Ben Lynch: Hi, hi. Hi, Beck. Hello. Whoa.

Bec Clare: How's the zooming?

Ben Lynch: Very theatrical. I love the physio West orange that you're wearing. Thank you.

Bec Clare: This is a vintage find from Vietnam.

Dan Gibbs: Talking about vintage, Jack on a recent episode brought up a awesome photo of Ben done with the AI, you know, the old Chinese proverb.

Ben Lynch: I don't know if it was awesome, but it was a photo.

Dan Gibbs: I'm trying to go one better here. Here's a photo, Ben.

Ben Lynch: What have you done? Oh, gee whiz.

Dan Gibbs: That's our first headshot when we were in the clinic together when you were just out of uni.

Ben Lynch: Wow. Look at that young face.

Bec Clare: How many coffees do you reckon you had there, Ben?

Ben Lynch: Zero. That might have been sort of progressing from mocha phase to a long black. So I wasn't a real coffee drinker. G'day, good people. Welcome to the Grow Your Clinic podcast by Clinic Mastery. Here's what's coming up inside of this episode.

Dan Gibbs: I believe there are four main scripts every admin practitioner should be aware of. Well, what are those four? I'm glad you asked. There we go.

Bec Clare: So when we've gone and interacted with the very best brands, what do we notice about them? Every time I've engaged with them, it's consistent.

Dan Gibbs: When you talk about robots taking over, it's even more important as a human to not be robotic when it comes to the personality that you bring to a phone.

Ben Lynch: And so what are the most important elements to train those admin in that zero to 100 onboarding? What you do and why you do it, and your scripting.

Dan Gibbs: So here's the script for someone who's calling up on the day to say, I can't make it in today. It is.

Ben Lynch: This episode will be right up your Allie if you're looking to improve the client experience in your clinic. We're diving into training your reception team. And trust me, you'll want to hear Daniel's take on the four key scripts for admin to use at the front desk. Plus stick around for when Beck drops her favourite admin training resources. Before we dive in, today's episode is brought to you by AllieClinics.com. If you're the kind of clinic owner who loves to feel organised and stay ahead of the chaos, you'll love Allie. Think of it as your digital clone. It's the single source of truth for all your clinic's policies, systems, and training. Test it for free at AllieClinics.com. And in other news, applications are now open to work with us one-on-one at Clinic Mastery. If you want support to grow your clinic and bring your vision to life, just email helloatclinicmastery.com with the subject line podcast and we'll line up a time to chat. All right, let's get into the episode. Well, it is episode 320, and we are joined by Daniel Gibbs. Welcome back. It's great. J.O.B. is away. You know, we did the podcast earlier on in the week, and I think he was half asleep. You know, he did his high half triathlon Ironman thing. He would have been very exhausted, but he was very just comfortable in his recliner chair. So it's good to have a bit more of a lively energy with you, Dan, today. For those that haven't caught previous episodes. Dan is the co-founder of Clinic Mastery here, former owner of Posture Podiatry, a Telstra business award-winning clinic, and judge as well. Those days are over though, Dan, aren't they, judging?

Dan Gibbs: Yeah, judging days are over, but doesn't mean my interest in business is over.

Ben Lynch: No, no, you loved it. A lot of great insights, actually. One of the things that I think you've shared with a lot of clinic owners is going through the application process is a great forcing function to level up your systems, right?

Dan Gibbs: Oh, 100%. I mean, Any awards application actually forces you to sit down and articulate, what are we doing this for? What is the purpose behind where we're going? And also, you can then use a lot of those words in your marketing or across your website or across your promotions. But when it comes to awards, it's no use Applying for award and a winning award, if you're not going to use the recognition that you get from the award. And Beck, I reckon you have modeled that really well with winning the Telstra Businesswoman of the Year and a number of other awards too, but then using that platform too to make a difference.

Ben Lynch: Done very well. And Nicole French in the community as well has won lots of awards and probably sets the standard, I reckon, for making the most of awards. She's well connected. You can call her Telstra. In fact, she's that well connected.

Dan Gibbs: Not just Telstra, the Allied Health Awards. Yes. She was mentioned in Victorian Parliament recently.

Ben Lynch: Incredible.

Dan Gibbs: Shout out to Nicole. Yeah. Shout out to Nicole French.

Ben Lynch: Actually, just this is random, but I happen to have on my desk, Dan, one of the clinic mastery assets internally for our team, it's called Behind the Brand. And it goes through a whole bunch of different elements that have come out of award submissions, articulating your tone of voice, your position in the market. So great assets can come from that, that you then use in team member onboarding and whatnot.

Dan Gibbs: Yeah, it's all culture. It's all who we are. It's how we act. It's the words we use. It's everything that makes us who we are. And I think every business has their own culture. It develops in its own unique way. But doing these sorts of things just helps you to articulate what that actually is. Double down, triple down.

Ben Lynch: Speaking of articulate, I did call you articulate last session there, Beck. For those tuning in, it's great to have you on the pod as we take this new lens of looking at the practice managers, the operations managers, the HR and the system side of running a business. Of course, you run Physio West here in Adelaide, team of 27 recently. Yes.

Bec Clare: Possibly 28 by the end of the week. We're just on a bit of a roll at the moment.

