Phone Scripts For Mental Health Professionals That Fill Your Schedule
Chutzpah phone scripts that fill your calendar with paying clients
By Philip Copitch, Ph.D.
CopitchInc.com
Chutzpah Marketing For Mental Health Professionals
The Simple Chutzpah Super Bill
Chutzpah Phone Scripts for Mental Health Professionals
Chutzpah Web Site Marketing for Professionals
Business Consultation with Dr. Copitch
Spiral-bound
32 pages, 11 x 8.8 x 0.3 inches
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Angela confessed to me, “When my office phone rings, I start to panic. I know I am good at my job, but when I get asked questions over the phone I find myself rambling like an idiot.”
If any part of Angela’s discomfort rings true for you, don’t worry, I am going to show you how to present on the phone, as the amazing therapist that you truly are.
Philip Copitch, Ph.D.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 5
2. What to do when the prospect calls 7
The phone work space counts 8
Only allow the professional you to answer the phone 9
Chutzpah phone script 10
It is best to be choosy 13
The 4 parts and 1 rule of the intake phone call 14
Gently control the call 15
4 basic parts of an intake call 15
Greeting/Opening 16
Give/gather information 16
Appoint/objections 16
Closing/Goodbye 19
Four basic annotated phone scrips 20
In closing 32
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Excerpt: Phone Scripts For Mental Health Professionals That Fill Your Schedule
2. What to do when the prospect calls
Most therapists are, at their core, caring people, but they are often terrible business people. I am not bad mouthing therapists, but most therapists have little if any business training. Running a business takes education.
Angela confessed to me, “When my office phone rings, I start to panic. I know I am good at my job, but when I get asked questions over the phone I find myself rambling like an idiot.”
If any part of Angela’s discomfort rings true for you, don’t worry, I am going to show you how to present on the phone, as the amazing therapist that you truly are.
In the next few pages, I am going to show you how to write a phone script that will keep you focused. This focus view will help you meet the needs of your callers as well your own needs.
But first, let’s deal with the fear of the phone call.
Many therapists feel the pressure of the empty datebook. Their goal is to be working with 10, 20 or 30 clients per week, but the datebook is mostly bare. This pressure is going to trigger adrenaline to course through your veins like a bunny being attacked by a starving wolf, every time the phone rings. Once adrenaline shows up, you are going to experience the fight or flight response. If you remember back to your anatomy and physiology course, or your abnormal psychology classes, you will recall that when the bunny is being chased, its respiration increases, its senses go on overdrive, and its thoughts become randomized. This randomization of thought is very important to a species’ survival. Without it, each bunny will try to escape in a species specific pattern, say, 3 hops to the left, 6 to the right, then 16 to the left. If this happened repeatedly, the predators would very quickly learn to scare the bunnies senseless then simply go to where they are going to be in say, 25 hops. Easy dinner. (Nature’s original Meals on Wheels.)
Like bunnies, when we get nervous, our thoughts randomize as we go into reactive mode. This very normal behavior pattern becomes quite inconvenient when we find ourselves opening our mouths and having vowel movements. The best way to deal with this normal situation is to be prepared before answering the phone. By using a phone script you can make sure you say what you want to say, professionally and accurately. Within no time, the phone script becomes memorized and you will only need it for training office staff, or when you have old-timers moments.
The phone work space counts
Clutter is the hobgoblin of a busy day, week and month. This mischievous imp, secretively moves important papers under unimportant piles of desk debris that eventually inhabit an unguarded desk.
Clutter comes from Middle English cloteren, which means to clot. A clot, whether in your veins or on your desk, may wind up in the wrong place and cause havoc. This all too often happens during a phone call when you are trying to represent as the professional you are, but find yourself caught with your “Ahs” and “Umms” showing. “Travelers Insurance, Ah... I’m pretty sure... Umm... Oh yes, Ah, no that’s not it, Ummm...”
The simplest solution to avoiding clutter hobgoblins is to make your phone work space a “no clutter zone”. The vast majority of your first contacts will be made in the phone workspace area, and it is imperative that you respect that this area has a direct link to your income.
Many of us work from one desk, thus our phone intake area, our patient logging area, as well as our lunch area, our snack area, and our computer work space, is all the same small piece of real estate. If this is the case, an anti clutter, everything-has-it’s-own-place mandate, is imperative.
What should be in your phone work space:
- Quality phone with headset. Do not skimp on quality, sound clarity, and ear comfort. You will be attached to your phone for long periods of time.
- A mirror
- Your phone script
- Your information database. I find that a computer printout of my constantly changing computer database works best.
- Note pad. I log each and every phone call. This raw data becomes my phone matrix information.
- Mug of pens
What should not be in your phone work space:
- Candy dish. A candy dish is an invitation for someone else in the office to disturb you. (Plus, according to my wife, candy is bad for you-except on rare occasions.)
