone too. So maybe she
24:21
didn't handle it how even she thought she should handle it but that's retrospectively in the moment she
24:27
handled it that way. It is what it is. So it's not to pick on you. to say we understand you're dealing with
24:33
a lot but if we don't talk about how this could be improved and I will tell you I think I mean you correct me if I'm wrong
24:39
but almost every time every month we do this something comes out where the team
24:44
is like but we don't know what you want and the you is me like they're like doc you've been
24:49
unclear about this this this because you told us we should be handling this this way and I'm like no no no that applies
24:55
to these situations well you never told us that oh damn it I never did like there's almost always something it you know for
25:02
me like I going into those I want to be very protective of the women answering the phones. Yes. Because I know how
25:08
vulnerable that must feel. So first and foremost I will find something to praise in that call.
25:14
Um and and you know again maybe it's an eye openener. Maybe you had no idea like maybe Jane was your assistant and she
25:21
did great and now Mary quit and Jane's up at the front. You assume she was answering the phones. Well maybe it's a
25:27
good moment for you to go oh god Jane sucks. we need to find another spot for her. Right. But for me, usually like my
25:33
front people have been trained. They are good. They are So, usually they're called shine.
25:38
Yeah. Um or at the very least if it didn't shine, then it's like, okay, but that's
25:44
bec like all of half of us would have stumbled in the same way as you stumbled. So, let's and and I remind them all, I'm
25:50
like, guys, we all take turns answering the phones. And if our seasoned person who answers the phone all the time's got
25:56
stumbled and you only answer the phones on Mondays when you're wanting to pick up extra hours, I need you to pay
26:02
attention to this. But more more often than not, I try to find and there usually is one somewhere I can improve
26:07
on my own communication so that my team can communicate better, right? So it really is just we're all learning
26:12
and growing together. And I think if we approach it that way, eventually your business team members,
26:18
it it's not that they're not going to get nervous. They're still going to get nervous with their call being played, but they're going to understand, hey,
26:24
they're not picking me apart here. They're finding some things to praise on and we're all talking about it
26:29
collaboratively and it's very helpful for everybody. I can't tell you how many times in the team meetings with your
26:35
team where a clinical team member goes, "That was really good information. I didn't realize
26:41
something that came up in that phone call." So, this this is beyond even just how we answer the phone. We're learning
26:48
from the content that comes out of these phone calls. So, I I cannot encourage
26:53
that enough. Like even things about insurance and things like a patient may ask about this and the team's like, "Oh, I thought it
26:58
was this way." No, no, no, it's this way. Oh, that's why you couldn't get me that estimate when I was calling for it.
27:04
And that's why, yeah, they're dealing with a whole lot of other things and it becomes apparent in those moments. The
27:10
other thing you could do is like I guess you could maybe intentionally if you're going to pick three calls, make sure you
27:16
pick Can you tell who picked up the call ahead of time without listening? It depends on the phone system, but all
27:22
of them show whether a call is incoming or outbound. I prefer to listen to the
27:29
incoming phone calls because th those are the ones where we're the most caught off guard. We were in the middle of
27:35
checking somebody out. We also have a better chance of those uh being new patient phone calls or people that are
27:41
calling to schedule appointments which are the most this sounds bad but those are very valuable calls to listen to. So
27:49
I prefer listening to the incoming ones. It doesn't mean that the outbound ones shouldn't be evaluated cuz sometimes the
27:56
outbound ones may be appointment related like oh I was calling to confirm or hey I was calling to check on you. We were
28:02
expecting you to be here 10 minutes ago. Are you coming? So, those are there's still plenty of value to listen in
28:07
those, but if I just had to like blanket statement, I would say listen to the incoming ones. And then some of the
28:13
systems do show you by person. Um, and some don't. Some it's hard to tell. So,
28:18
I was just in a team meeting where we were listening to some a few weeks ago and I couldn't tell. And so I would
28:26
click on the phone call and if I had just listened to somebody's call and it was the same person that picked up the
28:32
phone before it got any further, I'd be like, "Oh, let me pause that. Let's find somebody else." Cuz this was a big business email. There's like six team
28:39
members and I was like, "We're going to end up getting through probably five or six phone calls and I don't want it to be the same every time. You're listening
28:45