Ben Lynch: Wow. That is so good. Well, before we dive in, just a quick welcome to Tiffany and Yasmin for jumping on Allie today and testing it out in your clinic. Thank you. And also for Beck and Barbara, who have joined us in the Business Academy this week in between recordings. Thank you. Today is about reception teams. The extension of the practice manager role is that reception teams are often undertrained, not trained well enough, yet they shape the client's experience so significantly. So I thought, let's start, because both of you love this. You've both co-presented on Admin Mastery, the Practice Leaders program. I'd love to see where there's alignment and maybe find some differences of opinion. So we've got a bit of a fast round to get us started, if that's all right. A couple of questions I want a yes or a no, or a true or a false. We're going to go with you first, Beck, and then I'll get Daniel to give your answer, and then we'll move on to the next question. Is that okay? Let's do it. I'm going to do my best grant, Denya, and play host to some game show. All right. What's one book every reception team member should read? Beck?

Bec Clare: Unreasonable Hospitality. Dan?

Dan Gibbs: Yes.

Ben Lynch: Great answer.

Dan Gibbs: I mean, you said the answer needed to be yes or no, or true or false. If you ask that question, if that's the parameters for my answers, you need to ask a question that's related to the answer you want me to give.

Ben Lynch: That's great. Look, just shows the attention to detail is high right now. Okay, next, you get to pick any keynote speaker. This is definitely not a yes or no question. Some of them are yes or no, some of them are true or false. I'll go with that, okay? So you get to pick any keynote speaker to lead your team culture or training day for receptionists. Who is it? Beck, who are you going with? Anyone in the world. Simon Sinek.

Dan Gibbs: Dan, you too? It's exactly the same. My book was Unreasonable Hospitality. I've got it right here. My person was Simon Sinek. Beck, we are completely in sync at the moment. Wow. That's good. I would say Beck Clare, but that's my other…

Bec Clare: Soon to be on the keynote circuit there.

Ben Lynch: Yeah. Hello. Fantastic. All right. Receptionists should have key performance indicators, just like practitioners. Yes or no?

Bec Clare: 100% yes. Yes.

Ben Lynch: Yes or no, scripts work better than freestyle at the front desk. So following a script for a receptionist, answering a phone or handling a client at the front desk is better than just leaving them to their own devices and freestyling. Beck?

Bec Clare: Yes. And I'm going to do a bend here and elaborate because you can't just answer that as a yes. Yes, with personality and with tone. Scripts can otherwise be very robotic, but we do need them to ensure that we're delivering purposeful conversations that are in line with our values and the direction of the clinic?

Dan Gibbs: My answer is start with a script and then layer in the personality.

Ben Lynch: Obviously folks, you can tell that, um, I didn't give them these questions beforehand because I've butchered it from the very beginning, but there's some great alignment in your answers, which is really good. Okay. So next every new receptionist should shadow or observe a practitioner as part of their training and onboarding Beck. Yeah, absolutely.

Dan Gibbs: And go one step further and actually experience the treatment that the practitioners provide.

Ben Lynch: Yes. Very good one. Yes or no. Clinic owners should mystery shop their own reception team, which if you've been in the retail space is where either you do it, maybe you've got a family member or a friend who's queued up. They make a phone call or an email inquiry and they document or record their experience to give some feedback to you to see what that experience is like. Bec.

Bec Clare: Yes. And it often happens. Naturally.

Dan Gibbs: Okay. No, is my answer. Because I did this once and it blew up in a bad way because it eroded trust. You know, they were thinking they were being monitored and didn't expect that they were being mystery shopped. So then we just did one little nuance and we said, there is going to be a mystery shop happening. You won't know who it is or what's going on. And with everyone ready and prepared that within a particular time window, it would happen. Um, it, it helped create that little bit of psychological safety.

Ben Lynch: Nice. When I was studying, I worked at the Athletes' Foot. They had an incredible onboarding process and, you know, a manual this thick. It was huge. And part of it was around mystery shoppers coming in. And to that point, Dan, you won't know who it is, but they will come through. And are you following the scripts and the processes here? So, yeah, I'm going to go, yes, I like your framing. there with the pre-framing.

Dan Gibbs: They're both really yeses. I just wanted to say no.

Ben Lynch: Okay. All right.

Dan Gibbs: Contradictory.

Ben Lynch: You're not controversial in the slightest. Next, a receptionist should be measured on conversion rate of new client inquiries. Daniel, you can go first.

Dan Gibbs: Yes, for a period of time as part of a training.

Ben Lynch: Just for a short period of time until you know the system is working.

Dan Gibbs: Ongoing monitoring of conversion rates is important, but how the question is framed, a receptionist for new clients at a particular time, that's where I just put those parameters in. Again, like when it comes to training, giving some expectations and good parameters so that people feel more natural, less nervous on the phone.

Bec Clare: Yes, I agree. And again, for that period of time, it's really important that we help our team understand what success looks like in their role. We do that actively with our practitioners and for our client care team or reception team to know when they're doing a good job. It can be a whole lot of things in the clinic, but conversions is how we make an impact in people's lives.

Ben Lynch: Nice. I like the answer. We've got three more to go. Yeah. True or false, a receptionist can influence retention of clients more than a practitioner can.

Dan Gibbs: Oh, I was about to yell true from the rooftops because- You were, you were lining up for a big one. I was like, true. Because we like to frame receptionists or admin team as admin practitioners, reception practitioners, because they have immense impact on the role of the client's journey with the clinic. So yes, absolutely. More than the practitioner. That's interesting. That's an interesting question because if the practitioner is not doing a good job with patient care and rapport, it doesn't matter what happens on the reception desk. However, it may open the window to a conversation from a client saying, I don't like that practitioner. Is there someone else that I can go with? So for retention from a clinic perspective, maybe yes.

Ben Lynch: Oh, it sounds like you're on the fence. It's a little prickly.

