| Wasted Money and
Missed Marketing Opportunities
Xana Winans
President, Golden Proportions Marketing
| How often does your practice get calls like this? “Hello? I heard your ad on the radio and I have some questions about your office.” Probably more often than you realize. Because as the doctor, you only meet the callers who end up scheduling a new patient appointment. All those other callers who didn’t schedule? HUGE missed opportunities for new business. Just because you got the phone to ring does not guarantee an appointment. In fact, there is a huge difference between referral driven leads (prospective patients recommended to you by friends, family and other doctors), and media driven leads (prospective patients calling because of web, radio, print, tv and direct mail) A referral driven caller is essentially pre-sold on making you their new doctor. A 2009 Gallup poll found that 90% of people trust recommendations from a friend. Referral driven leads are thinking “My sister raves about her dentist, and I trust my sister’s judgment, so I can trust that I will like this dentist.” There’s little more that the front desk has to do besides “take the order.” It’s essentially a guaranteed home run. A media driven caller is a different animal altogether. Media driven callers may have been motivated by your marketing to take the next step, but they are still in a “shopper” mindset. They want more information about you. They are feeling out the personality of your office while talking to the front desk. They want to know if you work with their insurance. These leads are a lot harder to convert, and they take a very different approach than a referral driven lead. If your front desk is not specifically trained in how to convert shoppers, you will likely lose 50% or more of those leads. Unconvinced that your office is the right match for them, the caller will make an excuse like “I have to check my schedule” or “I need to talk to my husband first”, hang up, and you’ll never hear from them again. They will still find a new dentist, it just isn’t going to be you. All that marketing money you just spent to make the phone ring? You might as well have taken half and put a match to it. Kind of makes your stomach turn when you think about it, right? How do you fix it? Easy. Step 1. Start tracking. I ask my doctors to use a very high tech tracking system at the front desk (it’s literally just a piece of paper) and have the front desk track every caller, whether they schedule an appointment or not. It’s critical that your front desk find out the referral source for each caller – web, friend, newspaper ad, walk-by, etc. Download our customizable dental office lead tracking sheet for free. Step 2. After a few weeks, review the lead tracking sheet and tally the results. I’m willing to bet the house that you convert a greater percentage of referral driven leads than media driven leads. Step 3. Don’t blame your front desk! Without training, they simply cannot be expected to know how to convert the shoppers. Step 4. Get call conversion training for anyone in the office who might answer the phone. There are numerous consultants who teach this, but I highly recommend Kirk and Sheri at ACT Dental. Step 5. Continue to track every one of those callers and watch your new patient count, production and collections rise. With a little tracking and professional training, your marketing will start to show its true colors. You will have a much clearer picture of how well your marketing dollars are performing. Results will become clear, and you will be able to re-focus you marketing budget on those tactics that get you the best return.
Xaña Winans is the owner and president of Golden Proportions Marketing (GPM), a thriving company that specializes in comprehensive, custom marketing and advertising strategies for the dental and medical fields. The GPM website can be found at www.goldenproportions.com and Xaña can be reached at 866-590-4476 or xana@goldenproportions.com.
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