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.