Dan Gibbs: There's a few splinters there and it's not, yeah.

Ben Lynch: Beck, what about you? I'm also splintered right now. Oh, gee whiz. Okay. I think they play a meaningful role, but I'm going to say the practitioner has more influence on the whole. Net, net. Okay. What's a go-to podcast, TED talk, or YouTube that you commonly recommend admin teams watch or listen to to understand how they can influence the client experience? I'll go first. I think There's a TED talk by Fred, forget his last name. And he wrote a book called, If Disney Ran Your Hospital, Nine and a Half Ways to Transform the Client Experience, something along those lines. And he has a TED talk and he has a book. And I think it's a really great way to think about the client experience. So I'd do that, Dan.

Dan Gibbs: Amy Cuddy does a TED talk on your body language and how your body language shapes who you are. And we often, Beck, you'll remember as we were touring Australia with the Admin Mastery Roadshow, we played a little bit of Amy Cuddy's TED talk during the session. Beck?

Bec Clare: Vanessa Van Edwards, You Are Contagious.

Dan Gibbs: That was pre-COVID, wasn't it?

Bec Clare: Yes, which we need to pre-frame that TED Talk now. However, it's still really influential.

Ben Lynch: And then finally, receptionists should have a CBD plan just like practitioners. Beck nods of approval.

Dan Gibbs: Well, it's not that it's not that the CPD plan counts towards points to maintain registration with a particular body, although that would be awesome as well. But but as much as continuing professional continuing professional development is important for practitioners, it's also important for admin team.

Bec Clare: It's really about having the schedule and having a plan to continue to help your team amplify their skills, amplify their impact.

Dan Gibbs: So talking about the schedule, if you think about professional development and the different elements of professional development from case studies to stories, client stories to technical skills or all of those sorts of things. If you brought the reception team into the practitioner professional development and maybe share some of their experiences and how they have done certain things from the desk as well, it can be a great connection point. on your normal PD schedule.

Ben Lynch: Nice. So you're saying for practitioner CPD, where appropriate, actually having your reception and admin team present to contribute to here's what patients are experiencing or here's what I hear and see related to this certain patient type or injury type.

Bec Clare: Absolutely. I'd agree. It can also help with the scripting that we've referred to on the session now is that If our admin team are aware of either what technique or what modalities or what our team can actually do, they can speak to that with a whole lot more confidence. If you're providing in a musculoskeletal setting, if you're providing hands-on PD, that can also be really helpful for your admin team to actually be the bodies that are practiced on so they get to feel what the treatment looks like. Often patients can be really, clients can be quite apprehensive about treatment, so having them be part of that training program, they can talk to it with confidence.

Ben Lynch: Yeah, they need to be advocates and they need to understand it.

Dan Gibbs: Yeah. I mean, if you think of the key moments where a receptionist is involved with a client's care, it's generally while on the phone with a client and they're saying, can't make it in because I'm sick or can't make it in for the appointment, or it could be the other way around. The practitioner Can't make that appointment or is running behind schedule, whatever it might be. And so if you're on admin and you're talking with the client, you're trying to offer them another solution, whether that's another practitioner to book in with, or perhaps another time on a different day. And we can't quite get it in with the same. practitioner that's there, you can really talk to the confidence that you have in that practitioner because you've experienced either something that they've taught before, or you've experienced something they've demonstrated before, or you've actually been part of being one of their clients yourself as well. So it is very helpful to give the client confidence that they're in the right hands with that other practitioner.

Ben Lynch: especially for new practitioners, when we're looking to build their caseload, it's going to be really valuable, as you said, Beck, to get a receptionist to go through the motions of an assessment, let's say, where appropriate. I'm mindful of a paediatric speech pathologist assessing an adult person on the front desk, You know, we're going to have to nuance this, but let them understand what happens so that they can be a great advocate for that therapist in time. So, Beck, you get to work with practice managers, and so many of them are responsible for leading the development of admin teams. What are some of the challenges that you hear from practice managers about being able to actually train team members to be brilliant at providing great client experiences.

Bec Clare: There are a couple of key challenges. Often it comes to the logistics of getting everyone together. They want to have the whole team all in one place or virtual even, and schedules don't perhaps align. So there's just some logistics around that. How do we solve that? Being able to produce a hub, something like Ally, where admin team members can go in and catch up on training, or there can be modules there that they can engage with. The other key challenge often comes from turnover. or retention, that they feel like they've trained a team member and just when they've gotten to that really beautiful right spot, they're on their way.

Dan Gibbs: That's often not because of the because of the actual person itself. It could be they're at uni and their uni course is finished and then, you know, they're awesome and then they go, but.

Bec Clare: It can be quite a transient role. And what I see the best doing is fast tracking that training so that it doesn't matter. We want to train them so that they stay, but we're aware that they could leave. So we're really wanting to condense the amount of time. And I've seen clinics do zero to 100, zero to 100 days or zero to 100%. What I'm seeing the best do is condense that down into the shortest possible period to get their team flying really quickly and sustainably.

Ben Lynch: And so what are a couple of the most important elements to train those admin on in that zero to 100 onboarding?

Bec Clare: What you do and why you do it. and your scripting.

Ben Lynch: Okay. And when you say what you do and why you do it, do you mean like the actual services, the types of clients, like talk us through practically what would that look like?

Bec Clare: So as an example, in our clinic where musculoskeletal, we cater for a broad range of clients across multiple funding models. So it's ensuring that they've got a handle on that to confidently go about actioning their day-to-day.

