Monday Morning Meeting: How to Handle Hard-to-Talk to Patients – The Pleaser Patient

Monday Morning Meeting: How to Handle Hard-to-Talk to Patients – The Pleaser Patient

As you know, not every patient you speak with is going to be responsive and excited about their dental care. Knowing how to handle these hard-to-talk to patients will help you succeed in communicating. We recommend picking up Robin Wright’s Tough Questions, Great Answers: Responding to Patient Concerns About Today’s Dentistry. Here are some tips Wright recommends… This week’s patient is The Pleaser Patient

The Pleaser Patient

This patient is afraid of offending you or saying no to you. Instead, they’ll tell you everything you want to hear. They want to please you. But inside, they may not be on the same page as you and will most likely not follow through with treatments.

The only tactic that will work with the Pleaser patient is to involve a decision maker in the process.

Do This:

• Have a decision maker present (family member, friend, spouse, etc.)
• Involve the decision maker in the decision process
• Ask only open-ended questions
• Ask laundry list questions

Don’t Do This:

• Ask the patient to make a decision without including a decision maker
• Put the patient on the spot if the decision maker is not present
• Don’t ask closed questions

We highly recommend picking up Tough Questions, Great Answers: Responding to Patient Concerns About Today’s Dentistry by Robin Wright. In this book, Wright goes in depth into the best and most effective methods for handing customers and their questions. How to answer your patient’s questions is one of the most invaluable tools you and your staff can have. Tough Questions, Great Answers can be found on Amazon; Here is the link to purchase! http://www.amazon.com/Tough-Questions-Great-Answers-Responding/dp/0867153202