- Distractions such as unopened mail, sudoku puzzles, or iPhone video apps. (I have seen therapists doing each one of these while on the phone with a potential client.)
Only allow the professional you to answer the phone
There are a few simple chutzpah tricks to conducting your phone interview. You read the previous sentence correctly. You are conducting a phone interview of your prospective client. You are in private practice, you get to choose who you wish to work with. That choice starts in the initial phone contact.
When I answer the phone at my office, Dr. Phil answers the phone. Dr. Phil is this amazing fellow that is always calm, polite, and helpful. Dr. Phil is the personification of all that is good in the world. In my world I play 3 major roles–Dad, Phil and Dr. Phil. I don’t let Phil answer the phone. Phil is basically lazy, he wants to go play, go hang out with Geri (better half) and lounge about. I don’t let Dad answer the phone because he is a little bit grumpy and is always cleaning or taxiing the kids about. He is a little short tempered, best not to let Dad answer the phone.
When client prospects call they want to talk to the role you play in their life, therapist. When my personification, Dr. Phil answers the phone, he is not worried about his own needs, he is focused on the caller’s needs. The caller wants questions answered, Dr. Phil answers.
Dr. Phil is willing to give 5 minutes to anyone who calls. Dr. Phil wants the caller to get her needs met. And most importantly, Dr. Phil has no expectations. Dr. Phil has no mortgage, back pain, or financial concerns. Dr. Phil is the reason why Phil wanted to be a therapist in the first place.
Your professional personification needs to answer the phone. When your professional personification answers the phone you will notice that the prospects will tend to choose you to be their therapist. They will feel comfortable with you and want your help.
Your professional personification also has a few chutzpah skills. Let’s look at these chutzpah skills:
- Before you answer the phone take a deep breath. Calm yourself. Do not allow the adrenaline to flow. Breath deeply.
- Your first goal is to help the caller.
- Your second goal is to determine if you are the right therapist for this caller.
- Keep a mirror by the phone. By looking at yourself in the mirror and smiling, you make sure your professional personification shows on your face. The look on your face, your smile, will be transferred down the telephone line.
- You control the tempo of the call. (This will be discussed in detail later.)
- You gather information you need to help the prospect. You may need to refer the caller to a more appropriate referral, or you will make an appointment with the caller. (More on this later.)
- You use your chutzpah flip cards to stay focused and take care of the caller’s needs. (This will be discussed in detail later in this section.)
Chutzpah phone script
I am going to assume that you have read Chapter 9 of Chutzpah Marketing For Mental Health Professionals concerning the basics of phone scrips along with Chapter 6: Your Second Most Important Marketing Tool Is Free, concerning the basics of the all important 9-second speech.
In Chapter 9: Your Phone And Email Are Chutzpah Marketing Tools, you will find detailed information on how to use your phone as a chutzpah connection to your potential client. In this section, we are going to look specifically at how to develop and implement a client intake phone script.
Figure 1 shows you a basic mock up of a chutzpah flip card. With this format you will be able to quickly flip to the appropriate section as you talk to a potential patient on the phone.
As I discussed in Chapter 6, every 9-second speech is personal to the person giving it.
The goal of a 9-second speech is for you to present the quintessential answer to any question you are asked, even if you are asked the same question over and over again. When a prospect asks you a question, it is your chutzpah goal to respond to it with your best possible answer in a manner that is your best professional performance.
When you are asked a question by a prospective client, it must be your chutzpah goal to let the caller get your best answer, not just the answer.
When I am answering a prospect’s question, it is irrelevant that I have back pain or I’m feeling grumpy. The prospect didn’t call to ask about me. The prospect called to get their needs met.
Over the years I have worked with many professionals that have invested real money to get a potential client to call, only to lose that opportunity because they or their staff were having a bad moment.
The goal of the 9-second speech is to help you keep your skill level well honed, no matter what is going on in your world at the moment you first meet a prospective client. If you only have 9 seconds to influence a prospect into becoming a paying client, what would you say?
You will use your 9-second speeches throughout the 4 parts of the intake phone call.
It is best to be choosy
When it comes to inviting a prospective client into your for profit private practice, it is best to be very choosy.
During the intake call, I am looking for a few pieces of information that lets me know that I am the correct therapist for the caller, and that the caller is the correct client for me.
A few prime pieces of information I am listening for are:
- Clinical issue(s) that are within my scope of practice, my scope of license, and my scope of interest
- Employment -or-
- Ability to pay for private therapy at my office
As you will see, in the following phone scripts, sometimes I can gather this information through the natural progression of the call. Other times I need to ask the questions directly.
Remember, my goal is to get both of our needs met. I want the caller to get her needs met and for me to get my business needs met.
End of excerpt
Book $12.99
Download $9.99
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