Chris Mullins

Doctors, I'm worried about your team. This is something I think of all the time and say out loud to my clients, often. Recently, after listening to a prospective dentist that wanted to be our client, I said to her in person, I hear everything you're saying about why you can't get your team to do what you want. Or, that your phones just have to go to voice mail if their ringing off the hook or hey I'll just fire them all and start over, etc. I understand the challenges you face with your business and your team. I understand how it's easier to look the other way, but when we do this we're hemorrhaging because you're spending thousands of dollars on marketing to get your phones to ring to get prospects to opt-in, but we're spending NO TIME, MONEY or EFFORT at all on Inspecting What Happens when the phone rings, what happens to all those leads you paid for?

What's being said on the Inbound Patient Intake call? Are the outbound calls being made? What happens with the lead that comes in via the internet? That's what we call hemorrhaging.

Then, I looked at the client and said, out of everything you're sharing with me the only thing I'm worried about is your team. I'm very concerned for them. Here's why, below are a list of questions that I always ask the team during our Team First Certification Phone Success Coaching Program:

• How many of you have been the patient? Many raise their hand.
• How many of you have family or friends that have been the patient? Several raise their hand.
• How many of you could have been the patient in pain that didn't have insurance? Some raise their hand.
• How many of you could have been the patient on Medicare or Medicaid? Some reluctantly raise their hand.
• How many of you have family or friends that are the patient on Medicare or Medicaid? Many raise their hand.

Here are just some of the feelings (they share during coaching) YOUR team has about your prospects and patients: Complacency, entitlement, judgment, they're not deserving, their lying, faking, they sound drunk or homeless, etc. 

Every day, all day long, call after call, your team listens to stories, problems, and pain. But now that your team has been doing it for so long they think of the prospect and patient as an interruption, which directly impacts your productivity.

You, the First Impressions Director (receptionist, front desk expert), must take responsibility for your own habits and behaviors. If you're stressed or having a meltdown, regardless of the reason, you must find a way to re-frame it: Remind yourself that you're a gift; you're the lifeline, the ROCK for that person you're speaking to. When they call you it's because they need a lifeline.

The career you're in that YOU CHOSE is being of service. You have a gift. You are the REAL HERO's of the practice. You're not so much in the dental business as you are in the relationship and healing business. Once you re-frame the tasks at hand you'll find it easier to help your patients and reach your goals.

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