The Dirty Dozen How To Answer The 12 Most Difficult Questions Your Patients Ask

Dr. Richard Madow and Dr. David Madow

UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to the Madow Brothers audio series with Rich and Dave Madow

Dave:Welcome to the Madow Brothers audio series. I am Dr. David Madow.

Rich:I am Dr. Richard Madow, and we are together in the studio today.

Dave:Wow, what a rare occasion. This is great being able to look at you, touch you, feel you, well

Rich:Oh, dont touch me and feel me.

Dave:ok, Ill just look at you, at least just look at you, hows that?

Rich:Ill tell ya, its really good. We havent done an audio series together for a long time and Im telling you, you can feel the excitement in the air.

Dave:But I can already, this is gonna be great, and I can already say to you I want to do more. This is just fun; its fun being in the studio kind of hanging out.

Rich:Well, lets see, lets see how we feel a few minutes from now, but Id say the excitement is palpable, as some might say.

Dave:Palpable, palpable. Ok, I get it.

Rich:Well, Ill tell ya, not only, I think the excitement is palpable. First of all, its definitely fun being in the studio together, but were doing a really, really cool topic today. One that I think, and I know youll agree, will help every dental practice out there, both dentists and team members, and were gonna talk about when those patients, those nasty patients ask you difficult questions and put you on the spot. How can we answer those questions correctly?

Dave:Yeah, the title of our program is called The Dirty Dozen, The Twelve Most Difficult Questions Your Patients Ask. And theyre very, theyre common questions, theyre questions you probably hear many of them every single day, you just never know how to answer these precisely, accurately, the way they should be answered, and so, you know, you kind of come up with an off-the-cuff answer that usually doesnt seem to be the best possible answer you can give. But were gonna give the exact answers, as a matter of fact, take notes, were gonna give the exact answers that you can give to your patients thatll, I was gonna say, I was gonna say, shut them down, we dont want to shut them down

Rich:No.

Dave:we dont want to shut them down, but its gonna, the answers are gonna be the answers that you should give to get the results that you want.

Rich:Well, yeah, its actually the opposite of shut them down; thats kind of a little inside joke between us. But, you know, when a patient asks you a difficult question, you have to give them an answer that first of all is a great answer, is accurate, makes sense, satisfies their curiosity or their need to know, but also moves them in the right direction toward treatment or toward referral or toward making the appointment or whatever it is you want them to do, and you want them to do it because its best for them as well, and thats what this is all about.

Dave:Yeah, and the problem is in offices, in just about every single office out there in North America and probably even all over the world, a question is asked, and depending on who answers the question, whether its a front desk person, the doctor, a hygienist, an assistant, theyre answering maybe the best they can but generally off the cuff and they dont have like a real prepared answer, and the answer they give generally does not lead the patient to do whats best for the patient and best for the office. You know, for example, Ill just kind of throw a crazy question out there. How much is a cleaning? Or something like that, you know. You got a million different answers for that, and the most important result we want to get from How much is a cleaning? is to get that patient in the appointment book. So today weve come up with twelve of the most difficult questions your patients ask, and were gonna give really great, concise answers that will get them to do what you want them to do.

Rich:You know, its funny cause we have visited so many dental practices across North America and we always listen, we observe, we, you know, we take notes, we teach the dental practice some things that will help them after the session, but weve heard some real doozies. I mean, its just unbelievable. And you know, the interesting thing is, as youll see with the twelve questions were reviewing today, these are questions that youve probably heard a million times, yet every time these questions are asked, maybe you kind of start from scratch and just throw some off-the-cuff answer, not-well-thought-out answer, and its not always the best thing to say, and weve heard some really, really crazy stuff that doesnt do you any good and doesnt do the patient any good. So were gonna review these twelve answers. Now does that mean that you should memorize every word we say and spit it out to a patient? No, thats gonna sound forced and fake. You know, were not really believers in strict scripting; thats hard to say, strict scripting, but definitely get the tone of these answers. See if you agree with em, hopefully you will, put them in your own words, talk about it at a team meeting. I think after we give the twelve answers today well also talk about a really important strategy to make sure that this is done correctly every single time, and well go beyond these twelve questions, how to answer every single difficult question youre ever asked. So well get to that toward the end of this.

