Why You Should Train Your Front Desk Staff on the Services You Provide

As a practice management consultant, speaker, and trainer in the aesthetics space, I see so many medical aesthetics practices leave thousands of dollars in revenue on the table due to ONE critical element that is often overlooked: training your front desk staff on perfecting their phone skills and educating them on the specific categories of services and treatments your practice offers.

I know that as a busy practice manager juggling multiple priorities, taking the time or finding the right training can be challenging. Not to mention holding your team accountable for what you expect (that is one of the reasons we created APX Platform to provide comprehensive sales training for every member of your team). However, we can no longer think about a front desk staff member as somebody who just answers the phones. They are one of the most vital roles within the practice.

There are so many treatment options out there and many of them produce similar outcomes. So, it is vital that your front desk team who are answering phone calls understand and are educated about the products/treatments you offer, but also the category of services they fall under. That way if a potential client is asking about a specific treatment that you DO NOT offer, you can get to the heart of what they are truly looking for. Think of it as the modality vs. the method. For example, skin tightening, body contouring, skin resurfacing vs. a specific procedure like Ultherapy that you may or may not have in the practice, but you have something similar.

Oftentimes, a client will call in because a friend just had a treatment, and they look amazing! Or they read something in a magazine. Clients may think if they get the same thing they will look just as good... if only it were that easy!

Here is an example of a typical call we overhear all the time when we are on-site at practices:

Front Desk:  Hello this is Terri with ABC Aesthetics may I help you?

Caller:   Yes hi, do you have Ultherapy there? 

Front Desk: No, we don’t have Ultherapy.

Caller:  Ok thanks bye. 

OMG, the practice just lost thousands of dollars.  Think about how different that call would go if the staff member answering the phone was well versed in that service category and knew what methods or products you DO offer so that they could have engaged the caller, asked questions, and were able to book a consultation. 

I will give you a sample script for how this phone call should go, but first let’s review the most common categories of aesthetic services and why each front desk staff member should know the basic features/benefits of each product you offer. 

12 Most Common Aesthetic Service Categories 

Based on our years of experience in the industry, these are 12 of the most important categories of services:

• Aesthetician Services
• Laser Skin Rejuvenation
• Skin Tightening
• Body Contouring
• Injectables
• Laser Hair Removal
• Female Rejuvenation
• Hair Restoration
• Sexual Wellness
• Anti-Aging & Wellness
• Medical Weight Loss
• Surgery

As a practice manager, it is important that you educate your front desk team on which products (methods) you use in your specific practice under each category of services (modality). That way they immediately can identify what results a caller is really looking for vs. the “product/treatment” they are mentioning in their call.  

We deep dive into this in our sales training course within APX Platform, but here are some group exercises you can do on your own with your front desk team. 

List out the categories of services or types of surgery your practice offers. Then have your team fill out which products fall under which category as well as alternative products, so they know how to respond to a caller or patient’s request. 

Here is an example

To learn more about categories of services, read this blog. 

Feature/Benefits of Each Treatment/Procedure

Another group exercise you can do with your front desk staff is to go over the basic features and benefits of each treatment or procedure your practice offers. A more in-depth discussion will happen with the provider during the consultation, of course, but your front desk team should be to answer basic questions in an educated way to help engage the caller or prospective patient to book a consultation. 

Here are a couple of examples for a medical spa and a plastic surgery practice:

Sample Script Covering the Categories of Services

Here is an example of the cadence of a phone call asking about a specific product/treatment and getting to the bottom of the category of service/results. 

This script goes into other skills that are covered in APX Platform’s sales training course.

Front Desk: Hello, ABC Aesthetics. This is Terri. How can I help you?

Caller: Yes, hi my name is Jasmine, and I'm calling to find out if you guys offer Coolsculpting

Front Desk: Hi, Jasmine. Thank you so much for calling. I'm Terri. I'm the front desk concierge here. May I ask how you found our practice or who referred you? 

(Always get referral source to enter in your Practice Management Software)

Caller: Well, I had a friend who had Coolsculpting done so I wanted to find out about getting it done as I’ve recently had a baby too

Front Desk: Congratulations, what did you have?

(Bonding with the caller)

Caller: A little girl. 

Front Desk: Ah, that’s so nice. I have a little girl too. She is 8. Well thank you so much, Jasmine for calling our practice. May I get your contact information in case we get disconnected?

Caller: Sure. It's 561-555-1212.

(Always get a call back number in case call gets dropped as that is lost potential revenue and then enter it your Practice Management Software)

Front Desk: Fabulous. Thank you. Okay, so let me recap what I heard you say. You have a friend who had some loose skin after she had a baby and she had Coolsculpting done. You also have loose skin and are interested in some body contouring and skin tightening done. I totally understand that. I was there too with my daughter, and we can help you out with that. You’ve called the right practice. May I ask, was it your friend who referred you to us? 

(Repeat back what they are looking for to show you were listening and asking for a referral source for your Practice Management Software. Also notice that we identified the category of service – body contouring and skin tightening)

Caller: No, she lives in a different state. But I was googling, and your business came up first. I didn’t even really go to your website; just thought I would call. 

Front Desk: Okay, perfect. Well, we have many different modalities here to help clients who want body contouring and or skin tightening. 

Caller: Yah I just really want to know what will work best and give me fast results. My friend got Coolsculpting so that is the only treatment I know.

Front Desk: Fantastic. Okay, I'd love to schedule you for a consultation with our provider, what you can expect when you come to ABC Aesthetics is that you’ll have a 30 consultation whereby we take the opportunity to learn more about you, your overall goals, and together discuss what the right treatment plan is for you so that you achieve the best results.  

(Credentialing the practice/providers is very important to establish trust and confidence and your unique value proposition. Read more in-depth about credentialing here)

Caller: Ok great. Can I get my treatment or procedure done during the consultation or soon after?

Front Desk: Great question. There are so many different options for skin tightening and body contouring, the treatment is not usually done the same day.  The value of the consultation is the time we spend together, so our providers will get to know you, assess your situation, and determine the best treatment option for you to get the results you want.  Do you have an event or anything coming up within a certain time frame that you want to look and feel your best for?

(This is valuable information to gather)

Caller: I just want to get ready for you know taking our family vacation over the summer and being able to wear a bathing suit again. I’m excited to get started as soon as possible. 

Front Desk: Ok great. We can get you in on Thursday at 2pm. Would that work for you?

Caller: Yes, that will work. 

Front Desk: Great, our consultation is $50.00 and to hold your appointment I’ll just need your CC information, nothing will be charged today, the fee will be applied toward your treatment.  You can expect to receive a link to our patient portal. It is important, Jasmine, for you to take the time to fill out those documents prior to your consultation. We will review your cosmetic interest questionnaire so that we can discuss the plan that is right for you during your consultation. 

Caller: Ok here is my credit card. 

Front Desk: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Jasmine. You are confirmed for Thursday at 2pm, and I’ll send you the link to the portal right now to your email address if you can give it to me. If you should need to cancel for any reason, please give us 24 hours’ notice to avoid a $100 cancellation fee. We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

Caller: Great. Thank you, Terri.  

Do you see how following this cadence can help educate a caller looking for a particular service that you don’t offer? 

It might seem like it is a lot of time to spend on the phone, but a few extra minutes to build rapport, qualify the caller, and ask the right questions can lead to booking more consultations, which in turn convert to more paying treatments/procedures.  This was just a brief overview. Our comprehensive sales training course within APX Platform goes in depth about phone skills, converting web leads, communication methods, asking open-ended questions, handling objections, following up, and more. I invite you to book a discovery call to learn more about how APX Platform can train every member of your team.