Running a practice can get hectic, especially if you have a small team or multiple locations to manage. You want to give your patients the best experience possible but also want to make sure you’re still reaching new leads.
Lead generation and tracking tools can not only help your team see more patients but stay organized and increase ROI.
Understanding Your Leads Is the Key to Growing Your Practice
Lead generation is at the center of every growing practice. Whether it’s through digital ads, community events, or referrals, every interaction that connects a potential patient to your office is an opportunity to build trust and grow your business. But generating leads is only the beginning, it’s just as important to understand where those leads come from and how they convert. This is where tools like call tracking come in.
What Exactly Is Call Tracking?
Call tracking is a tool that shows you which marketing efforts make your phone ring by connecting incoming call traffic to the ads, campaigns, or sources that generated them. It’s the most common way to follow a lead from source to sale, using a unique phone number generated for your practice.
Features such as call listening and call scoring can help your practice get additional information that you wouldn’t normally be able to get when someone calls the office. You can use this info to train your staff and find different opportunities for process improvement. It’s almost like having an extra employee.
Reduce Lost Leads and Missed Opportunities
Nearly 40% of calls to medical offices go unanswered. Many call tracking systems have a caller ID display, so you’ll see the name of the caller and phone number even if it’s not answered. If your team is unable to answer the call, you’ll still have a record so you can follow up. Even one missed call can mean losing a patient who was ready to schedule. Call tracking gives your team visibility so no lead slips through the cracks.
Separating Fact from Fiction
Only large practices benefit from call tracking.
Call tracking is a useful tool for practices of any size, whether you’re a single provider or a multi-location clinic. If you’re a single provider or you have a small team, call tracking can act as an additional employee, analyzing calls for you. This frees you up to focus on what really matters, helping patients.
A different phone number will confuse my patients.
Returning patients aren’t saving their provider’s phone number in their cellphones. And they don’t get confused if they call a number that’s slightly different from the office’s listed number. Many medical practices have multiple phone lines and most people won’t notice a slight difference in the number they are calling.
Think of it this way. When you go to order from your favorite pizza place, do you have their number saved? No, you don’t. You most likely look up their number on Google. It’s the same for your patients.
Once I set up call tracking, I can forget about it.
Like any business tool, call tracking is most successful when you are monitoring the results it produces. Practices that review call data monthly see 2x more new patient conversions than those that don’t.
By watching the data, you can learn where you are generating the most calls from and train your staff accordingly. Your Marketing Account Executive will help you understand the numbers, so you don’t have to do extra work.
Call Tracking in Action – an Example
Dr. Smith runs a single-provider audiology office. She places ads on Facebook, runs a small Google campaign, and sends letters to former patients. Before call tracking, she had no idea which marketing effort was working.
After implementing tracking numbers for each campaign, she discovered that 75% of new patients came from the Google campaign, not the letters. Using this information, she cut her spending in half and still grew appointments by 30%.
Your Team of Experts Here to Support Your Growth
Your practice is as unique as you are. