The new enquiry phone call is quite possibly the most critical part of client induction. If you believe that reaching out is the hardest part of the journey, then we need to revisit the client experience to really ensure we provide a quality service from the start.
Question.
What does the journey look like for the new enquiry? Do they go to your voice mail? Is the call answered but your administration team only have a few minutes to spend on the phone? Does this sound familiar:
"What's your name? Phone Number? Does 2:00 pm on Saturday work? Great. See you then."
Woosh. If you genuinely believe that calling is the hardest part of the journey, do you feel as though your first point of contact with the new client was welcoming?
We've compiled a small workflow for you to use when new clients call. This article isn't the full workflow process that we use with our consulting clients, but it will give you an idea to help the enquiries convert to clients.
Greeting: "Hello! Australian Mental Health Alliance, this is Tash. How may I help you?'
How did you hear about us: "You'd like to make a booking? Great! I have a few questions for you. How have you heard about us?"
Related Question: "Oh yes, Dr GP. Wonderful. Did they refer you to a specific clinician or just to our practice?"
What time works best for the client: "Fantastic, so that psychologist works on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 9 - 5 pm. Do those days work for you?"
"Thursday's at 4:00? Wonderful. So our first available appointment is Thursday the 14th at 4:00. Does this work for you?"
When your team engages and spends time with the enquiries on the phone, they assist with building the "safe" environment that clinicians speak about. The main thing we'd like you to focus on is the order of the details collected.
"How did you hear about us?" is the first question we ask. We do that because we need to know how we structure the future conversation. We know it takes some time for us to ask specific questions and then document the answers, but our focus is not to only get the client to book, but build the rapport, so the client attends.
We have worked with practices who have required their reception team members to spend as little as possible on the phone with the enquiries. Not having the right structure with the enquiry point of contact leads to an attendance rate for first bookings to be less than 50%.
When you have a structured workflow process that puts the client first, allows clients to provide useful information, as well as encouraging your team to understand rapport then you'll be able to increase fist client attendance. Aim for 80-85%.
Workflow, up-skilling, baseline analytics and consistency are all factors to lead one practice that we worked with to a 91% new client attendance rate.
Next up in this course:
Are your reception team members asking these questions?
Previously: The Basics
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