If you’re concerned that your practice isn’t handling its phone traffic particularly well, here are a few tips to make sure your enquiries are converted to patients.
1. Keep your staff in the loop
Regularly update all of your staff members on upcoming/ present promotions and events. Knowledgeable reception staff are key to converting your new leads. Read how bad communication lead to one practice missing out on new patients that were worth £6k each in Luc’s blog .
Don’t be like that practice, if you’re spending money on marketing, ensure your staff know about any promotions that are taking place. Whatsmore, you need to be tracking the performance of your marketing activity and inbound calls are one of the most important elements to measure. Ask your staff to record each enquiry and establish where the patient heard about the practice, this way you’ll be able to measure the effectiveness of each channel.
2. Take time with new patient enquiries
When dealing with new patient enquiries it is good practice to have these calls directed to a separate line away from reception whenever possible. In doing this, you’re not going to be distracted by the buzz of a busy practice reception so you sole focus will be on the new patient. This also gives you the privacy to discuss treatment options and possible fees without other patients being able to hear the call. If moving away from reception for these calls isn’t possible, you must at the very least ensure there are enough members of staff to deal with both inbound calls and patients standing in line at the desk.
3. Don’t forget the basics
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve tried calling a practice and it just keeps ringing or the phones are switched off at lunch. If your reception staff are overwhelmed by the volume of calls they receive, there are alternative options available to ensure you never miss a call, including companies who field your calls and are able to book appointments for you. Leaving phones unattended, or turned off, during practice opening times is not an option.
It’s important that you have clear guidelines on phone protocol. If you have a marketing strategy in place, you will have a set tone of voice across all of your channels; ensure this is adopted by your staff when answering the telephone to make a great first impression of the practice.
Adopting these methods could make a positive change to the running of your practice and turn enquiries into patients. Call 01872 300232 or email us at hello@hivebusiness.co.uk.