Dave:Wow, sounds good. Lets, so lets do this. Ill tell ya, weve got twelve, Rich. How about if I do, Ill start with number one and well alternate, so Ill do all the odd numbers cause Im kind of an odd guy, and youre kind of even and youll do the even ones; youre more even-keeled maybe.

Rich:Ive been told that before that Im very even-keeled. Im not sure if its a compliment or not, but I guess Ill take it that way.

Dave:By the way, how ya doing today?

Rich:Why, whatd you hear?

Dave:I love that. Its funny, Rich, just a brief, you know why Rich said that? Rich and I, before this studio session, were trying to come up with like the ideal answer to, you know, somebody probably all day long somebody says to you, How ya doin? and you could just say, Oh, fine, you know, but we wanted to have like a really original answer or something thats really memorable and really cool. So Rich kind of came up with, if I asked, if somebody asked him How ya doin? hes gonna say

Rich:Why, whatd you hear? I think Im gonna stick with that for a while and see how it goes. I think some people wont get it though and theyll think like theres something wrong going on, I dont know.

Dave:I think its hilarious, but yeah, its gonna take like a certain mind to actually understand that.

Rich:How ya doin today?

Dave:Better than I deserve. I stole that from Dave Ramsey, so I cant say that one.

Rich:Whoever that is. Hope its not copyrighted.

Dave:That financial guy. Yeah, I dont know if you can copyright like an answer to a question like that, but he

Rich:I guess that depends on what it is.

Dave:thats how he got started because he has a great answer. If you ask Dave Ramsey, by the way hes a financial guy thats on the radio and hes authored a lot of books. If you ask him how hes doin, his answer one hundred percent of the time is Better than I deserve, and I think its kind of cool; its unique.

Rich:Its kind of cool. I think I know what hes getting at. Hes kind of being humble and everything, but I dont know much about him but, you know, from what Ive heard, hes a very successful guy, smart guy, hardworking guy. He does deserve to be doing well, so I dont know if I agree with that answer.

Dave:Tell Dave Ramsey that.

Rich:Im sure hell have an answer to that

Dave:Yeah, hell have a, yeah, hell call you some names, guaranteed.

Rich:Ok, hey

Dave:Lets do it.

Rich:well, anyway, thats a difficult question and maybe you should come up with your own answer to that one if somebody says How ya doin today? All kinds of crazy stuff, so lets get goin. Well stick with, well start with question number one. Well alternate. Question number one is, its a typical dental doozy; its a question that were asked all the time that weve heard so many dentists and team members just give an answer that we didnt feel was adequate, so lets get going.

Dave:Yeah, so the first question, question number one is, somebody comes up to you or a team member or anybody on the team at all, and says, How long will this crown last?

Rich:A team member comes up to you and says, How long will this crown last?

Dave:No, no, no, no, somebody comes up to you or a team member

Rich:Okay, gotcha.

Dave:no, if the team members asking how long its gonna last, youre in trouble; youre in big trouble. No, somebody, Rich, listen, listen to me, somebody comes up to you, the doctor, a team member, anybody on the team, you know, a hygienist, anybody, and they ask this question, How long will this crown last? Ill tell ya, Rich, from going into offices and just even being in our own practices, you hear so many different answers and some of em are just hilarious.

Rich:Oh, and, you know, crowns last varying amounts of time too, so it is a difficult question.

Dave:Right, so heres an answer. Im gonna give this answer and Im actually gonna, Ill read it out and you, again, you can take notes or were actually gonna have a total transcript ready for you by the end of this program, so you can just, you dont have to really write down as were speaking, but its highly recommended that you kind of gather your team around and kind of have a little team meeting and listen to all these answers because, again, like Rich just said a little while ago, no, you dont have to memorize em e