to Mary's calls every time." I think you could if you knew ahead of time that you were going to have a lunch meeting, you
28:51
know, on Thursday and maybe you appoint somebody or you yourself go in and say,
28:56
"I just want to listen to I want to make sure I've got a Mary call. Shannon works in the back. I want a Shannon call and I
29:02
want but I know she answers the phone somes and then I want a Suzie call." Y and go and look for them just to make it
29:08
seem more if you really have a touchy team, maybe that's what you need to do. Now, the one thing that I do hear when
29:15
they know that the doc or the manager has pre-selected phone calls is I'll hear this comment all the time. Oh, you
29:23
I know you you just chose my worst one. So, they can feel targeted in that, but
29:29
I agree with you. Sometimes there are certain types of phone calls that we're not going to get to because we just
29:34
didn't happen to select it. So, it may be if you're doing this on a monthly basis, which is what I would recommend,
29:39
monthly, then maybe one month it's pre-screened phone calls, like you've
29:45
gone through and selected phone calls that you know you need to listen to and you've made it even. And then maybe next month it's like Russian roulette. Let's
29:52
see what pops up. Let's just go with it. And that will kind of keep it from feeling targeted. Or to do your strategy
29:59
of different team members picking different phone calls because then how can it be targeted? the same 10 people
30:05
on the team aren't going to all target the same person. It's going to be more spread out, less like they're attacking
30:12
me because it's different people. Um, which you always give me homework, so you know I'm going to give you homework
30:18
right now. I think will you be willing to share your call audit sheet for the September
30:25
digest? Yeah, that's easy. That's not homework for me. That's homework for my manager. Hey, get this to Bethany, please. Easy.
30:33
I'm gonna send that email right now because I think this would be very helpful if um you know people who are
30:41
listening to this could have a resource like that call audit sheet and then they can put up their own rotation. If you've
30:47
got six team members then it's easy just every month you've got a new person and
30:52
that means twice a year they're going to be auditing. So put up the calendar of who's the call auditor. Set the
30:59
expectation of when that's due. provide them with this call audit sheet which will be a part of our September uh
31:05
digest and then let it let it start to impact your practice. I think it would
31:10
be a gamecher for teams to focus on this regularly. I tell you if somebody said to me you're
31:16
targeting me I think I would be like I am. You didn't know you were my least favorite team member?
31:23
Just dig that knife in further. Yeah. What what gave it away?
31:29
How'd you know? Damn, I'd been so good at hiding that up until I had a poker face.
31:37
So now your phone call. Let's listen to it. Your targeted phone call. This is why.
31:44
Then just glare at the person the whole time. Was so bad. Sally, you're terrible.
31:52
Enough said. Let's move on to the next phone call. We all knew that would be terrible cuz we targeted her. Okay, next. Mary.
32:02
Sweet Mary. We don't even have to listen to yours. It's It's going to be perfect. Sally, you taking notes? Listen to this call.
32:10
You know that's how I'd handle it if somebody said that to me. Darn right. You're targeted. Watch this.
32:17
All three phone calls. Sally's.
32:22
Oh lord. Oh my gosh. We're terrible. Terrible people. But all that to say, the big
32:27
question is, do you know how your phones are being handled? Are they being answered would be question number one.
32:35
Are they being handled well is question number two. And if you don't know, think about the phone calls that you make to
32:42
other practices. Maybe it is your optometrist that you're like, "Oh, that was kind of awkward or uncomfortable or
32:48
took too long or god that was annoying to make that phone call." Or think about the place that you don't want to call
32:53
cuz you're like it's always crappy every time. Okay, what are they doing wrong? Do you see any similarities in your
32:59
team? So, how is it being is it being answered? How is it being handled? And
33:05
then you've got to incorporate listening to these phone calls. It is critical to
33:11
the success of the practice. Even if you have a like a like for my husband, a layman.
33:17
Yeah. Listen to this phone call and see what you think. Yep. And and that way I could avoid it and
33:22
say, "Hey, you tell me." Yep. I love that. Yeah. Um I'm going to end this on a note of
33:28
you just said C R A P Y. I was good. I didn't say any of that this time. I used crummy.
33:34
Crummy. I I'll I'll work on my language. I'm so sorry. Work on your language, ma'am.
33:40
Brought it down today. It's so rough. Thanks for joining the conversation
33:46
today. We hope that you are comforted in knowing that you are not alone, but we
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also hope that you're walking away with some really great tips and tricks to try in your practice.
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