During the summer, schools are out, college students are on break, and many have vacations planned to enjoy the nice weather. Even those who do not have vacations planned tend to have busier schedules due to cookouts and pool parties. Most people don’t give much thought to what these breaks and increased activities mean for the donor centers, but we at Incept know that summer is a time of year when blood is needed the most.
I would like to share with you a few things we can do to help schedule these busy donors.
- The first thing we can do to get a busy donor to schedule a donation is to educate the donor that this time ofyear is when blood is needed the most. Next, we want to use our LAMA skills to acknowledge the donor when they tell us why they are too busy to donate. We want to let them know that we understand that this is a busy time for them. We can even take this time to relate with the donor by telling them what plans we have for the summer – anything to communicate that we understand that time is tight. We want to follow this up by making a statement about how the summer is actually one of the times that blood is needed the most because everyone is so busy.
- After they are made aware of this, we want to explain to them that we are here to help find a day and time that would fit their busy schedule. It can be very helpful to ask the donor what days are typically less busy for them or if they have a set day of the week off of work. Asking probing questions like this gets the donor in the mindset of figuring out what their schedule is like. Once they have a day in mind it is easier to inform them of the times that we have available for the locations in their area.
- The last and most important step is to use a trial close when asking the donor what time would work best for them to donate. An example of a trial close would be, “We are open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Would you like to donate in the morning or the afternoon?” Using a trial close will force the donor to choose an option rather than giving them an easy out.
The keys to getting the donor to schedule are simple: educate them on the need, show empathy toward their busy schedule, relate to donor and speak to them the way you would like to be spoken to, be accommodating toward their availability, and be assumptive. Now that you have learned how to schedule a busy blood donor, let’s put these tips to good use and save some lives!
For more information about LAMA, please visit McKee Consulting LLC