Your success depends on treating patients well. Every interaction is an opportunity for you and your team to “wow” patients. But excellent customer service requires strong communications skills. Levin Group recommends doctors use scripting to improve communications throughout their practices.
Scripting helps team members stay on the same page when communicating with patients—a necessity for providing top-notch customer service. Scripting has many advantages over other communications training techniques.
Here are eight key factors to consider when creating and implementing scripts:
- Script Every Patient Interaction.Nearly every aspect of the patient experience in the practice can be documented and scripted. The more scripts your practice uses, the better trained your staff will be. It may seem difficult and time-consuming to script every type of patient interaction, but the more information you can give to your team members, the more empowered they will be to provide high-quality customer service to your patients.
- Stay Consistent.Scripting allows team members to stay on the same page and provide patients with consistent messaging. One of the most frustrating experiences for a patient is when he or she hears conflicting answers to the same question. It gives the appearance that the dental staff does not know what they are talking about. Such an experience undermines customer service, and could, in the long run, lead to patients leaving the practice.
- Use Power Words.Power words are enthusiastic words that create positive energy; they should be used during patient interactions. Words like great, terrific, wonderful, fantastic, super, and awesome are examples of power words. These words are especially useful during case presentation. The best case presentations appeal to patients on an emotional level and motivate them to accept treatment.
- Use Your Own Words.Scripts should serve as a guide to patient interactions. Staff members should use their own words, paraphrasing the scripts, so that the essential information is communicated to the patient in a natural and positive way.
- Role-Play.Team members should both read over the scripts and “act them out” (or role-play). This process reinforces the messages, trains the team, and helps staff members to put themselves in patients’ shoes.
- Educate and Motivate Patients.Practices that excel at educating patients about elective services and the value of comprehensive care can dramatically increase production. Such practices usually have team members who have been thoroughly trained on elective procedures using scripts.
- Use Benefit Statements.Focus the message on what the patient wants—the benefits he or she will derive from treatment. Follow the simple Levin Group principle of never telling patients what you want, but always telling them why they would want to go ahead with treatment.
- Practice, Practice, Practice. The key to scripting, like many other activities, is practice, practice, practice. The concept of proper scripting needs to become ingrained as second nature, so that presentations will include proper words and benefit statements delivered in a natural, positive, and energetic manner.
Conclusion
Patients will often validate the quality of your practice based on the way you and your team communicate. In the practice, the easiest way to ensure consistently excellent communication is to use clinical and management scripting. Nothing you do in your practice will equal the impact of what you say, because it affects patient perceptions of quality and overall customer service experiences.