RevUp Dental

Is your dental practice stuck growing? It's not your dental skills holding you back, it's what's happening under the hood. RevUp shows you where you're losing patients and fixes it with proven systems, training and marketing that makes you money.

Blog By:
Nick Fotache

The phone rings, and a patient asks "how much does a crown cost?", and your receptionist gives them a number. There's a pause. A polite "okay, thanks, I'll think about it." They hang up. You never hear from them again.

Here's the thing most practice owners get wrong about that moment: they assume the patient was just shopping around for the cheapest price, and there was nothing to be done. But when you actually dig into what's happening on these calls, a different picture emerges. The vast majority of patients who call asking about price aren't comparison shopping at all. They simply don't know what else to ask.

The Trap of the Two "Obvious" Answers

When someone asks about price, there are two instinctive ways to respond, and both of them sabotage the conversation.

The first is to just answer the question. Give them a number. It feels efficient and honest, but it also tends to end the conversation right there. Once the patient has the figure they asked for, there's nothing pulling them toward booking an appointment. They say thanks, hang up, and go compare that number to the next practice on their list.

The second instinct is to dodge the question — "it really depends, you'd need to come in for an exam" — which can come across as evasive, like you're hiding something or trying to avoid a real answer. That doesn't build trust either.

Neither approach moves the conversation toward a booking.

Turning the Question Around

The better path is to take the conversation in a different direction, from cost toward care. Instead of jumping straight to a number, a good receptionist gets curious. What's going on with their teeth right now? Have they had this kind of issue before? What are they hoping to get out of treatment?

This isn't a stalling tactic, it's a genuine shift in what the conversation is about. Suddenly the patient isn't being quoted a price over the phone; they're being asked about themselves. That alone changes the emotional tone of the call. People can tell the difference between being processed and being heard, and the ones who feel heard are far more likely to actually book and show up.

A patient who's nervous about a procedure, worried about a broken tooth, or embarrassed about not having been to a dentist in years needs to feel like the person on the other end of the phone actually cares, not like they're reading from a script.

Once there's some rapport and the receptionist understands what the patient actually needs, that's the moment to talk about what makes the practice worth choosing: the dentist's experience, the technology in the office, the way patients are cared for once they're in the chair.

From there, circling back to scheduling a consultation feels natural instead of pushy. The patient isn't being closed, they're being invited to take the next step.

The bigger idea here is simple: a price question is rarely just about price. It's an opening, a conversation starter. How your front desk handles that opening is often the single biggest factor in whether that caller becomes a patient at your practice or at your competitor.

Want to Stop Losing These Calls?

Price shoppers, uninsured patients, frustrated callers... your staff probably thinks they're handling these calls just fine. Most of the time, they're not, and it's costing you patients every single week.

Join our next webinar, Why Patients Hang Up, and Call Your Competitor, where we'll show you why difficult patient calls are almost always a customer service problem in disguise and how to turn those conversations into confirmed bookings so your schedule stays fully packed for months.

Tuesday, July 28 — 5:30 PM ET / 2:30 PM PT

Register Now