Coaching Receptionists (Kindly) with Recording Brian Conrad, CVPM Meadow Hills Veterinary Center Kennewick, WA

Phone Calls Gone Bad: Coaching Receptionists (Kindly) with Recording Brian Conrad, CVPM Meadow Hills Veterinary Center Kennewick, WA A ringing telephone in a veterinary clinic is a beautiful thing. I tend to laugh when I hear doctors and staff make a statement that they could get some work done if that damn phone would stop ringing. I wonder if they hear themselves speaking. What they fail to realize is that damn phone is the critical factor to them having an income and a job. We have to create a culture that wants the phone ringing off the hook. A culture where we train all of the staff to professionally answer the phone and take care of the clients efficiently and confidently. 99% of the time the ringing telephone is a client with a need or a want. This could be a phone shopper, a client wanting to schedule an appointment, a boarding reservation, checking on lab results, a perceived emergency, medication refill, patient status update and we could go on and on with the list. But again, the fact the phone is ringing is a great thing. When answering the phone, don’t be fake. Let your staff’s personality come out in a professional and consistent manner. Assure they are welcoming and inviting but more importantly confident and efficient. We don’t need each phone call to last 10 minutes because we are unsure of ourselves or do not know how to control the phone conversations. The phone call should have some type of resolution. The phone voice should be pleasant and enthusiastic. It should sound focused and interested with switching of tones etc. What we don’t want is a nasally monotone raspy voice that makes us want to hang up and call another veterinary practice. There are service companies that give far more training to their staff for the phones than we ever do in the veterinary industry. I would encourage you to highlight 5-8 of the top categories on why clients call in and then set specific training for each. The categories could be Phone shoppers, Estimates, Pharmacy Refills, Euthanasia Requests, Complaints, Scheduling of Appointments, Boarding Reservations, and Lab Requests. Create a list of everything someone answering the phone might need to know about each category and then train the staff on them. Continue the training with observation training. Have each staff member watching specific procedures in your hospital. Consider have them observe a spay, neuter, wellness exam, and dental. They are going to be working with clients or potential clients on the phone. Having observed first hand these procedure they will be able to more confidently describe and educate the clients on why they would want to choose your clinic. After the observation training is complete, move into role playing. Guess what? No one ever likes to role play but it can be extremely effective. Think of the person answering the phone as the face of the company. When you start to think the person talking on the phone is responsible for your entire image, you’ll agree to conduct a little more role playing to assure our message and dialogue sound professional and smooth will be well worth the time. It is important to note it used to be if a client received poor phone service, they would shrug their shoulder and realize there is nothing they can do about it. Today, this has changed. We are seeing the use of social media as a way for clients to vent about their frustrations and describe their sometimes comical encounters with service employees. Don’t find your clinic on YouTube or Facebook with a ranting client playing an imitation of what your un-trained team member sounded like on the phone. Don’t be the next viral blog by a story of your staff being uncaring or insensitive to a client or potential client who appeared to of had an urgent matter. Work with your staff to understand they are on stage at all times when on the phone and you never know where the client will take the information and interaction or who they will tell. Err on the side of caution and assume each conversation is going to be blasted all over the web. It might not seem fair but this the technologically connected world we live in. After all, people post pictures of their dinner plate on Facebook. A juicy unprofessional phone interaction with your staff will really give them some substance for a post. It is important to remember 99% of our phone calls are a client or potential client with a need or want. If they are making the effort to call, then they are wanting effort from the veterinary clinic to take some type of action. Many times, clients will call with a medical concern. It is important for the staff to realize their number one objective is to get the client into the clinic. Furthermore, the support staff needs to remember they are not doctors nor should they try to play the part. Their job is to alleviate fear from the client by confidently communicating to them they want to get the pet owner some answers. The best way to do that is to have the veterinarian do a nose to tail exam. Plan for other scenarios that relate to the phones. Create some type of policy when family and friends call for doctors and staff. Create a system the staff understands and make sure it is not abused. We create a list for our doctors to identify when they want to be interrupted out of an exam room. For some it is when their spouse or children call for others it is when a specialist or referral doctor is calling. Communicate to the staff and it will alleviate a lot of missed opportunities on the phone. Make sure your messages are complete and accurate. This should include client name, phone number, client ID, date, time, message and initials. Many of us think our phone call etiquette is above average. Let the clients decide. This should be part of your regular feedback from your clinic surveys. Ask the clients to rate how well your staff are on the phone. Ask specific questions such as “Do you feel 608 like all of your needs and wants are taken care of when you call into ABC Veterinary Clinic?” “Do you feel the staff to be knowledgeable and efficient when calling into ABC Veterinary Clinic?” “Would you agree you are taken care of in a timely manner when dealing with our staff on the phone?” “Do you feel your messages are returned in a timely manner when calling in?” Simply having the client rate your phone skills on a scale of 1-10 is going to do very little in giving you direction on where to improve. Work with your staff and create a culture where a ringing telephone is viewed as a great thing and not a hindrance. Train the staff to be knowledgeable and professional. Create a culture where everyone jumps to answer the phone after they have been trained and checked off. Having untrained and unprepared staff answering the phone may do more harm than if the phone call was never answered. Now go turn up the volume on your clinic phones and wait to hear that beautiful sound. 609 Clear! Shock Your Team to Life with These Energizing Strategies Bash Halow, LVT, CVPM Halow Tassava Consulting New York, NY Start with a sense of mission Everyone wants to feel as though they are part of something great. Paint that picture for them. ‘See’ the great business that you want to build. Help others to see it. Show your existing and prospective employees how they can be a unique and important person in your vision of the future. Dove Lewis, an emergency referral center in Portland Oregon, has already established itself as an exemplary center for care, but they continue to bait their employees to push past previous goals and grasp for new heights. Their current vision statement, ‘To have a global influence on the emergency and specialty veterinary profession…’ challenges everyone from the CEO down to revisit everything that they do, to improve themselves and to improve their organization. Dove is embarking on the equivalent of a moon launch: dangerous, but with an exhilarating prize, the first steps on a new world. Take a look at your Mission statement. If it puts you to sleep, put it to sleep. Write what matters most to you. Say what you mean, not what you think you should sound like. Kick its tires. Make sure it can handle whatever kind of terrain lies ahead. Partner don’t parent Stop holding the hands of your adult workers. If you have employees still in the toddling stage, then send them back to nursery school where they belong. Your clients, patients and coworkers don’t feel like working with them and neither should you. You are not your employees’ daddy or mommy. If you feel like being a daddy or mommy, don’t open a veterinary clinic to serve your needs; invite a friend over for dinner and wine and do it the old fashioned way. Everyone wants to feel special and everyone wants to win. Figure out a way for every member of your team to uniquely contribute to the goals of the practice and then partner with them to make sure that it happens. Assist your employees’ development Getting in the way of your team members success can be issues with self doubt, jealousy, negativity and so forth….

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