Retainer: front-desk control
The front-desk control retainer costs from €500 a month: every month I contact your clinic as a mystery patient, listen to a sample of calls and send you a report. We go through it on a call, and you see whether the front desk is holding the standard after implementation.
- Price
- from €500/month
- Format
- Monthly, online + a call
Who it’s for
For owners of private dental clinics with 3–10 chairs who have been through implementation and want the new front-desk rules to keep working, not just for the first few weeks. For owners who have no time to listen to calls or read chats but want to see, once a month, where patients are lost. Especially if front-desk staff change, the workload grows or the clinic opens a new line of treatment.
The problem it solves
After implementation, the standard works as long as people remember it. Then a new administrator joins, the busy season piles on pressure, the answer to a price question shrinks back to ‘come in for a consultation’, and follow-ups on treatment plans get put off. The owner finds out from gaps in the schedule, when the patients have already gone to another clinic. Listening to calls yourself every month takes a long time, and without it the problem only shows up in revenue.
What’s included
- Mystery-patient contacts every month: phone, WhatsApp, Instagram — the channels your patients actually use
- A sample of the month's calls and chats: reply, price, booking, follow-up
- A check of the standard from implementation: scripts, visit confirmations, follow-ups on treatment plans
- The month's enquiry → booking → visit → payment funnel, if the clinic tracks enquiries
- A report for the owner on the same template every month: what works, where patients are lost, what to fix first
- A call at the end of the month: we go through the report and decide what changes
Result
Every month you know whether the front desk is holding the standard and at which step patients are lost. A slip caught by the checks and the sample shows up in that month's report, not in gaps in the schedule. The reports follow one template, so months can be compared with each other. You make front-desk decisions on real conversations and funnel numbers, not impressions.
How a month of the retainer works
- Mystery-patient contacts. Throughout the month I message and call the clinic as a patient — on different days, at different times and through different channels. I look at how quickly they reply, whether they name a price, whether they offer a specific time and whether they get back to the patient after ‘I'll think about it’.
- A sample of calls. I listen to some of the recorded calls and read some of the chats with real patients. I look separately at missed calls and at treatment plans the patient has not decided on.
- The report. I send you a report on the same template every month: what works, where patients are lost and what to fix first. If the clinic tracks enquiries, I add the month's funnel.
- The call. We go through the report, decide what changes and write down the tasks for next month. We can also meet in person in Chișinău.
How much of the clinic's time it takes
The retainer is designed to take as little of the clinic's time as possible. The administrators don't need to prepare anything: I look at their everyday work. From the clinic I need access to call recordings and enquiry tracking, one person who can answer questions about the data, and your time for a call once a month.
If calls aren't recorded
Then mystery-patient contacts replace the sample of calls, and I build the funnel from the appointment book. Accuracy on calls is lower in this case, and I say so plainly in the report. IP telephony with call recording can be set up at the implementation stage.
Where to start
The retainer is the fourth step, after the audit for €300 and implementation for €900. Checks make sense when there is a standard to compare against, and it is usually set by implementation. If you haven't had any check yet, start with the free express check: 3–5 contacts as a patient, one page of findings and a 30-minute call. All steps and prices are on the services page.
The terms of the three-clinic pilot and the places left are on the home page. You can estimate what the clinic loses at the front desk with the loss calculator.
Questions and answers
How is the retainer different from implementation?
Implementation builds the process: scripts, enquiry tracking, call recording, administrator training and a repeat check after about 3 weeks. The retainer checks every month that the process works on an ordinary day and shows where it has started to slip.
Can we take the retainer without implementation?
Yes, if the clinic already has a front-desk standard. Then I'll suggest starting with the audit, for €300: it gives the ‘before’ numbers that the monthly checks are compared against. Without a standard and without ‘before’ numbers, the report shows the problems but not what the work has drifted from.
Will the administrators know about the checks?
I recommend telling the team that checks happen regularly. I don't say when or through which channel the mystery patient will get in touch, or the check won't show the everyday work. In the report I review actions in the conversation, not the person: the aim is to fix the process, not to find someone to blame.
What does the price depend on?
The retainer costs from €500 a month. The exact amount depends on the scope: how many channels and administrators need checking. I tell you the figure before we start.
Could our data end up with competitors?
No. I work under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and if patients' data is involved, we sign a data processing agreement. The details are in the terms of work on this site.