Ben Lynch: Yeah. I think essential parts are like billings, bookings, and with your practitioners understanding the services that they provide. I think they're going to be really critical to it. Beck, you mentioned scripting. Dan, you love The scripting side of things, supporting admin reception teams. You've done a lot of training. What can you share on some of the importance of scripts and how to do it? Because often when people hear it, they're like, oh, gross. Like I don't want to do a script. It's robotic.

Dan Gibbs: Okay. So better we train our team and they leave than not train them and they stay. So that's the first principle, make sure that we bring training to everyone that's on the team. One of the first things that happens when you get a new receptionist on board is the phone will ring and one of the first questions they're going to ask is, how do I answer the phone? And that is generally the first thing that's trained and it's something that is consistent across clinics that we have a way that we answer the phone. I mean, they're not just going to answer going, hello. Um, there's, there's definitely going to be some kind of script involved, whether that's welcome to clinic name, my name is name. How can I help? Or whatever it might be. But the, the point is that, uh, scripts are not an unnatural thing. There's something that most clinics have in place altogether and scripts develop through experience and. Naturally, as people get good at handling various conversations, they may have had a particular conversation many times and they've developed their own spiel, their own way of handling a particular conversation. And that becomes their script that they use. It becomes their fallback that they run because they've done that conversation so many times before. All we're trying to do for a new admin practitioner on the team is give them those skills of that experience that has developed that particular spiel. So in answer to a particular question, this is what we say. But then you'd train it. These are the words to say. This is how we say it. Now, why would you do that? Because we've had that conversation many times before. We've nuanced it. We've seen where it's worked and where it hasn't worked. And we developed it to become as simple and easy as what it is right now. I believe there are four main scripts that every admin practitioner should be aware of and should adopt as part of their SPIELs and then there is a whole lot of nuance that goes on from there and that's where you layer in a number of those personalities.

Ben Lynch: Well, what are those for? I'm keen to know.

Dan Gibbs: I'm glad you asked. There we go. The, the four scripts come back to the situations where questions are being asked and a particular answer is required. Um, and I could even.

Ben Lynch: That sounds normal for question and answer.

Dan Gibbs: Right. Q and a. So there's a questions being asked. Okay. We need a particular answer. Uh, one of the most common questions that gets asked is. How much is an appointment? When someone asks how much is an appointment, they're actually asking the wrong question, is my belief. What they're really asking if they've done all the research or they've been recommended to your clinic or they've seen your website, they've jumped on board, okay, I'm gonna give the clinic a call. What they're really asking is, can you help me? Do you have the solution for my problem? And so when they ask how much is an appointment, we need to answer the real question that they're actually asking, which is, can you help me? So a really natural, easy response to how much is an appointment is how can we help? And the reason how can we help works is because it actually helps you get more context as to what their problem is so that you can even answer the how much is an appointment question in the first place. But the other advantage of that is it brings the conversation away from dollars and cents to I have a problem, we have a solution. Okay, how much is the appointment? Well, this is how much it is. Well, that makes sense. So you can still answer the question during the course of the conversation, but for every inquiry that comes through where it's how much is an appointment we answer with, how can we help? And that actually is the response that you can use for a whole manner of questions that come through the clinic from how much is an appointment to can I have an appointment today? Or how can we help? Or what have you done? Are there any availabilities today? Is this practitioner in? How can I help? How can I help? How can we help? That question opens up the door to valuable conversation. So that is script number one. Bec, any additionals on that one?

Bec Clare: Not on that particular script. If we look at scripting, it's also about consistency of delivery. So we want our clients and our community to experience consistency from us, that they can speak to you, Ben, they can speak to Daniel, they could speak to Jack, and we are confident in that delivery, that we're giving the community what it is that we can provide.

Ben Lynch: It's a really good point. And are there some principles backing that up? Because sometimes you're in a fluster, you got a lot of things going on, maybe you forget the script or you ad lib and it's not quite right. Are there principles that you anchor to here, Bec? when sharing scripts or how to think about answering the phone for your admin that give them, you know, just something simple to anchor onto?

Bec Clare: What we talk about is the experiences that we've had ourselves. So when we've gone and interacted with the very best brands, what do we notice about them?

Ben Lynch: Yeah.

Bec Clare: And it often comes back to every time I've engaged with them, it's consistent. And we know that someone needs to engage with the brand a handful of times before they actually buy. So we want each of those interactions to have that consistency running through that builds trust.

Ben Lynch: Yes. I think part of that, the principle as you're talking that stands out is a version of Dan ask questions to understand more. Maybe it's even the Stephen Covey principle of seek first to understand and then be understood. It's a great one, just an anchor. Hey, don't rush into answering their question straight away, but seek to understand a little bit more first. It's kind of like ask a question before you start giving an answer. So that's number one, Dan. You said you've got a couple more?

Dan Gibbs: Yeah, I've got three more scripts. The next one is a situation where a client wants to get in with a particular practitioner, whether they've been referred to that particular person, or they've done their research and they're like, I wanna book with that particular person. And you know, as the receptionist that that person isn't available, they may not be taking new clients at the moment, or you need to redirect that client to a different practitioner on the team. That's quite a challenging situation. So as you progress through the how can we help conversation, it's really important to give the client confidence that the person you're recommending for them is the right person. And so a line that you can use to help establish that confidence is you'll be in great hands with. you know, or you'll love, you know, they're a great practitioner or whatever it might be. But the one I've got written here is you'll be in great hands with this person.

Ben Lynch: Yes, you'll be in really great hands with Beck. Beck's going to be ideal. Once you've found out what their problem or how we can help.

