Let’s be honest: Outbound calling rarely tops anyone’s list of favorite responsibilities.
For many teams, it’s the task that gets delayed, avoided, or quietly deprioritized. Sometimes it’s a matter of confidence. Sometimes it’s past experiences with low conversion.
And sometimes, it’s harder to name — but just as real.
The hesitation is understandable. But left unaddressed, it can quietly limit growth and patient engagement.
The good news? These tips and tricks can help your team make more effective calls and consistently achieve better results.
Remember Why It Matters
Why is outbound calling important to your practice’s success?
Any opportunity to positively connect with patients and prospects can return value in spades.
Outbound calling not only reflects your dedication to following through on promises but also demonstrates your care and concern, helps build a rapport, and addresses readiness.
Develop and Follow a Consistent Process
Developing an outbound-calling process is one thing. Following it consistently is another.
Identify and shore up weak spots to help improve consistency, with considerations such as:
- Prioritizing the process through block scheduling
- Getting team buy-in and alignment around the process
- Ensuring transparency across the team
Understand the Anatomy of a Call
When you know how each call should flow, you can create a more consistent message and communicate effectively.
Having a felt sense of good call structure allows you to be natural and allows the conversation to go smoothly and move in the right direction.
Every outbound call ideally includes a:
- Beginning — friendly check-in
- Middle — reason for the call
- End — two appointment times for the patient to choose from
Understand Patient Objections
During the call, you might run into patient objections.
Knowing what these objections look like in various forms allows you to identify your patient’s underlying concern so you can speak to it. With the five most common objections, they:
- See the value in moving forward, but something else is a higher priority right now
- Don’t see any value in moving forward because everything’s OK right now
- See the value of moving forward but not the value of choosing your practice
- See the value of moving forward but need to confirm with someone else
- See the value of moving forward but cannot afford it
Anticipating these potential objections and being prepared with responsive talking points will help overcome these challenges.
Role Play for Added Confidence
“Practice makes perfect” is more than an adage.
Role playing among your team generates familiarity and builds greater confidence, making it easier to achieve your goals when the real calls with patients occur.
Consider recording the role play — even a smartphone is sufficient — to instantly critique, adjust, and learn from the experience.
Every role-play session offers an opportunity for improvement.
Master Your Message
Successfully engaging your patient requires tailoring your message, whether the warranty on their hearing aid is about to expire, their devices have reached four-plus years, or their hearing loss has been tested but not treated.
Upcoming warranty expiration
With your main message being “Let’s protect your investment,” some sample statements could be:
- “Your warranty is about to expire.”
- “Let’s check your hearing devices while they’re still under warranty.”
- “Let’s have you come in to talk about the pros of extending your warranty or new recommendations based on your hearing test.”
Older technology
With your main message being “Let’s validate that your needs are met,” some sample statements could be:
- “How are your hearing devices working for you?”
- “We recommend a full exam and device check annually after technology is four years old.”
- “Let’s have you come in so we can validate that your hearing devices are still meeting your needs.”
Tested-but-untreated hearing loss
With your main message being “Let’s ensure health and wellness,” some sample statements could be:
- “How’s your hearing?”
- “We recommend retesting annually.”
- “Let’s have you come in for your regular hearing exam as part of taking care of your overall health and wellness.”
Know Your Patients
It’s easier to call people you feel like you know. Before calling, glance at the patient chart and, going forward, ask providers to jot down background information that can assist in these calls.
Also, find common ground. Hear a dog in the background? Share a common hobby? Use those cues to make inroads — people like to talk about their lives.
Be Natural, Warm, and Likable
Like you, patients naturally assume it’s a sales call when the phone rings. The best approach is to disarm them immediately.
Your call is not a sales call, so avoid sounding salesy. Instead just speak, as one real person to another.
Share stories to build value: “We often hear from other patients that they didn’t even know how much they were missing until they came in and got their devices retested and adjusted.”
You already know how to build rapport with and engage with others — this phone call should be no different.
Stay Focused on Your Goals
As in life, outbound calling involves the long game of building solid, quality relationships that last.
Even if the patient doesn’t make an appointment, the call furthers the connection.
Keep focused on your practice’s goals, and remember to:
- Accurately represent the nature of the appointment
- Build value for making an appointment so that they want to schedule
- Impress upon them that the practice cares about their hearing above all else