You Can Lead Patients to the Dental Office, but Will They Convert?
With the precious resources you devote to marketing – time and money – what if someone told you that your front office team is losing 10-50% of potential patients who actually take the first step of calling your office? In “On Schedule,†an article in Dentaltown Magazine this month, Jay Geir of The Scheduling Institute shares these statistics with us. The repercussions could amount to thousands upon thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Most dentists try to boost new patient numbers by doing more or different marketing. But if your marketing is working, the problem may rest on the reception your potential patients receive. These patients don’t normally drop by the office as a first point of contact. On the contrary, they usually call or email. So how can you assess conversion in these two areas?
Website Traffic Conversion
When it comes to your website, traffic statistics will show how many potential patients visit your site. If you think the stats should be better or have no idea how to check your stats, visit http://www.TNTDental.com or call TNT Dental at 877-868-4932 for a free website analysis. You may also want to consider a tracking phone number for your website. This will allow you to know exactly how many calls your office receives as a direct result of your site.
For those patients who use your website’s email contact form, track conversion with an online tool that allows you to note follow-up, potential value, and results. TNT Dental offers this service exclusively to their clients at no additional cost. The email tracking tool will show you exactly what’s happening with potential patients’ emails, so you will be better equipped to determine the breakdown between contact and conversion. Customer service and web experts at TNT will be happy to review traffic statistics with you and train your front office team to use the simple email tracking system.
Call Traffic Conversion
You can always record calls, then listen to them yourself. But what then? If you’re interested in assessing your front office’s effectiveness in converting call-in patients, The Scheduling Institute has a solution. Mr. Gier’s team of experts assess the effectiveness of dental office teams by using “The 5 Star Challenge,†available to you free online at http://www.schedulinginstitute.com. They also implement what most people know as “secret shopping,†which means that someone calls your office and grades the call based on important conversion points.
The Scheduling Institute offers one-day in-services and independent study programs on how employees can improve conversion. Mr. Gier claims that his company can “add 10 to 50 percent more new patients to your practice with little or no changes in your marketing or advertising by simply leveraging one of your existing assets.â€
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