Daniel Bobrow

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to February’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

The Team Member was responding to a lead generated via the practice’s website.

This Team Member did an excellent job employing The TAFI Introduction™ . This is especially remarkable in light of the fact she is a new trainee, and has had little opportunity to practice with live callers.

Note her use of the Statements of The TAFI Introduction, as well as her use of the Caller’s name, and how she quickly connected with the caller.
A few observations:

• We subsequently suggested that the practice change its policy so that the $90 fee for the mold be applied to the Snap on Smile procedure, should the new patient choose to follow through with treatment. We also pointed out that, as the practice already offers a complimentary evaluation, the need for the Study be downplayed as it may well be determined, following the evaluation, that the Caller may not choose that particular procedure anyway.
• The ‘Payment Plan Question’ might have been handled differently e.g. instead of saying “We have different institutions we work for.” The answer to the question could have simply been ‘yes.’
• Because the Team Member was not afraid of silence at the other end of the line, instead recognizing it as an opportunity for the Caller to process the information just shared, she was rewarded for her patience by hearing those glorious words “When can I come in?”
• Addressing ‘Capacity Issues’: As this practice has rather limited available hours, it is all the more incumbent upon the Team to communicate the practice’s Value Proposition, so Callers are willing to wait to be seen by the doctor. In this case, because the doctor is a professor at a prestigious dental school, the Team was advised to extol her as “…a highly respected educator who actually instructs other dentists in the community.” We were also impressed by how the Team Member remained poised and calm while searching for an available time for the Caller.
• The On Hold Message could be louder, and the Team Member might have done a (slightly) better job asking the Caller’s permission to be placed on hold.
• The Team Member nicely closed the call by expressing gratitude, and confirming the practice appreciates being notified should the caller need to change her plans (she did not).

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to January’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

Following the greeting the Team Member’s response to the Caller’s question is “It all depends. He’d have to look at it.” This was conveyed in a rather dour tone suggesting the practice was unlikely to give the Caller what she wanted.

This was further underscored by the Team Member’s next comment, namely “Sometimes he can, sometimes he can’t. Sometimes he has to send you out.”
This first time caller has not even been to the practice, and already she’s being ‘sent out.’

TAFI Masters know the vital importance of first connecting emotionally with the Caller. In general, the overriding attitude conveyed must be ‘Yes we can!‘ rather than ‘No we can’t.‘

The Team Member continued by providing dental advice, which, while her intent may have been to help the caller, is inappropriate without first examining the patient (is it necessarily the case that the Caller’s tooth must be extracted)?

She then continued by instructing the caller that “He’d have to take a look at it.”

Throughout the call, the emphasis seems to be more on the needs of the practice, than those of the patient.

While the Team Member does, at the end of the call, attempt to schedule the appointment, doing so without even knowing (let alone using) the caller’s name, or having connected with the caller emotionally by employing The TAFI Introduction™ doomed it to failure even if it were well executed. In any case, asking “Did you want to get in or no?” hardly qualifies as a well executed attempt to schedule an appointment.

The ‘coup de grace‘ is the Team Member’s apparent relief at ending the call, as suggested by “Okay thank you -click-.”

December’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to December’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

Three main determinants in a successfully scheduled appointment from a first-time caller are 1). How early and often did the Team Member use the Caller’s name 2). How early and often did the Team Member show the Caller he/she cared about them and 3). To what extent did the Team Member demonstrate efficiency and competency in addressing the Caller’s need(s)?

In this instance, the caller actually had a prior relationship with the practice, and was also highly motivated by a desire to help get his wife out of pain. This certainly helped ‘grease the skids’ in ensuring the desired outcome, namely, a solid patient appointment.

The Team Member exhibits a caring tone throughout the call.

When it comes to insurance, the Team Member’s presentation, while somewhat disjointed and a bit choppy, did not derail the call.

Areas for improvement include avoiding negatively charged words, phrases, and inflection such as:

Doctor is NOTin the plan.
It ISa PPO right?
IFit’s a PPO

On the plus side, the Team Member used some good phrases too such as:

Sometimes the benefits are the same as if doctor is in the network

I especially liked how, once the Caller said “okay,” the Team Member moved on to getting the appointment scheduled.

November’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to November’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

The call resulted in an appointment, which, of course, is great.

