Your Overall Goal: Patients who convince themselves to do the recommended next step because they want the RESULTS.
Don’t Say: Well patient, I’m seeing A, B and C and it looks like you’ll need X, Y and Z. I’d like time to study this and put together a treatment plan for you. Let’s have you come back for a 30 min consult with me ASAP.
The Problem With This Approach:
This describes the benefit of the consult for the dentist not the patient. In fact, it might scare off the patient! Why would anyone want to interrupt their day & brave traffic to hear bad news? This wording also pushes the patient into the consult instead of inviting them. When people feel pushed, they push back by saying “No.”
Do Say: I’m seeing some great solutions to … (restore or save your teeth, improve your smile, save you money, save you time, allow you to eat comfortably, give you peace of mind, avoid X …) Would you be interested in hearing what I have in mind?
So that you have a dedicated time to ask questions and feel comfortable with what I’ll propose, let’s schedule a no-charge visit for our conversation. How does that sound to you?
Why This Better
This verbiage is focused on solutions (results) instead of clincial bad news. It piques the patient’s interest because it suggests that you can help the patient get something they genuinely want.
Ask a screening question to determine the patient’s level of interest in achieving this result. If the patient isn’t interested, either you presented the wrong benefit or they have barriers they haven’t revealed yet. In either case, it’s not your role to push them. Your next step would simply be to ask questions to uncover their concerns.
When describing a benefit, begin sentences with a lead-in phrase like, So that you. This steers you into describing a benefit the patient might like. In this case, the consult is being proposed as a conversation to increase the patient’s comfort level. The phrasing is patient focused and friendly. Having a conversation sounds a lot less daunting that scheduling a treatment consultation.
Finally, after you recommend a next step, always ask the patient for their thoughts or feelings about it. This check-in question will give you insight into what the patient values and wants.
