What exactly is the “pain” question on a dental phone slip and how do you ask it?
It is the open-ended question that surfaces the actual motivator behind the call. After capturing the caller’s name and using it, the team member asks something like: “Mary, what prompted you to call about that today?” The phrasing matters. “What prompted you” invites a narrative answer rather than a yes-or-no. “Today” anchors the question in the present moment of the call. Whatever the caller said in their initial inquiry, plug that into the question. The answer that follows is the most valuable piece of information the team member will collect on the call. It may be physical pain, embarrassment about a smile, an upcoming life event, a referral from a friend, a recent dental experience that went badly, or any of a hundred other possibilities. The team member writes the answer in the caller’s own words on the phone slip. Those words travel through the chart and inform every later interaction with this patient.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.