Is Your Staff Losing You Money on the Phone??

Hey everyone, Dr. Vince Leone here, and hope you're having an awesome Tuesday. Today I want to talk about the importance of staff training in a cash services practice, or a practice that offers cash services like spinal decompression, peripheral neuropathy, knee pain, etc. And again, I don't think that you really need to take this much care if you're in just a kind of a straight chiropractic practice where you're using insurance and Copays and all that type of stuff. These are for the practices where, you know, you're— it's primarily an all-cash care plan. Patients are gonna write a check for $3,000 to $7,000 or whatever the number is. And so we need to really create a tremendous amount of confidence for the patient that they're coming to the right place, right? That we are an expert, that we are a specialist in And that we are the best possible solution for them and their health and their future health, right? So the reason why staff training is so important is because many times they are starting with your staff before they even see you, right? So I always have the 5 points of conversion, or I talk about the 5 points of conversion being the first point of contact, whether that's an advertisement or a referral, right? Then you have the Right. Then you have the consultation, the exam, and the report of findings. So we'll set aside the— for today's talk, we'll set aside the first point of contact, which is the referral or the ad. And I always promote education-based advertising so that we can lead with authority, we can lead as an expert in our area, that we can lead with value, right? We're providing them an education, We're providing them information that they can't just Google in 2 minutes, right? This is stuff that, you know, only a specialist can really provide them and show why it's so different than other services and options for them out there. So let's talk about that next point of contact, the phone. And so when patients are going to call, first of all, that's like gold, right? If they're calling you, right? Talked to a friend or family member, they saw an ad, they watched a webinar, whatever that, you know, that kind of initial point of contact was, and they call your office, that's a big deal, right? It's different than like you running Facebook ads and then your staff members calling them, you know, every day for 2 weeks. First of all, no one wants to do that. Second of all, no one wants to have that happen to them. You know, no one wants to get Someone calling their phone day after day, they don't know the number, and, you know, then they listen to it and it's the same person leaving a message, leaving a message, leaving a message. It's like, I mean, just, just flip the script. Would you like that? You know, would you like to be kind of harassed on the phone to set up an appointment with a doctor? It's like, no. You know, the way we do it is, you know, we, we run ads and we put Education-based ads so that they come to their own conclusion and they call us, right? We place one phone call. That's what we train clients, staff members, one phone call to check in. Hey, thank you so much for signing up for this particular, you know, whatever the offer is. You know, my name is Casey. I am the, you know, the doctor's personal assistant. If and when you're ready to go ahead and set up that appointment, just go ahead and call me. This is my personal number and I'd be happy to take care of you. And that's it, right? So the point being is, it's like, you know, every time you like, you're trying so hard to get something, usually the person on the other end is kind of pulling back. It's like, you know, like the prettiest girl in high school, like the guys that kind of chased her down, she would kind of usually move away from them To the other individual who was kind of more aloof and, you know, not trying so hard. It's the same thing here. It's just social dynamics is what it is. But the point being is when someone calls us, that's a big deal, and so we need to treat it like that. And so the first thing is to recognize the value of it. The second thing is to— And when I say recognize the value, what I'm saying is that if your care plan's $5,000, Which is kind of like the average care plan across the United States for decompression or peripheral neuropathy. If that's your care plan price, then every one of those phone calls should be viewed as a potential $5,000 case. Now, let's set aside ethics, right? Just in a sense that, hey, we are a specialist, we have a phenomenal protocol, we get phenomenal results, and we change lives, right? So if all those things are in place, Then then then we have no there is no ethic ethical dilemma, right? We we should be trying to reach as many people as possible because we do have the best solution, right? So that's what I mean by putting ethics aside. Not that we're not we don't want to incorporate ethics. It's that that's not an issue because we're the best in the business. We're the best in town. We are the place that they should go to. Okay. So the point being is every time someone calls your office. That's a potential $5,000 swing. Now, with that in mind, would you take a little more time training your staff members so that they can answer questions succinctly and