How to Train Your Staff to Sell and Convert More Patient Leads - Online Marketing Suite
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Online Marketing Suite How to Train Your Staff to Sell and Convert More Patient Leads www.PracticeDock.com Ph. 877-412-4324
Train Your Staff to Sell and Convert More Patient Leads
You work hard to find the best staff members in your market and make sure
they treat your patients right. But are they missing out on some valuable selling
opportunities or consultation appointments? A missed opportunity can translate
to thousands of dollars per year in lost revenue. Whether a staff member forgets
to ask if a client wants to get Botox, or they simply don’t know how to encourage
the patient to come in for a consultation after an inquiry call, you could be
losing hundreds and thousands of dollars in potential sales just from a single
conversation.
Providing staff members with adequate training is one of the best investments
you’ll ever make. Whether your staff is communicating with prospective patients
over the phone or talking to patients face-to-face, it’s imperative that they know
how to promote your practice and services so that the patient makes a decision
to book at least a consultation right then and there. This is part sales, and part
customer relations. Being too pushy will turn the patient off and might even
generate a negative review. Not taking the time to learn what the patient really
needs could just push the patient away and off to your competitor’s office.
This white paper focuses on several ways to train your staff to sell and convert
more patient leads into consultations. Whether you’re a cosmetic dentist, bariatric
surgeon, plastic surgeon, or a family physician, you’ll learn exactly what your staff
needs to be doing every time they interact with a prospective patient.
Phone Etiquette – Best Practices
Your medical receptionists and staff members who manage inbound and
outbound calls need to practice proper phone etiquette at all times. They need to
speak clearly, use a professional tone, and serve as a guide to ensure the patient
gets answers to all of their questions and feels comfortable disclosing personal
information and needs. Learning as much as possible about the patient might take
some time and the conversation over the phone will need to be a friendly and
respectful one. Even when you’re dealing with an irate patient or someone who is
simply impatient, the staff member needs to remain professional and personable
at all times.
Phone Etiquette – Best Practices cont.
When a patient feels comfortable, they are more likely to book an appointment
or purchase a service. Developing this rapport with a patient over the phone isn’t
always easy but there are several things staff members can do to deliver a higher
level of customer service during each phone call. They need to:
• Answer the phone call in a light, upbeat, but professional tone
• Speak clearly and repeat back information when necessary
• Focus on the caller at all times
• Never disclose the patient’s record or medical history
• Avoid keeping the caller waiting
• Take a message and forward it to the appropriate party as quickly as possible
• Refrain from giving out any type of medical advice
• Maintain a polite and professional tone throughout the conversation
• Avoid “sales speak” and talk in a more natural voice
• Be prepared to guide the patient through the intake process and explain what
to expect
Call Tracking
Call Tracking services can be one of the most effective
tools you can use to train your staff and keep track of which
marketing methods are actually working – and which aren’t.
PracticeDock’s Call Tracking product will help you stop
playing the guessing game when it comes to determining
how many leads are actually turning into patients, and which
channels patients are responding to.
Why track your phone calls?
• To measure patient responses from all types of marketing
campaigns
• To objectively compare the effectiveness of each
marketing strategy or ad campaign
• To calculate the precise cost-per-lead based on all of your marketing efforts
Why record your phone calls?
• There’s no better tool for improving call-handling skills
• Call recording lets you hear for yourself what your patients are saying
• Call recording enables you to review how well your employees handle leads
• Call recording empowers effective training on sales/customer-service skills
Call Tracking cont.
When you use a Call Tracking service, you’ll be able to capture all inbound calls
from each marketing source – whether this is a postcard, an email newsletter, a
newspaper ad, or any other print materials – and determine caller demographic
information and use reverse call lookup features to find out more about your
patient. You can also record all of your calls and have your staff listen to and
learn from captured calls as part of your quality assurance procedures. Recording
and playing back your calls supports your staff training strategies and can also
improve sales and customers service.
