S4 Episode 5: Green Flags Pick Up: Mastering Tasks on the Phones Team

In this episode of Inside Dentistry Support, host and CEO Sarah Beth Herman emphasizes the crucial role of the phones team in dental offices. She outlines the impact of phone interactions on patient trust and office efficiency. By comparing red flags—such as answering calls without adequate information and sounding irritated—with green flags like leaving detailed notes and speaking clearly, Herman illustrates best practices for the team's behavior. She stresses that the phones team holds the power to transform frustration into trust and underscores the importance of clarity and professionalism in every interaction.

Transcript

   📍 Well, welcome back to Inside Dentistry Support. I'm your host and CEO Sarah Beth Herman. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the voice of every dental office that we serve, and that is our phones team.

That's you. You are the first impression. You are the fixer. You are the one who can turn frustration into peace. Or peace into chaos depending on how you show up. And in this episode, we're going straight to the red and green flag habits of how tasks should be given, received and executed on our phone support team.

Why the phone's role matters so much. The person answering the phone for dental practice has more power than they realize. They can calm someone down, they can spark trust, they can create loyalty, or they can break it. But that only happens if you know how to handle tasks really well, because let's be honest, when phones are busy and tasks are flying in and the phones just keep ringing while tasks are flying in, it is really easy to default to a reaction instead of an intention.

So we're gonna talk about the red and the green flags. Of team members who work on our phones team. I'm gonna start with red flag behaviors. The ones we don't normalize at dentistry support. These are things that I wanna call out. These are the red flags. We never want to see our team members exhibiting, picking up the phone without confirming what the task is.

So if I'm picking up the phone, am I answering a call? Am I making a call outbound? Do I have the proper information in front of me? Never pick up the phone without confirming what the task is before you pick it up, saying I'll call them, and then never circling back to confirm it was done, forgetting patient names or calling the wrong number or answering for the wrong office, sounding irritated, rushed or robotic, avoiding hard conversations, writing vague notes like left voicemail without timestamps, context or purpose.

There are many red flags in our phones team, and there are many ways to avoid them, but a couple more. Right off the top of my head would be keeping a patient on hold for too long, not answering the phone at all. Forgetting to do your tasks because you had a headache, or simply just not showing up. Red flags confuse the team.

They damage patient trust. They leave gaps that someone else has to clean up. And that is not the dentistry support way. This is where Professionalism shines the green flag behaviors, the dentistry support Standard Green Flag Phones. Team members confirm the task and the details.

Got it. I'll call Ms. Turner by 2:00 PM today and update the daily recap with her response. I'll also make sure that everything is updated in the dental office software. Two sound warm, clear, and professional every time, even if they said the same line 20 times. If you think you are talking slow, you're not talking slow enough.

Our regular speed of speech is often very, very fast. And when you're talking on technology or through technology, it can be very easily misunderstood. Another green flag behavior would be leaving notes like I called on July 2nd at 1:45 PM Patient confirmed reschedule for July 8th at 10:30 AM I left a detailed voice message on the second line as a backup.

Ask for missing information before calling. Can you confirm that the patient is expecting a call about their balance or is it about their appointment? Follow through. Follow up and close the loop. They don't have to leave you wondering. Our phones team always delivers confidence. Let's talk about both ends of the task exchange.

Green flag Task delivery looks like please call Mrs. Davidson and confirm she received the pre-treatment estimate for her crowns. She mentioned wanting to check coverage before scheduling. I noted her response in the practice management system, and I updated the daily recap with the status green flag task reception or receiving, looks like received calling the patient.

Now I'll document the outcome and circle back by 3:00 PM These are clean, these are professional, and these are dentistry support examples. Let's take a real scenario and break it down. A red flag example of this scenario would be called no answer. A green flag would be called Mrs. Hayes on June 30th at 11:05 AM there was no answer.

I left a voicemail confirming pending treatment plan for July 15th. I requested a call back to confirm the schedule or discuss coverage. I set myself a reminder in my calendar to follow up on July 1st. It's the same amount of time, but it is a completely different impact. So you can write a note that says called No answer, or you can give really clear instructions so everybody is on the same page.

When you are on our phones team, you are not just answering calls or making calls. You are the first voice someone hears when they're nervous. You're the first voice someone hears when they're calling about their family member. You are the helper. When someone is confused. You are the bridge between chaos and clarity.

And when you own the role with Green Flag Energy, you become the reason a patient sticks with that dental office and you become the reason that dental office stays with dentistry support. You are truly that powerful. You don't need to rush to be efficient. You need to be clear, present, and proactive. Our phones team job duties can feel fast paced, overwhelming, but that's why your clarity and communication matter and they matter more than ever.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast and fast without clarity. That's just noise. Choose green flag energy every time. When you speak with calm and clarity on the first ring, that's good. When your notes leave, zero guesswork, that's good. And when the office never has to ask, did that get done? Did the patient call back because you've already told them.

That's dentistry support. Good.  📍 I'll see you guys on the next episode.