Wowing New Patients Part 1… Pre-Appointment

You never get a second chance to make a first impression!    What you say and do before the patient ever walks through the door plays a huge role in the success of your practice.  Get this right and the new patient is:

• less likely to no-show on you
• excited and expecting a good experience in your office
• ready and willing to begin referring to you right away as long as your in office experience matches the pre-appointment experience.

Here’s my list of tips for a proper pre-appointment wow:

• The phone has to be answered in a nice and professional voice.  Call your local MD and there’s a good chance they’ll answer with “Doctor’s Office”.  Not a nice, warm first impression.
• Answer with a smile.  I know it sounds dumb, but people really can sense when you’re in a good mood and smiling.
• If they’ve been referred in by an existing patient, you better acknowledge that patient.  For example, “Oh you were referred in by Jenny.  That’s great to hear.  Next time you see Jenny you let her know we really appreciate that.”
• Try to get their insurance info over the phone if it is handy.  We always say something to the effect of “If you have your insurance card handy, I could take your information and verify your benefits before your appointment.” Most people are concerned about the cost, so if you can have that info ready for the first appointment, it will help when it comes to your case presentation.  If you tell them that you want to see them for 3x’s per week for 1-2 months, they’re going to want to have an idea of how much it’s going to cost before they agree.
• Here’s a simple way to really blow them away.  Get their email address so that you can email them a health history form (don’t send informed consent or hippa stuff).  We always says, “Bob can i get your email address so that I can send you one of our forms.  It will save you about 10 minutes in our office.”  Here’s the magic and this is simple because you have a draft saved in your email account and you just have to make a couple of changes.  The email reads something like what follows:

“Dear Bob, thanks again for choosing our office.  We’re excited to have you join the practice and Dr. Pearce will do everything he can to get you feeling better quickly.

We have you scheduled for Tuesday at 3 o’clock.   The appointment will only take about 45 minutes and we really value your time so you won’t have to wait long to see the doctor.  I’ve attached the health history so that you can fill it out before your appointment.  If for any reason you don’t get it filled out, it’s not a big deal at all…It will just take you a few more minutes in the office.

I’ve also included a map of our office and directions from Capitol Drive and from Highway 94.  If you have any problems finding the place, just give a quick call.

We look forward to meeting you.

Chris

PS… If for any reason you are unable to make your appointment will you please call us and let us know

PPS… Make sure you tell Jenny thanks for telling you about us.  We really appreciate it.”

I can guarantee that your new patient has never received an email like that and you’re making it easier for them to refer to you later.

The PS is important as it will cut down on no-shows.  Also if the appointment is more than one day out, make sure to give a reminder call the night before.  The PPS is very important because we want to show our new patient that we really value referrals and it will grease the skids for their referrals later.

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