On a scale of one to ten, with one being easiest, and ten being most difficult, this call would probably come in at a 2 or 3.

I would challenge you to first listen to the call and identify as many opportunities as you can for the Team Member to have:

Established Rapport

Conveyed Empathy

Exuded Enthusiasm

and

Managed and Guided the Caller.

Consider how use of The TAFI Introduction™ supports Team Members in achieving this goal.

Some hints include:

• Getting and using the caller’s name
• Sharing reasons for her pride in the practice and practitioner
• Expressing her concern for the caller’s situation (she did ask if he was in pain)
• Offering to assist in getting records transferred instead of stating “You must…”
• Having a series of benefit statements to help the Caller realize he’d made the right choice calling the practice.

October’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to October’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

The main observation to be made with this Team Member is her pacing – she is going sixty miles per hour when the caller is going around twenty five. It’s actually remarkable, given the fact the caller’s first language is not English, that she is able to understand what the Team Member is saying.

Another observation is her initial use of negatively charged words and phrases such as

• We don’t do that
• I can’t guarantee anything will be covered
• There’s no guarantee

Eventually, she puts back on her Customer Service hat, and actually did successfully schedule the appointment, but the call could easily have ‘gone south.’

On the plus side, the Team Member is a friendly, caring individual, and that does eventually come to the fore in this conversation.

It could have been otherwise if the caller did not yet have any relationship with the practice.

Deft use of The TAFI Introduction™ almost invariably sets the Team Member for success by:

• Establishing Rapport
• Conveying Empathy
• Exuding Enthusiasm
• Asking the right questions in the right way at the right time
  and
• Employing effective listening technique.

September’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to September’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

Emergency, but only for the patient….

While the Team Member used good inflection, what is most needed in a call of this sort is to take immediate control of the call (to determine the degree of urgency) while demonstrating sincere empathy for the patient, which is one of the best ways to connect with someone, especially someone in need.

Sometimes, what the patient terms an emergency turns out to be something they subsequently choose to defer to have treated. This was definitely not one of those situations, however.

If it is, indeed, the practice’s policy to not invite a new patient emergency into the practice, they ought at least to know who will. In the case of this practice, the Team Member did not follow the practice’s policy, which is to get the Caller in as soon as possible. In fact, the caller learned about the practice because of a Google adwords campaign it was running specifically targeting emergency patients. That makes the call doubly painful, as it cost, not only the patient prompt treatment; it also failed to capitalize on a call the practice paid to generate.

August’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to August’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

For this month’s Call Evaluation, we listen to a practice’s outgoing message (OGM) also known as voicemail.

TAFI™ Masters know that it is important to ensure each touch point with a prospective patient effectively demonstrates caring and respect for the patient and his/her time.

Because, as we like to say, first impressions don’t always wait for you to make them, you want to be sure that, when prospective patients call after office hours, they are treated with the same respect and caring you deliver when speaking with them directly.

The first thing you will note is the options presented to the caller – ideally, these choices should be offered to callers by a ‘real live’ human voice.

While the recording is pleasant and employs effective use of inflection, the next thing to note is that it requires seven rings, and a full 70 seconds (one minute, ten seconds), before the caller is able to leave a message. The optimum length for an OGM is 25-40 seconds.

Here’s an alternative outgoing message:

*Your Tagline Is: an expression of your Ultimate Value Proposition

This OGM can be heard by a caller in less than 30 seconds, and pretty much covers all that is important to a patient.

July’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to July’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

This is one of those rare instances where a slight deviation from the TAFI Introduction™ is indicated (the most common example of when to deviate from the TAFI INTRODUCTION™ is, of course, when a caller is in discomfort and requires immediate care).

In general, the Team Member’s tone was pleasant and courteous.

Placing of the caller on hold was likewise courteous, and she apologized for the brief hold time.

While better than silence, the practice’s on hold message is clearly of 1980s vintage, and misses an important opportunity to convey an image of professionalism to callers.

While it is indeed possible that the caller was not reaching the office she had intended, the Team Member may nonetheless have missed an opportunity to help the caller. At the very least, she could have asked how the office might be of assistance.

The Team Member seemed more concerned with making the Caller wrong than with identifying her wants and needs, then seeing how the practice might be of assistance. Negatively charged words and phrases such as “We did not mail anything” “We did not EMAIL anything” and “We don’t email” only served to alienate the Caller.

