Proactively Fighting Fires at Your Group Practice

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How Call Box is helping thousands of dental practices and DSOs
proactively resolve gaps in phone handling through its CRISP methodology.

Firefighters are, by nature, reactive. For the most part, it’s unlikely that a fire truck will show up to a home that isn’t already in flames. Firefighters reserve a majority of their resources for homes that require immediate assistance. Most often, they are frantically called by a homeowner or well-meaning passerby who notices smoke.

Now, imagine if firefighters had the ability to proactively identify homes and neighborhoods that were at risk for fires. Say, for instance, they had a reliable methodology for alerting them when one area was trending toward flames and monitor the area for any signs of fire.

These firefighters could station their trucks in the area, educate the neighborhoods on fire safety to prevent fire, and train at-risk populations such as children and the elderly on how to prevent or escape a fire. Furthermore, if a house ever did catch fire, firefighters would be immediately alerted and dispatched without anyone needing to call them.

Most dental practices and DSOs operate in a similar manner to firefighters when it comes to their phone processes; they’re reactive by nature. Until they receive complaints from patients or notice their appointment conversions drop significantly, they’re unaware of the challenges they’re experiencing on the phone — challenges such as, but not limited to, patients being placed on hold for extensive amounts of time, not receiving follow-up calls when they haven’t received proper help, never being invited into the practice for an appointment, or even being told the wrong information over a call.

Call Box’s solutions eliminate this significant performance gap. Through a framework known as CRISP, Call Box listens to every patient call to evaluate phone handling and proactively identify potential problem areas. In doing so, managers are able to uncover particular locations and agents who are “trending toward flames” and struggling with specific phone metrics, before resulting in a critical challenge for the practice.

This allows managers to spend time with the locations and agents who are struggling, educate those individuals on improved phone habits, and proactively train their teams to overcome obstacles faced on the phone. In fact, managers are alerted to such challenges before patients even bring them to their attention. Sound familiar?

Call Box’s CRISP methodology focuses on the key phone metrics that drive an optimal patient experience and increased appointment conversions. The metrics of CRISP include Connect, Request & Invite, Schedule, and Pursue. Through a unique combination of human reviewers and artificial intelligence, Call Box listens to every patient call for a group practice through the lens of CRISP to help optimize the call outcome. Each metric of CRISP is described in detail below.

Connect – Connect every call to someone who can help. Connecting a patient caller goes much further than simply answering the phone. Connection is ensuring patients actually reach someone who can help them on the phone. While most phone systems can report on answer rates or abandonment rates, these systems lack the ability to indicate when patients hang up while on hold, leave voicemails, leave live messages, and more. As a patient, you wouldn’t consider your call connected if you left a message or hung up the phone in frustration while on hold; Call Box doesn’t either.

Request & Invite – Request the appointment and invite the caller to come in every time. Most practices have friendly, knowledgeable staff members who are excellent at answering patient questions and providing a positive impression of the practice. However, a patient can only receive the care they need if he or she is invited into the practice for an appointment. Every patient call presents an opportunity to either schedule or confirm an appointment. Therefore, it’s critical that staff members request the appointment and invite patients in to see the doctor on every opportunity.

Schedule – Schedule an appointment for a firm date and time. It goes without saying that scheduling performance is a critical metric to track on the phone. If your team isn’t converting patient callers into booked appointments, it’s necessary to understand why and get ahead of any downward trends in conversions. Furthermore, it’s important that your staff sets expectations for a patient’s visit while on the phone and confirms best contact information for follow-up calls and confirmations.

Pursue – Pursue every potential patient that is not helped or booked for an appointment. No matter how great a practice is on the phone, it’s inevitable that patient calls will slip through the cracks and not receive the help needed. Therefore, it’s crucial to have a healthy outbound calling process in place to follow up with patients who are not helped on their initial call, scheduled for an appointment, or satisfied with their phone experience. Call Box provides proactive alerts so you can focus on the most important calls that require your immediate attention.

Call Box’s CRISP methodology acts as a feedback loop for dental practices and DSOs; when one metrics begins to drop, managers are alerted and able to dive into the analytics to pinpoint where the problem is originating and help solve for it. This proactive insight allows dental practices to thwart off potential “fires” and ensure patients receive the care they need on the phone. While most dental practices and DSOs tend to operate in a reactive manner when it comes to phone handling, Call Box provides the insight to eliminate this gap in performance.

To learn more about Call Box and its solutions to help more than 5,000 dental practices and DSOs to optimize call outcomes, visit www.callbox.com/dental or call 833-836-4862.


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