Dan Gibbs: Yeah. So it might go like this. I have I've gotten a referral to see this particular person. Oh, great. Okay. How can we help? Well, this is my problem. Okay. That's excellent. I'm noticing here that it's going to be a while before I can get you into that person, but we do have this practitioner available who works alongside that other practitioner is awesome and can really help you get on top of that problem right away. You'll be in great hands with. that person. It's just that little anchor to the flow. Bec, I think you've used this in your clinic a bit, hey?

Bec Clare: Absolutely. And you'll be in great hands with really hits home when you've had your admin team shadow a session and they've witnessed that practitioner in their element, they've been a patient, they've experienced the service, because they can confidently say you will be in great hands with. Having also your practitioners where you can foresee that someone is quite heavily booked, there isn't a lot of vacant time, is ensuring that you know which is the next clinician who aligns with that skill set, who treats in a similar way. So ensuring that each of your therapists have a buddy, we call them clinic buddies, so it's like okay these two have a very similar ideal client, they treat in a similar way and you can confidently then say you'll be in great hands with and those two clinicians are going to work together on that client's journey.

Ben Lynch: I feel this heightened sense of importance when it comes to the scripts and the reception team delivering these, Dan, at this moment in time, because of all the AI phone systems that are coming out, which are improving at a rate of knots. There's still some element there where it's, I'm speaking to a robot, I want to speak to a human. But this is changing quickly as tonality, as the delivery mechanisms are better. And reception team members need to improve their skill set meaningfully. Otherwise, they're going to be displaced, a number of them out of a few hours a week. So I think the ability to nail these types of experiences has never been more important.

Dan Gibbs: It's so true. And when you talk about robots taking over, it's even more important as a human to not be robotic when it comes to the personality that you bring to a phone. I know, Ben, you talk about an experience you had with a particular brand where you really felt calm and at ease. And they introduced them. They didn't say, this is Daniel. They said, my name is Daniel. You know, just little things that are less robotic, right?

Ben Lynch: Yeah, moons ago, I think an early podcast I did was about my experience with the RM Williams customer support. I got some boots like 10 years ago and I didn't know how to take care of them. So I called up the customer support and I had just a wonderful experience.

Dan Gibbs: That does track. Yeah.

Ben Lynch: So, yeah, I just remember feeling so calm. I mean, I wasn't like, you know, in an accident calling the car insurance to figure out what to do. This was a fairly, you know, simple thing. But they were just like, hi, it's like Kelly from R.M. Williams customer support. What's your name? And it was just the tonality was so good. And I felt so calm and like, how else can I help? How else can I help? How else? Is that everything today? Great. All right. Have a wonderful day. We can maybe clip that podcast next to this one. So folks can go listening. Cause I, I caught it pretty immediately after that experience and shared it. Cause it's a little bit hazy in my mind these days, but anyway, Dan, back to your scripts.

Dan Gibbs: Okay, next one. Situation that's often seen in the clinic. I need to cancel my appointment. When a client calls up, I need to cancel that appointment. We have various, how do you say it, philosophies in the clinic around client cancellations is, you know, what are they really saying? Is there an opportunity to meet them with their needs? And there are two, the final two are- Just hold up, hold up, hold up.

Ben Lynch: What do you mean by that? Just explain that.

Dan Gibbs: We didn't like letting our clients cancel. Because if they cancel, often that means they drop out of care. We have our retention strategies or reactivation strategy, as we called it, nurturing strategies to make sure that our clients feel nurtured, even if they don't have an upcoming appointment booked. But if someone was going to cancel, we wanted to know why, and we wanted to help them to reconnect with the treatment plan. And so that was the principle behind how we would respond to someone canceling an appointment. So if someone said, I need to cancel my appointment, The ultimate outcome is we don't actually want to take that out of the diary completely. We would like to reschedule it unless the client has reached a point where the practitioner has, has discharged them. And, uh, and that is part of their, their, um, treatment plan. You know, that's the different story, but if someone is calling up on the phone saying, I need to cancel my appointment next week, the response is. aimed towards the ideal outcome, which is a reschedule. So the response to that, and this is the script, when can I reschedule that for? Or when can I reschedule that to? And so, hey, I need to cancel my appointment. Okay, when can I reschedule? I can help with that. When can I reschedule that to? That becomes the simple assumed outcome in that situation that leads to a client reschedule rather than a client dropping out of the diary altogether.

Bec Clare: To add to that, When you use that particular script, I'd say there'd be 60% plus of clients who are like, oh, thank you so much. Yeah, a reschedule to next week would be great. Because when clients are calling us, they're not familiar with our vocabulary that we're using in clinic. They go, oh, I can't come to tomorrow. Therefore, I need to cancel that appointment. They're not understanding that what they're actually requesting is a reschedule. So when we use the when can I reschedule that to, you'd save 60% plus of those calls that are coming through.

Ben Lynch: What about someone who says, oh, no, it's all good, or I'm a bit busy, or I don't have my calendar. I don't have my diary in front of me. That's a classic line.

Dan Gibbs: Yep, classic. Our response to that was, is everything okay? That was, it was just as simple, simple as that. Um, because then they go, Oh yeah, yeah, everything's fine. I'll, I'll give you a call back or whatever it might be. So then that would trigger. All right. Um, I'll wait for you to give me a call back. If I don't hear from you in a couple of weeks time, is it okay if I give you a call back? And they say, yep, sure. You weren't that long. Well, okay.

Ben Lynch: Come on, tell us the truth.