Anyone calling the practice should be “considered innocent until proven guilty,” that is to say, a prospective patient, until the Team Member is advised otherwise.

Note: There is also clearly a lack of communication within the practice because, In fact, this practice DOES send emails through its website.

June’14 Call of The Month Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to June’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations

This call illustrates that effectively connecting with a prospective patient requires the ability to connect emotionally, as well as listen to the concerns of the Caller. It also underscores the vital importance of not prejudging those concerns.

The Caller was clearly concerned about the value of care being delivered by her current provider, and was looking, first and foremost, for a sympathetic ear to hear them.

Instead of addressing the Caller’s concerns about ” problems”, “money”, “results”, “not getting ahead,” and “slowly going broke,” the Team Member instead took it upon herself to (almost) interrogate the Caller as to why (and whether!) she ought to be seeking another opinion.

What was called for most was acknowledgement that the Caller’s concerns are legitimate (because they’re hers).

As stated, the Team Member instead chose to advocate on behalf of the unknown dentist who “usually makes it right with you.”

Even after the Caller reiterated her simple desire for a second opinion, the Team Member asked “What’s wrong with the uppers” then consistently interrupted her.

The Team Member seems to have concluded that, because the Caller expressed concerns about cost and treatment recommendations, plus the fact she’d been with the current dentist for 7 years, she was not entitled to a second opinion – a message the Caller ‘heard’ only too well.

Because it ensures that Team Members establish rapport, convey empathy, exude enthusiasm, and professionally manage the call, those who master the TAFI Introduction™ find that such obstacles to connecting with First-Time Callers rarely appear, which is one more reason that Telephone Skills Mastery means mastery of the TAFI Introduction™!

May’14 Call Evaluation

Please listen to the call, and then read our Evaluation.

» Click here to listen to May’s call

Call Analysis and Recommendations
Following a pleasant greeting, the Team Member promptly ceded control to the Caller by allowing her to ask the questions and by not following the TAFI Introduction™.

Of equal concern were the missed opportunities to connect with the Caller by a) getting and using her name and b) expressing sincere interest in and concern for the fact she is the caregiver for an adult child with special needs (you can actually here the sadness and concern in the Caller’s voice). Instead, the Team Member responded to her initial statements with “Okay…”

The one statement to which the Team Member responded tangibly was the Caller’s interest in locating a practice offering sedation (which was the last of a litany of requests, including crowns and implants), and to this the Team Member responded with “We don’t put patients to sleep here.”

While it is certainly not being suggested that anyone claim the Practice offers a service they do not, the appropriate response to the Caller’s statement would be to a) convey empathy for her situation and b) explain that the practice is very good with putting anxious patients at ease. The Caller may simply assume that the only way her son can be effectively cared for is by putting him to sleep, but of course that is not necessarily the case at all. She did explain the sedation services that the practice offers, as well as demonstrate their ability to place patients at ease by referencing their work with residents of a facility whose needs are similar to those of the Caller’s son.

Another issue is that, because this practice had yet, as of this recording, to install cordless, sound dampening, headsets, one can hear background music, which does not convey as professional an image as does no background noise.

Finally, in response to the Caller’s question about the cost for a first visit, the Team Member shared the news that an initial consultation is complimentary (good). Then, while the Caller was clearly considering this information and likely about to decide to make an appointment, the Team Member (probably because people are sometimes afraid of silence) abruptly asked “How did you hear about us?” She then said “A mailer?” instead of the, more professional (and valuable) sounding, “Oh, you must have received one of our New Patient Invitations!”

The Team Member also (because she failed to establish rapport , convey empathy, and exude enthusiasm) was never in a position to receive contact information with which to follow up with the caller, who had said she’d need to confirm her son’s schedule before setting an appointment.

The Team Member did a good job of sharing with the Caller that they did not extract teeth “the old way,” as well as the benefits of a laser vesus a drill, and the Caller was clearly intrigued and impressed by this.

By employing the TAFI Introduction™, such calls are consistently converted into solid patient appointments, which, given that this practice is clearly equipped to meet the needs of the caller’s son, makes it unfortunate an appointment, or at least, the means to follow up with the caller, was missed.