confidently so that the patient's confidence goes up and skepticism goes down so they're more likely to make an appointment, more likely to come in qualified, more likely to come in educated, right? Then they watch our pre-consult video and then they get to see our doctor. So if you think about that, if they saw a well-educated— or sorry, a well-written education-based ad, they call our office, they get their questions answered in a real succinct and confident manner, it's like they just know, okay, this is the right place. Then they come in and then now their patient experience, and that's the next step, right, is their kind of first visit into the office. But don't you think that's going to be a better qualified patient? So that's why, like, there's a whole module in Profit Niche just to staff training, right, covering how to answer the phone. It goes— I do a full training both on, you know, spinal decompression and peripheral neuropathy. Hey, this is spinal decompression A to Z so that you know essentially everything that I know about decompression, Now your staff member knows, right? These are the frequently asked questions about spinal decompression and peripheral neuropathy. You know, isn't that a different experience versus, say, the patient calls up and they ask the question, you know, is this covered by insurance? Why is a chiropractor treating my feet? How many visits is it? How much does it cost? And if that staff member is stumbling and bumbling their way through— That conversation, do you think that patient has more or less confidence? I mean, it's clear, right? They have way less confidence and they probably won't even set an appointment, right? And so then the next step is, hey, is your staff member tracking the call-to-consult ratio so that they know that they're being held accountable and that they'll increase their skill levels, right? And they'll continue to train and get better, right? And then, you know, maybe, hey, maybe you even put a A bonus on there, right? So that if they hit 80 or 90% of call-to-consult ratio, that, you know, they get a bonus. And so it gives them something to drive towards, whatever that bonus may be. It may be monetary, it may be something else. But point being is, if you're doing cash-based services, just understand how important that first call is to your office and how important that staff member. In our office, we had the The doctor's personal assistant. She was the only one that was allowed to speak with these patients, period. If one of the other, you know, there was 4 girls at the front. If one of the other 3 picked up the phone, you know what? That's an excellent question for the doctor's personal assistant. Can you hold on one second? I'm gonna go ahead and grab Teresa and she's gonna take great care of you. That's it. And that's a handoff. Now, if that patient called and said, I wanna set up an appointment right now, I saw this, I'm so interested in this, blah, blah, blah. Great, but if there's any questions whatsoever, you know what, I need to get you on the phone with the doctor's personal assistant. She's the expert in this area, and I want to make sure that you have all of your questions answered perfectly before you come in because I know how valuable your time is. Isn't that a different experience versus someone saying, Well, you know, I'm not really sure how many visits it is. Why is a doctor treating your feet? Well, you know, we have this laser and And it's so great. What? Give me a break. So train your staff, put them through the wringer, get them skilled up, right? So that they can treat your patients, give them an awesome experience on the phone so that patient or that prospective patient, that $5,000 swing, knows that they called the right place and they're not going to go anywhere else. They're going to come in, they're going to see you, and they're going to figure out Next, the next step, right? Are you the one that they're going to choose for their healthcare needs? So I'm Dr. Vince. I hope this helps. I'm going to do— this week I'm going to focus on staff training. Next video we'll talk about frequently asked questions for spinal decompression. Thursday we'll talk about frequently asked questions for peripheral neuropathy. Take care. Oh, really quick, by the way, if you are in these niches, Right, and you're not quite getting the results you'd like, or you were— you'd like to add these niches to your chiropractic practice, you want to add cash-based services, you want to add $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 a month in cash, go to drvinceleone.com. That's a great first step to learn about what I do and to see if I can help you. Okay, so that's— you sign in there. There's, I think it's just an email. I don't think you don't need to put your first name. Our last name, but go there to drvinceleone.com. It's a 25-minute case study. It's gonna go through the 4 fundamental building blocks to adding and growing these cash-based services in your practice efficiently, profitably, and ultimately so that you deliver the clinical outcomes to your patients so that, you know, your reputation soars, you become that specialist in your area and that go-to doc. So check out drvinceleone.com. I hope this was helpful for you. We will see you on the next training video. Take care.