Dan Gibbs: We're getting into our recall system, right? So the recall system is two weeks or two months. This is how we did it in our clinic, where if someone dropped out of the diary and they didn't have a future appointment booked, we would always contact them either two weeks or two months, depending on the situation, to make sure that we make that contact. And so most patient management systems have a recall system available to use. And what it does is it brings up every day, you look at the recall system and it brings up the people that you promised you were gonna contact two weeks ago, or whatever you say. Now you could say two days, two weeks, two months, or three days, three weeks, three months. You could have a system where you have short-term recall, medium-term recall, and long-term recall. But the point here is if someone can't reschedule at the time and you say, if I don't hear from you, I'll give you a call in a couple of days or a couple of weeks. And they say, yeah, that'd be fine. That's where they go onto the recall list and you make sure you call them back at that time. If they don't answer or you don't get in touch with them or you aren't able to complete the recall, they would then fall into the next category of recall, which would be two months or two days, two weeks, two months. And then if they fall out of the two month recall system, they're now in the patient nurturing sequence, which means that say, I mean, timing is unique for each clinic, obviously. And again, this is not a client who has been formally discharged from the clinic. So they're still technically active in the practitioner's care plan. So for us, it started at three months. That was the nurturing sequence. Hey, we haven't seen you for this time. Let's get you back in. Then it was, you know, you could do anything.

Ben Lynch: Then you'll react, you know, quote, reactivating a client back in. And, you know, there are different professions that are discharging clients and they're out, but maybe say in a musculoskeletal sense, as an example, or for the dentists that are listening in, I need to go back to the dentist to get the clean in six months time. So if I haven't booked that in, I need to be reactivated.

Dan Gibbs: And often those clinicians or those practitioners will actually book out six months ahead because of the rhythm of that. So sometimes clients can't actually book for their next appointment until you get closer to the date, depending on how the clinic runs. So you need to have those systems in place. And then alongside the general reactivation or nurturing sequence, we've also got the monthly newsletters or the weekly newsletters. We've got the clinic communication, keeping people active in the clinic in terms of comms, birthday acknowledgements, and so on and so forth. So we wanna make sure there's good communication between appointments. I think 50% of what we do in the clinic is in clinic. in the console, the other 50% is what happens between consoles. And that's where the admin practitioners have such a great influence.

Ben Lynch: Half of the client journey is going to be in-person, delivered face-to-face, and the other half is what we do in between, all the communication and nurturing in between.

Bec Clare: I love the question, is everything okay? That's brilliant. You've got to remember as well that our admin teams actually have so much information at their fingertips. They have the full client files sitting there, their past history, a great script that we have used in clinic when someone's like, oh, I don't have my diary or I'm not entirely sure. Having a look at the client files, I can see that you actually come in and see Ben, usually between four and five on a Wednesday afternoon. How about I reschedule you to? Give them an option that usually aligns with their diary and you give us a call back if that still doesn't suit. Provide them with a solution that gets them into the diary, particularly where you've got a practitioner who does book out in advance. We don't want that client to call back in two, three days and not be able to get an appointment. Let's provide them with a solution. Take control of the conversation.

Dan Gibbs: And that really leads quite nicely into the fourth one, which is about taking control of the situation too. This is a situation where there's a cancellation, but it's within the late notice period window or the cancellation period window. So a lot of clinics will have, please don't call. If you cancel an appointment within 12 hours, or 24 hours, or 72 hours, or whatever it might be, that creates a problem because we now have a vacant spot in the diary and someone else could have filled that, but we haven't been given enough time to fill that vacancy. So, I remember the situation once where we had a client who repeatedly didn't make it to appointments on the day and would call us up and let us know. But we always knew that when that client was in the diary, it was likely that there would be a gap in that diary because at late notice, we're going to get a call and they're not going to come in. So we thought we were doing the right thing by implementing a late notice policy, a cancellation policy in our clinic. And, sorry, we were doing the right thing, implementing a cancellation policy. We thought we were doing the right thing by charging it. to this client who cancelled at late notice. So we did, we charged it. And we got the most angry response from this person who said to us, if I knew about the cancellation fee, I wouldn't have cancelled. So I thought we had communicated the cancellation fee in our documentation, in our clinic induction, in our patient information, little sign on the desk, all of those things. But by not talking about the late notice fee or the cancellation fee in those moments when someone's cancelling at late notice, we don't give them the opportunity to decide whether they want to be stung with the fee or not. Now, I think it's really important to have a late notice fee policy. You don't always have to charge it. In fact, we never actually charged it, but sure, we talked about it. And that was really the principle that we used that, hey, we're going to talk about the late notice fee. If someone does cancel at late notice, it will always be followed up with a letter, hard copy letter that goes to them and say, sorry, we didn't see you. Thanks for letting us know. We'd normally charge a late notice fee, but we've opted to waive that for you in this circumstance. And then generally that would stop repeated activity like that. Here's the script for someone who's calling up on the day to say, I can't make it in today. It is, I want to help you avoid the late notice fee. Are you sure you can't make it in today? And the reason that's the script being worked over many iterations and lots of experience, I want to help you avoid the late notice fee means that you as the receptionist are putting yourself on the side of the client here. I'm with you in this. there's a late notice fee that I'm going to have to charge if we don't find a solution here. So I want to help you avoid that. Are you sure you can't make it in today? Or perhaps we can find another time that works for you today. And then they would say, actually, yes, I can make it. So we reframe the priorities. Now, of course, there are situations where someone is sick and you don't want them to come into the clinic. So you can have different outcomes for that. But this script, I want to help you avoid the late notice fee, are you sure you can't make it in today, meant that at our clinic we didn't have anyone ever blow up about the late notice fee.