For more information on PracticeDock’s Call Tracking Service, please contact
us at 877-412-4324 or solutions@PracticeDock.com
Converting Patient Leads
Once your staff has made their first point of contact with the patient, they need
to take steps to qualify the patient based on the procedure they are calling about,
or just have them come in for a consultation. At this point, it’s imperative that only
your best staff members are communicating with the patient – it could make or
break whether you obtain a new patient or not.
The staff member will need to:
1. Qualify the patient lead based on the procedure they’re interested in. The staff
member can ask basic questions to determine if the patient meets the general
criteria for treatment. For example, people who smoke are rarely a good candidate
for any type of plastic surgery procedure or laser skin care treatment plan. Patients
need to meet strict weight requirements if they want to undergo bariatric surgery.
Some patients are simply too young to undergo procedures like a facelift or breast
augmentation surgery. Qualifying patients during the initial calls will help to filter
out only the best patients who actually need to meet with a doctor.
2. Collect contact information. Your database is one of your most
powerful marketing tools. Even if a patient doesn’t qualify for a particular
procedure, they could be a good candidate for a different procedure.
You can send them newsletters and other marketing materials
(with their permission) so you will need to collect their contact
information at every opportunity. Create a simple spreadsheet
or populate a patient database with their full name, address,
phone number, email address and procedure interests. Make
sure staff members are taking steps to collect this valuable
information so that you have the opportunity to market
to your entire list in the near future.
Converting Patient Leads cont.
3. Respond to emails and phone calls immediately. Whether you’ve managed to
generate leads from your doctor directory listing (such as www.LocateADoc.com),
are receiving requests for information through your website, or patients have been
leaving voicemail messages with questions, you need at least one staff member to
oversee these incoming leads and respond to them right away. We have seen many
practices lose patients to their competition just because they have not responded
in a timely matter to a lead. Even if the response is a brief “we’ll get back to you
within 24 to 48 hours”, you need to make sure that the patient’s request has been
validated.
Lead response times are essential for attracting and retaining patients.
Essential Lead Response Management Tips
The speed in which your practice responds to leads plays an important role in
determining how busy your practice will be for the next few months. Your
highest chances of success are when you are able to return a phone call or
email immediately because you know that the patient is reachable. If the patient
submitted information online, they are probably right at their computer desk and
might have a few minutes to talk to a staff member about next steps. If they have
left you a message, they’re probably very likely to talk right away and make that
appointment for a consultation or service. Simply being able to contact somebody
during this “window of opportunity” is one of the keys to success for converting a
lead into a patient.
Some other essential lead response management tips for your staff include:
Getting in Touch When Patients are Literally Begging for Information
When you receive an inquiry about services, your patient is basically asking for a
consultation. Most of your work is already done so all you need to do is invite the
patient into the office and prepare a treatment plan based on what they need.
Getting in touch with a patient at this critical time can increase your chances of
booking an actual appointment and going through with the treatment plan or
service. Remember that most patients are strapped for time and will just look for
another doctor who can give them the next available appointment date. Act fast
so you can secure that date!
Essential Lead Response Management Tips cont.
Taking the Time to Prequalify Patients
Train your staff to ask the right questions when prequalifying your patients so
that you’re truly maximizing your marketing dollars. Remember that every dollar
your practice spends on marketing is linked to the cost of your lead. If you spend
$10,000 a year on marketing and are able to generate 100 patient leads from your
efforts, it costs you $100 to attract a patient. If you don’t prequalify these leads
and collect contact information to follow-up with them, you’ve just wasted $100
or maybe more on that lead.
Every time you receive a phone call or an email from a
potential patient remember that lead may of cost $100 or
more to generate!
Having a Follow-Up Plan
Make sure your staff is trained to stay in touch with patients – even if they didn’t
qualify for a procedure or are still thinking about coming in. Persistent and
consistent marketing and customer service communications will help to keep your
practice at the “top of mind” so the patient will be more likely to contact you right
away when they’re ready. Remember that any patient needs to feel comfortable
talking to your practice and genuinely feel like they will get the best treatment
when they come to you. Make that final decision to book the appointment as easy
as possible by having staff members follow up, nurture your leads, and provide
contact information at every opportunity. Plus, if one person has a pleasant
experience with your team they are likely to tell their friends looking for the same
procedures.
