What Do You Hear When You Call Your Dentist’s Office?
So consider this: I called my daughter’s pediatrician the other day and I talked to what I could tell was a very unhappy lady. I could even call her RUDE. This was after I had to spend 5 minutes punching in numbers for an automated system. This made me think, where does Rhoades Family Dentistry rank when we answer the phone? So I took the liberty to ask some of our patients what they want to hear when we answered the phone. The response was not surprising as they said these simple four things:
-Speak to a person
-Happy
-Friendly
-Good Listener
We are all so busy that when we finally remember to make that phone call to Rhoades Family Dentistry, we have a limited amount of time for that phone call. When you do find the time, you want to speak with a person. One thing I heard over and over was how irritated people get when they hear an automated phone system. I think many of us can agree that it is a bit annoying and time consuming to wait on an automated voice. I don’t know about you but I always hit 0 for the operator. I am happy to say we understand the automated frustration and if you call our office during office hours, you will get a live person!
There must be some unhappy people answering the phones out there. Grumpy, mean, mad, angry, rude and fussy are some of the descriptive words that were used when describing personalities that answer phone lines. If you are answering the phone at your job, just SMILE.
I sure hope you are being friendly when you answer the phones. After my phone experience I wasn’t too surprised that Friendly Was on the list. It is very obvious what kind of day you are having and if you are friendly by the tone of your voice.
Uh huh, yeah, sure, ok….Wait, what did you say? How many times have you had to explain again why you were calling? What about having to say again why you were calling or say your name again? Just having someone be a good listener on the other end would be great.
To be honest, I was a little shocked that, “we can’t get you in” and “I don’t know” didn’t come up when asking our patients. When I asked some of the Rhoades Family Dentistry Staff, these were the Top Two. Maybe because we are in the indistry and know what we are NEVER to say on the phone. I would like to toot our horn for a minute. When I was aksing our patients about what they do not want to hear when they call our office, I was informed that our ladies on the phone were very kind and professional. A couple added that they were shocked and very appreciative that we were able to fit them right in – Go Ladies!
It was so nice hearing such nice complements today but I wanted to find out for myself. I secretly called our office at Rhoades Family Dentistry to make sure we were ranking high with our phone etiquette. I needed to make sure the 4 big important factors that were mentioned by our patients would be delivered. Plus the two that were mentioned by the staff. When I called the office the phone was answered with a friendly voice that introduced herself. Angie then asked how she could help me. When I went into a story about my tooth being in pain she listened to me. She didn’t cut me off, she didn’t ask me to repeat myself… She just listened.
Thank goodness my secret call was a success! I am very proud to say Dr Hahn has taken great measures to have her whole office trained with answering the phones at the five star level. Most of us use our training in day to day, out of the office situations too. Dr. Hahn knows the importance of good, professional phone etiquette. We pride ourselves at Rhoades Family Dentistry to answer the phones with a smile, a friendly tone and listen to your needs. We will also do our very best to get you in as soon as our schedule allows.
P.S. Hablamos Espanol
Hope you find a little sunshine on this rainy day!
Your Happy & Friendly Olathe Dentist’s Office, Rhoades Family Dentistry!