Ben Lynch: It's a really important one for particularly the NDIS-based clinics that we work with, the speech, the psych, the OT, where they've got regular bookings of clients, often a year in advance. Those times are fairly sacred. You can't touch them. They're ongoing with that client. And so they have a reasonable effect. on the revenue that the clinic brings in. So they need to have a good policy communicated clearly and often do need to charge it, especially when utilisation rates are relatively low or they don't have the wait list to call on to fill that allotted time. So really worthwhile. But as you said, Dan, discretion is always key and nuanced into your clinic. So where we started this conversation was, Reception team members influence the client's experience meaningfully. That can lead to more word of mouth referrals from your existing client base and more bookings or client retention because they've just had a great experience from the front desk through to the practitioners on the back end. But so often we under invest in their training and development. So what are some critical ingredients to training them? Beck, you said, we want to make sure they know what we do and why we do it. And arming them with the right scripts, communication framework, as you've elaborated, Dan, to handle the conversations that come up predominantly around bookings and billings. They're kind of the core essence. They're the training areas that we need to develop them on. What else should clinic owners and practice managers ought to think about when it comes to training their reception team to provide a great client experience through their reception teams, Bec? What else would you add to this?

Bec Clare: I think it comes from what we're talking about in this session around AI, human to human connection. And that's the bit that can't be replaced. What are some strategies for connection with our clients, whether that be some key scripts or some key talking points when a client comes in so that we can make them feel at home, we can make them feel welcome, we can make them feel at ease. It could be in a musk setting where they're unsure about what the treatment's going to look like, or it could be they're coming in for an assessment service and they're really worried or stressed, whether that be about themselves or their child, perhaps. So what are some talking points that can help them relax? And this is what I talk to my team a lot about, is how can we build that human to human connection? Be an admin practitioner. The work that we can do in the welcome space impacts the result of that in clinic session, just beyond measure. If you can have a relaxed client and at ease client come into their session, the outcome that practitioner is going to get. Huge impact.

Dan Gibbs: Yeah. How do you end a phone call though? Or how do you, cause sometimes you're in a situation where, okay, phone's ringing, someone's at the desk, practitioner needs your help. You're on a call and you still want to provide that relaxed, you know, calm feeling with them while they're doing that or whether it could be any situation. Someone's walking in, a delivery arrives, you know, you've got to, you've got to manage stuff here and you're the only person on the desk. How do you still give that impression without making it feel, because the person on the phone doesn't know what's going on around you, how do you give that impression and finish your phone call so that you can get on with everything else that's happening?

Ben Lynch: How do you be the swan? How do you be the swan? The Daniel Goode swan? I think it comes back to clear communication. We spoke last week about the emergency services, the ambos that show up to an emergency situation, and they're often walking slowly towards the chaos or the crisis that's happened. And so in that instance, I think one of the best things to be able to do is make sure you address each person in that instance and give them a little bit of a, I see you, I'll be with you in just a moment. And it does take a little bit of quick thinking to figure out triaging, okay, the delivery person might just need a quick signature. And we can do that and then move back to the patient that we're processing the fee or rebooking the appointment for, or we're back on the phone. But I think it's just a quick acknowledgement. Hey, Daniel, I'm just with a patient on the phone. I'll be with you in 30 seconds. Please feel welcome to have a seat. And I'll be with you in a moment. You know, something like that. You know, then you've got certainty. I'm going to take a seat. I'm going to be okay. I'm going to wrap up this phone call. and then move on to the next thing. But I think it's an acknowledgement of each person. I've definitely worked very closely and worked a lot on the front desk as well, especially as a young graduate coming out. And it does get chaotic on the front desk. And there's nothing quite worse to exacerbate this than a really frazzled receptionist that's almost angry that it's all happening at once. I've definitely worked with them. It's just like take a breath. Everyone can see that it's busy. Just be cool, calm and collected and address each person. I'll be with you in a moment. Is that OK? Everyone's understanding. Golly, I'm sure there's always going to be some patient that, you know, gets upset. But golly, that's that's not the rule. That's not that's the exception. Beck, what have you done to support your reception team in being prepared for that?

Bec Clare: we role play this in clinic. We do it in a really fun way as part of our team training. So we go, OK, let's be Karen on the phone. Let's be the delivery person that's coming in. Let's the Internet's down as well all at the same time. And so we've got we've got a team of six. So all six of us are there sort of almost badgering our client care team. And can they be this one? And we have a really fun time about it, too. Great, great. And we sort of put each other in the hot seat just to see what little tips and tricks we can achieve from that. But it's about having a good time when you're doing this training, because that's when you also remember that training.

