Profit Killer #6: Inability to Convert Expensive Leads

Most practice owners believe more leads would solve their financial challenges. Although this is sometimes true, more often the issue is that their leads do not result in appointments or consultations. 

Lead conversion is the ability to transfer a caller, a patient question at the front desk, an e-mail or online lead into an appointment or a consultation. 

Tracking Your Lead Conversion
Unless you measure and track the number of leads coming in per month versus the number of those you book, so you can become aware of your lead conversion ratio, you might just keep spending more money on marketing to create an increase in lead volume. Clearly this will not fix the problem. If you are going to spend money to make the phone ring, then make sure your staff is ready and trained to convert those leads.

To improve your conversion rate, create a deliberate, structured plan so everyone in your staff knows how to respond to all incoming leads. This often starts with the person answering your phone.

Training Your Staff 

For elective medical practices, the receptionist performance can account for 25% of the practice revenue. The ideal front desk person, patient consultant, and receptionist must love people, and that personality trait cannot be taught. Make sure you are hiring for attitude, and training for skill.

The people who will be successful at the front desk are motivated to over perform and delight your customers. But motivation is not enough – you need to make sure you give them the tools to succeed.

An established, scripted greeting protocol will transform the conversion ratios at the front desk. Guiding the call well creates a high level of confidence. You want to take customers by the virtual hand and make the experience easy. Consistently use the script so anyone covering the front desk knows what to say.

Keep in mind that you can direct the customer down the right path only if you know where you are trying to lead them, so it is important that your staff knows what the end goal is. For example, if the goal is to book an appointment, they should offer two days that work for the office calendar.

Example:

Office: Would Tuesday or Friday be better for you?

Client: Tuesday.

Office: Wonderful, do you prefer morning or afternoon?  

You want the practice to appear busy while making the client a priority. People want to go to a busy, thriving practice and not one desperate for clients.

Benefit Selling
Potential clients are ultimately looking for services that benefit them the most, and your goal should be to cater to that. But benefit selling takes preparation – you need a strategy. If the caller has questions about a service, you ask them what result they are looking for. Your receptionist should know the range of costs and how to suggest another technology in place of the one being requested. Perhaps your service is more comfortable, less expensive, or a newer option. 

To explore this topic in more detail and learn how to use our planning tools, purchase my newest book, Top 10 Profit Killers for Plastic Surgeons and Medical Spas.