Every business is excited to be contacted by folks online that are seeking their particular services, whether it be a hair stylist, dentist, or cosmetic surgeon. What they are often not excited about is responding to these inquiries. How you manage these responses can bring in thousands of dollars of practice income.
Response To Online Leads
Your practice, like every other business, has a Contact Us option on your website as well as on other sites on which you market your practice. You want website visitors to contact you, but it can sometimes feel overwhelming.
We challenge you, however, with this: imagine taking a pile of $1,000 bills and throwing them in the trash. If you don’t answer these online leads, that’s exactly what you’re doing: throwing money away. Potential money.
The Importance Of A Personal Response To Online Leads: While it’s true that a great percentage of online leads do not convert to a surgery, you have no way of knowing which ones will, and that’s the point: you need to respond to every single one of them to weed out the Looky-Loos and schedule a consultation with the serious people who are honestly looking for you. These prospective patients have found your website, they like what they saw, they contacted you, so you need to follow up with them.
You would never tolerate an employee who was rude to callers, would you? Of course not. But it’s equally rude not to respond to online inquiries. You need a system: timing, response content, and follow-up.
What You Want From Online Leads
When you get an email/contact form submission from a prospect, your goal is to schedule a consultation with that individual when they are ready to act, right? Whatever you do (and don’t do) to encourage a prospect will determine whether they call to schedule with you.
Remember this!
If you don’t respond, they will give their business to the practice that does.
When To Respond To Online Leads
Although auto-responders (which you definitely should use) can buy you a couple of days, you should respond to every online lead within 48 hours at maximum. You aren’t going to do this, but you must have a reliable staff member to do it, such as your patient coordinator, office manager, etc.
What To Say To Online Prospects
The primary goal of communication with prospective patients is to project your practice as experienced and trustworthy: they can trust you to give them the results they seek. Don’t forget to thank them for their inquiry, offer to schedule a consultation with them, and to offer to connect them with financing, if they desire it. Insert links to before & after photos that relate to the procedure/treatment that interests them.
Be sure to give a specific staff member’s name in the email, as well as their phone number. Offer to call the prospect at a day and time that fits their schedule. If they have given them their phone number, have your staff member call them and offer their assistance.
The Bottom Line
Responding ASAP to online leads can dramatically increase your bottom line. Respond promptly and follow up at least once with a phone call to build more business in your practice!