WARNING: Strong message follows. It will offend and upset you, if you’re guilty of this minor practice growth crime…

I can’t believe, in this day and age, that a dental practice INVESTING in growth, would leave their telephones UNANSWERED on a Friday.

Look: It’s SOOO easy to have multiple phones and phone numbers that ring to cell phones. You’ve got a printer in your office, so print off the schedule and BOOK pts on days you’re out of the office.

SMART DOCTORS have their phones answered LIVE (not stupid, 1986 answering machine or 2010 voicemail tech, either) by a real person that has real knowledge about the office and can make schedule changes or book new pt appointments.

LAZY DOCTORS will do the opposite. They’ll have answering machine, voicemail, or, in some cases, NOTHING and let the caller, which might damn well be a new patient, go somewhere else, your marketing dollars down the drain.

I’ve got a solution for the latter… if they want to continue to operate in a customer-service-less fashion: Just send me a check every month for a stupid tax. You’re letting new patients and existing patients slip through the cracks because you’re too lazy or too cheap to hire someone to “man” the phones.

Angie, our FOP at SofTouch, gets paid an extra 4-5 hours each week, for answering the phones. She rarely misses calls, has the ability to book new patients, and take care of existing.

Get someone on your phones from 8AM until 5PM Monday thru Friday, and have them check the voicemail on the weekends, or if you want to really impress your patients have a team member take the calls LIVE on the weekends, too!

The New Economy is tough on stupid people. That doesn’t need to be you.

And, if you want to argue with me about this post, BRING IT!!