Asking for Referrals or Recommendations
Take the step to contact every patient who has received treatment or surgery
at least one week after their treatment is over. In addition to checking up on the
patient to see how they’re doing, you can ask for a written recommendation and
encourage them to refer your practice to friends, associates, and family members.
Make it easy for the patient to write a review by providing them a link to an online
survey, sending them a card or questionnaire to fill out, or simply emailing them a
request for a recommendation. Make this process as simple as possible so that the
patient doesn’t feel like it’s a chore and are happy to do it.
Need help with your physician marketing campaign? Talk to one of our
PracticeDock marketing specialists today and learn how to launch a marketing
plan that transforms prospects into consultations. Contact 877-412-4324 or
solutions@practicedock.comPrint and display for reference.
The Sales Funnel for Patient Leads
Hot Patient Leads
Treat ALL patient leads as potential
customers. Every patient lead is a
marketing dollar well spent. (this
includes ALL phone calls, email,
social media...any contact the
doctor receives.)
Collect all potential patient
information every opportunity you
can...including email.
Pre-Qualify the Patient
Many procedures require that a
patient be of a certain age, weight,
Hot Patient Leads or non-smoking before they can
even qualify for a procedure.
Pre-qualify the best you can before
every consultation. If they don’t
qualify for one procedure they may
for another so always treat them as
a potential patient.
Qualify the Patient
Book a Consultation
Once the potential patient books a
consultation make sure you educate them as
much in advance to save time. You can do
this through email, your Web site, video, and
PracticeDock Patient Education videos. Use
Book a Consultation the consultation to close the deal. If they walk
away unsure give them an incentive to return
soon.
Book a Surgery
Book a Nice! You have a new patient. Treat them very
Surgery well. 50% of patients that have a cosmetic
procedure done will return for more.
Ask for a Referral or Recommendation Online
Ask for Referral Happy patients like to tell their friends.
Don’t forget to ask them for a referral or
recommendation once the results have healed
Make sure you and they are happy.
have a marketing Nurture
and customer Nurture Patients & Patient Leads
Patients & Always continue to nurture all your patients and leads not
service plan in Leads yet patients. Make sure all questions have been answered in a
place to nurture timely matter. Send out a newsletter, host events, send special
ALL patient leads offers. Make sure you have a marketing and customer service
plan in place to nurture everyone who enters your sales funnel.
and current It takes time for some people to decide to move forward with
customers. an elective procedure. Make sure you sell them on what is right
for them.
Would you like more help with this process? Talk to one of our PracticeDock
Marketing Consultants today at 877-412-4324 or solutions@practicedock.comTransform quality
prospects into business.™
PracticeDock is an online marketing suite
providing patient generation, conversion,
communication and retention tools in
real-time and at business-speed to
optimize internet presence and grow
private medical practices.
PracticeDock Suite of Online Marketing Solutions includes:
PracticeDock Lead Generation Network, , offers
Lead Network one-click, pre-qualified, trackable patient referrals & lead generation.
PracticeDock Keyword Marketing, converting targeted online prospects
Keyword Marketing through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools.
PracticeDock Website Control provides total website control to easily create,
Website Control build and manage a more effective, optimized site.
PracticeDock Call Tracking enables more effective patient communication with
Call Tracking staff-training, monitoring solutions and measuring ROI for marketing initiatives.
PracticeDock Patient Education empowers and informs patients with engaging,
Patient Education educational web-enabled procedure videos & 3-D animation tools.
PracticeDock Video Services provides an online platform for video production,
Video Services distribution, and also a video library.
PracticeDock Merchant Services is a credit card processing system that
Merchant Services provides better rates and service to increase your bottom line.
Get started today. Visit PracticeDock.com to sign up, call 877-412-4324
or e-mail Solutions@PracticeDock.com.You can also read
