For dental practice owners · Quotes and money

Make the old balance call with a calm script

A calm phone script and voicemail for a balance past its second statement that asks for payment and hands every hard question to a person.

By Aaron Byrne, KeenHand

The prompt

Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and fill in each part in [BRACKETS]. Office managers and the front desk staff who make billing calls.

I run a dental practice. Some balances have been through two statements and a reminder, and the next step is a phone call nobody on the front desk wants to make. I want a short, calm script that asks for payment kindly and passes anything hard to the person who decides.

What I have:
- How a patient can pay by phone or online: [HOW TO PAY]
- What the caller may do without asking anyone: [WHAT THE CALLER CAN DO]
- Who decides on payment plans, disputes and hardship, and how a message reaches them: [WHO DECIDES]
- What we allow on a voicemail: [VOICEMAIL RULE]
- How we sound: [OUR TONE]

What I want:
1. Write an opening that asks for the patient or the person responsible for the account, leaves a spot for our usual identity check, and says nothing about money until that is done.
2. Write two or three sentences that say a balance is open, ask if they can take care of it today and give the ways to pay.
3. Write short replies for 'I already paid', 'insurance should have covered that', 'I can't pay it all right now' and 'I don't remember this'. Each one ends with a payment or a message for the person who decides.
4. Write a voicemail that follows my voicemail rule exactly.
5. Write a closing line that repeats the next step.

Rules:
- Write a draft for me to read. Do not send anything.
- Use only what I gave you. If something is missing, ask me instead of guessing.
- Never quote an amount, promise anything or claim anything I did not give you.
- Leave out anything about a patient's health, treatment or history. Never name the visit or procedure on the call or the voicemail.
- The caller never agrees to a plan, a discount or a write-off. Those go to the person who decides.
- No threats, and no talk of collections, credit or legal steps. Those are my decisions.

Give me back:
- The script, short enough for one page
- The four short replies
- The voicemail

When to use it

A balance has been through two statements and a reminder, and it is time for someone to pick up the phone.

When not to

Do not use it to decide on a payment plan, a write-off, collections or a dispute. The script takes a message, and the office manager decides.

What to paste in

[HOW TO PAY]: The ways a patient can pay during the call or right after it.
[WHAT THE CALLER CAN DO]: What the person making the call may do without asking, for example take a payment by phone.
[WHO DECIDES]: The role that decides plans, disputes and hardship, and how a message reaches them.
[VOICEMAIL RULE]: What your office allows on a voicemail, for example a first name and callback number only.
[OUR TONE]: Three or four words for how the call should sound.

Never paste

Patient names, birth dates, phone numbers, account numbers or insurance IDs
The ledger, the amount owed or insurance payment details
Anything about a patient's health, treatment or what the balance was for

A filled-in example

Sample. Fictional business, fictional client.

HOW TO PAY: Card over the phone, or the pay link on the statement
WHAT THE CALLER CAN DO: Take a full or partial payment by card. Write down a date the patient says they will pay.
WHO DECIDES: Our office manager. Leave a note on the account and a message for her the same day.
VOICEMAIL RULE: Our office name, the caller's first name and the callback number. Never mention a balance or a visit.
OUR TONE: Calm, kind, matter-of-fact

What you should get back

A one-page script that waits for the right person and your identity check before money comes up
Short replies for the four common answers, each ending in a payment or a message for the office manager
A voicemail that follows your rule word for word
No plan, discount or write-off offered by the caller

What stays with you

The prompt writes a draft. You decide what happens to it, and nothing should reach a patient until you have read it. Decisions about money stay with a person every time, and so do health questions and complaints. When KeenHand builds a routine like this, every message carries the same four decisions: Automate, Approve, Revise, Reject.

Remind a patient about a balance after insurance. Polite reminders for the part insurance did not pay, with how to pay and who to call, that never name the visit or offer a plan.
Plan a new front desk hire's first week. A day-by-day first week for a new front desk hire, built from your own routines, with your privacy rules on day one and a list of what goes to a person.
Turn office policies into a phone answer sheet. A one-page phone sheet built from your own policies, with spoken answers to routine questions and a clear list of what goes to a person.

More: every prompt for dental practices, quotes and money, and AI for dental practices.

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