Dan Gibbs: I think it also speaks to the deposits and the withdrawals that are inevitably going to have to be made in any relationship, whether that's someone on the phone, whether that's someone standing in front of you, whether that's someone you haven't met yet or don't know yet or have a connection with. The principle here is opening up an emotional bank account with that person. So if you think of any interaction that happens, there are going to be deposits and withdrawals into that emotional bank account. And I have a slide I can share. So for the viewing audience, you can see what I'm talking about here. So let's share this here. There are times when you need to make Deposits and there are times when there are withdrawals that happen But if you're being rude or late or if you're indifferent or if things are not as expected These are withdrawals on that emotional bank account if you're forgetful you don't do what you say you were going to do or if you're dismissive of someone's could Someone's concerns that's going to be a withdrawal Deposits, on the other hand, are when you're courteous, when you're on time, when you respect them, when you're consistent, when you follow through, or when you're attentive to someone's needs. And so there may be times when the practitioner is running late. And if you've got enough deposits in this emotional bank account, it's going to make it a whole lot easier to handle this situation and less likely that someone is going to get angry or fly off the handle in that particular moment. So at our clinic, we looked for ways we could deposit into the emotional bank account, little gifts, little extra things, you know, how we presented a glass of water, how we presented a cup of herbal tea, the mineral salt and essential oil foot bath that people go up before their their treatment at the podiatrist. So those were things that we tried to implement to make it easier to be in the positives in those deposits for the reception team. And it sounds like a lot of work doing all these other extra little things, but it actually makes life a whole lot easier when the clinic is running smooth and calm.

Ben Lynch: Like you said, Dan, it's doing a lot of the regular stuff, a lot of the business as usual, maybe boring stuff, not as fancy as the footbaths and the herbal teas and whatnot, though they add to it, but just doing those other things consistent, like you said, showing up on time, being respectful. In those instances, what I found really useful is your facial expressions make a big difference. Just being able to put on a smile and just be like, you know, hey, Beck, I'll be with you in a moment. Take a seat and I'll just answer this phone call. Or You're on the phone call and you're like, hey, I've just got a couple of people at the front desk at the moment. I'd love to continue the conversation or book you in. Is it okay if I give you a call back in five minutes? And be okay to, in that people just want clarity that they're not going to get left out or left behind. What's the head snap rule, Bec?

Bec Clare: So the head snap rule is it's an evolution, I guess, of the three metre rule, which we've spoken about on the podcast here, that we greet anyone within three metres. But the head snap is as soon as someone comes into our zone is head up and looking at them. Direct eye contact. The moment you can catch someone's gaze, you're already acknowledging them. And you may well be on the phone and perhaps you're in a long conversation, you can still usher someone into your welcome space and make them feel welcome with your non-verbals. With the way that your eyes light up when you see them and the way that you use open body language towards them. But the head snap rule is literally just that, up and looking at them.

Ben Lynch: It's such an interesting thing. You're trying to do it genuinely. Sometimes you're having to force it. That's okay. But I think it makes a big difference.

Dan Gibbs: The head snap rule works really well, especially when you're mystery shopping. So I will do this just for fun. Walk into clinics and just say hi. a reception they don't know who I am that they don't know that I've got an appointment booked but I'll come in say hi I just ask about the clinic and then you know make a connection then see you later but the number of times that I walk into the front door and the receptionist looks down at their computer straight away to go, Oh, who could this be? I wasn't expecting anyone walk in. Um, you know, and their focus is on the screen in front of them and I can see it happening. Like their, their mouse is moving, their eyes are looking and I know I've got no point. I know they're not expecting me. They certainly are showing they don't know me and don't expect me. But in those moments, perhaps instead of going straight for the computer, maybe you could go straight for the person that's walking in.

Ben Lynch: Yeah, it's such a good point. I think with a lot of these tools and tech that are coming in to make the admin function a lot crisper, quicker, easier, there's just greater emphasis on the personal human connection that you spoke to, Beck. and a wonderful opportunity to find great people that are brilliant at customer service. I think so often the mold of a reception or admin is that, Dan, is head down there processing papers and doing appointments like they're necessary to keep the show on the road. But we're moving into a space where a lot of these things are being automated or AI is facilitating it, answering the calls. I actually think there's going to be a big change in clinics where we can actually continue to have admin, because some people might say, oh, admin teams are going to be gone. We do know a few clinics that operate without admin. But I actually think this is where admin teams are going to transform, where you're going to have the opportunity for people to level up in their customer experience and just be, you know, such a wonderful support to the patients that are coming into the clinic.

Bec Clare: Ben, to that point, I'll often talk to the Practice Leaders Program. which, as you mentioned, is full of amazing clinic leaders, whether they be practice managers, operations managers, senior admin. And I say to them, our role is here to serve those people that are in front of us and on the phone. I understand we need to do the billing, we need to empty the bins, we need to do the washing, whatever the task might be. But those tasks don't exist if we don't have people. to serve. So our priority is our people.

Dan Gibbs: It's also the reason why, so Pete and Andrew, they hired a barista as a receptionist because a barista was trained in hospitality and being able to see and they wanted to bring that element of hospitality to the reception area, the welcome area in their clinic. So instead of hiring for a receptionist, they hired for a barista and it led to a different experience in the welcome area.

Ben Lynch: And the way they did that, I think they literally sent out job ads that called that out. So for those folks wondering how they did it, it was a change in the way that they created and wrote the job ad to attract someone with that type of experience. This is really good because admin teams, practice managers are central to the client's experience. And they will fill the books with rebookings and referrals. And so their training, your investment in their training is so critical to growing your clinic sustainably. Don't let them just be forgotten team members and all your emphasis is on the practitioners. They can absolutely be instrumental in growing your clinic sustainably. I'm excited to continue down this path with you, Beck, in particular. Dan, thank you for stepping into the shoes of Jack O'Brien. I'm sure we'll have you back in a few episodes time, but thank you for sharing those scripts and the framework. For folks listening in or watching, head over to clinicmastery.com forward slash podcast for the show notes, the recording and previous episodes. Last episode, we covered the position description of a practice manager, and we'll continue down this line in the next episode. Dan, Beck, thank you so much.

Bec Clare: Thank you guys as always.

Ben Lynch: All right. You stay caffeinated. Bye for now.