Waching daily Aug 1 2018

For many patients it's a long road to the front door of your practice. Along the

way they are influenced by many voices - family, friends and even their primary

care doctor. Hi, I'm Randy Baldwin Vice President of Marketing for Hearing at

CareCredit. In the first video of this series, Sound

Strategies for Hearing Health, we talked about free resources CareCredit has

available to help you attract more patients to your practice. In this second

session, I'm going to share with you tips to make that first patient phone call

exceptional. And how to use your practice environment to educate, empower, and

enable patients to get the hearing health care that they need.

*phone ringing*

The initial call is important and can set the foundation for a great patient

experience. The objective of the initial new patient call is not just to set an

appointment, it is to gather and to give information that sets the foundation for

hearing health.

Let's break down a great first phone call.

*phone ringing*

*phone ringing*

Good morning, Sound

Hearing Solutions. This is Alice, how may I help you?

Yes I'd like to make an

appointment to get my hearing checked. My family doctor told me I should have

someone check my hearing. Seems odd I'm only 54.

Well many of us begin to

experience some degree of hearing loss in our 30s and 40s. The first step is to

find out so let's get you time on the schedule. May I have your name?

Yes it's

Howard Smith.

Mr. Smith you can reserve time with doctor on Tuesday at 10 a.m.

or Thursday at 4:30 p.m. Which of those would work best for you?

I could leave

work early so Thursday at 4:30.

Okay I've reserved time on doctor's scheduled

for Thursday at 4:30. We'd like to email you additional

information and of course a few forms to fill out and because sometimes patients

are a little surprised at the cost of today's hearing technology we'd like to

send you information on how you can fit hearing devices into your family budget.

If you end up needing them.

Yeah I was looking at some hearing aids online. Wow, they are expensive!

The best technology can be.

Doctor wants to make it as easy as possible for patients to get hearing

health, so we have several payment options available including the CareCredit

Health Care Credit Card. Mr. Smith I look forward to meeting you

Thursday at 4:30.

Great calls take training, practice and time. For more

scripts or to watch a webinar on how to increase conversions starting with

incoming phone calls go to CareCredit.com/SoundStrategies.

Now, let's

fast forward to when the patient arrives for his examination and talk about how

you can use your environment to educate, encourage, and enable patients instead of

leaving them to entertain themselves with mobile devices and magazines.

First, don't just place travel or cookie magazines on the table. Instead, provide

materials that can educate patients on hearing loss and solutions.

CareCredit has available Resonate! magazine. This free publication is filled with helpful

hearing health information along with interesting and fun facts on everything

from ear wax to ear piercing. Use your walls and countertops to show images of

the benefits of hearing health. Vibrant, active people of all generations

connecting socially. CareCredit's tabletop displays do double duty.

They show the benefits of hearing health and educate patients on financing as a

payment solution.

This can be important, because when people don't know they may

be able to pay for their hearing device monthly they may leave tested not

treated. If you have a TV monitor it can be one of the best ways to educate,

empower, and enable patients. Let's listen to an excerpt from Michele Ahlman, CEO of

Clear Digital Media as she discusses how to engage your patients through video.

Well video was all about patient engagement, right? The moment your patient

walks in the door you've spent time, money, resources getting them there. From

the moment they walk in the door you need to reinforce that decision that

they are there. That they've made a good decision. Custom

video content is an extremely effective way to do that. Now, a lot of you might

say "Well, I have video content. I have a TV in my waiting room. I'm playing

television playing the Travel Channel, playing Food Network. It's all good. I'm

occupying them and by the way my patients don't wait that long." Let's

think about that for a second, so you just spent time and money getting this

new patient in the door, he's there with his wife they sit down and we're human we're

drawn to the TV we're watching it and the Travel Channel is playing Vacation

Packages to Fiji or the Food Network is playing Napa Valley Vacations and all

kinds of great stuff. In those few precious moments you have just filled

your patients mind with things outside of their hearing healthcare. Why would

you do that? Why would you give away those precious

powerful moments to give your patients ideas of other things to do? You've just

given away total control to somebody you can't control - the TV networks. When you

think about it, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense.

If you would like to view Michele's video in its entirety or access her

educational paper or hear how Nola Aronson from Advanced Audiology has

optimized her reception area go to CareCredit.com/SoundStrategies. You'll

also find other videos available for use including one that features testimonials

from patients who use their CareCredit credit card to pay for their hearing

health. To get connected to free resources that can help you have great

patient conversations and use your practice environment to engage patients

and set the foundation for hearing health visit CareCredit.com/SoundStrategies

or call 800-859-9975.

The next video in this series,

Sound Strategies for Hearing Health, will focus on the critical financial

discussions. See you next time!