Wanted to share some of our call analytics data in regards to the importance of answering the dang phone when potential new patients call! 🙂 If you’re going to spend your hard earned money on any marketing, make sure to have accountability in place at your front desk, so that the calls are answered! Nobody likes leaving a voicemail, especially first time callers.
“If a phone rings in a practice
and no one is around to hear it,
does it make a sound?”
Did you know that nearly 37% of calls to your practice occur when no one is there to answer the phone? It’s true! We have listened, scored and tracked the analytics of 100,000’s of inbound calls and a large portion of potential new patient calls are placed during lunch, after hours and over the weekend.
Here’s the breakdown of incoming prospective patient calls:
- 16.41% of calls occur after hours, between 5:01 p.m. – 7:59 a.m.
- 6.7% of calls occur over the weekend, Saturday & Sunday.
- 13.76% of calls occur during lunch hour, between 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
We estimate that on average the value of one New Patient to your practice is around $1,000 over year one; it is critical to have talented people answer incoming calls during regular office hours but also the hours your office may not be open. For that, we recommend the following:
- Stagger the lunch breaks of the fro
nt desk staff, so someone is always available to answer the phone. - Forward the calls to your cell phone or answering service after hours and over the weekends.
- Offer incentives ($20) to your staff for every appointment they schedule outside of regular business hours, if they will forward calls to their personal cell phone. (print out schedule for the next two weeks before they leave the office so they can schedule)
It is really hard to schedule an appointment if the potential new patient can’t get anybody on the phone!