Get Listening

Every telephone call is part of patient care

Patients rarely call with perfectly formed questions.

They may be anxious about treatment, uncertain about cost, embarrassed about the condition of their teeth or unsure which type of appointment they need. Sometimes what they say first is not the whole reason they are calling.

A great dental receptionist does more than collect a name and find an available space.

They slow the conversation down enough to understand the person behind the enquiry. They ask better questions, listen for uncertainty and help the patient feel clear about the next step.

That is not selling. It is good patient service and an important part of delivering relationship-centred dental care.

What will your team  learn?

During Get Listening, your team will explore how to:

• Create a warm and confident first impression from the first few seconds of a call.
• Answer the telephone in a way that reflects your practice’s values.
• Listen beyond the patient’s first question to understand what they really need.
• Ask natural, helpful questions without making the call feel like an interrogation.
• Recognise anxiety, hesitation, uncertainty and concerns about cost.
• Explain appointments and next steps clearly.
• Respond confidently when patients ask about prices or treatment options.
• Handle cancellations and difficult conversations with greater understanding.
• Share useful information with clinicians and other team members.
• Notice repeated questions and patterns that reveal how patients experience the practice.

The most important shift

Answering the telephone is not an interruption to patient care. It is patient care.

Your reception team are the ears of your practice

Most reception training focuses on what to say. Get Listening focuses on how patients feel.

When your reception team understands the patient experience, they don’t simply become better at answering the phone. They become the ears of the practice.

They start noticing the questions patients repeatedly ask, where people become uncertain, why appointments are cancelled and what makes patients feel confident enough to book treatment.

Those insights help your whole team improve communication, strengthen relationships and deliver a consistently better patient experience.

Better conversations, not more scripts

Scripts can make calls sound efficient, but they can also prevent people from listening.

No script can account for every patient, every concern or every situation your team will encounter.

Get Listening helps your team understand the principles of a good conversation so they can respond naturally, confidently, and appropriately.

We will not tell them to sound like us. We will help them sound like the best version of your practice.

How the training works

Before the workshop

We begin with a discreet sense check. A telephone call and one or two email enquiries help us understand the current patient experience and identify what will be most useful for your team.

During the day

We facilitate an open and practical conversation about:

• What patients know before they call.
• What they need to feel before they book.
• How tone, pace and language shape a first impression.
• Where calls become difficult or uncomfortable.
• How the whole practice can learn from what the reception team hears.

Your team will work with realistic situations from your practice and have plenty of opportunities to try different approaches in a relaxed and supportive environment.

After the workshop

Your team will leave with shared standards, practical changes and a clearer understanding of their role in the patient experience.

The intention is not simply to create enthusiasm for one day. It is about changing the way your team hears and responds to patients, long after the CPD certificates have been issued.

Who is Get Listening for? 

Get Listening is suitable for:

• Dental receptionists
• Patient care coordinators
• Treatment coordinators
• Practice managers
• Dental nurses who answer calls
• Any team member responsible for speaking with patients

It works particularly well when the practice owner or manager takes part too. Lasting change is much easier when the people leading the practice understand and support the standards being developed.

Will it work in your dental practice?

Yes, if:

• Your team is willing to participate, practise and look honestly at how patients currently experience the telephone.
• You are prepared to give the reception team the time, facilities and support required to make changes.
• You want your team to think for themselves rather than wait to be given another script.

Probably not, if:

• You want a list of phrases for your receptionists to memorise.
• You are looking for a quick fix without wider support from the practice owner or manager.
• You want compliance with a script rather than genuine improvement in listening and judgement.

How does your practice sound to a new patient?

You probably already know where some of the telephone challenges are.

There may be calls that feel rushed, enquiries that go nowhere, patients who repeatedly ask the same questions or team members who are not always confident about what to say.

Book a conversation with us, and we will explore what is happening, what you would like to change and whether Get Listening is right for your practice.

No generic pitch. No obligation. Just a useful conversation about the experience your patients receive when they call.

KEVIN ROSE

I’m delighted you are here because it means that you’ve recognised it’s time to do something about ‘going to the dentist’ and that it’s not just about doing more things, it’s also about better things. 

I set up Rose & Co in 2009 from my kitchen table when my best mate (and dentist) asked me to ‘fix’ his dental practice. With what I have learned since then and the community of dental practice owners that I am proud to work with, we are building better dental businesses, and that makes the world a better place.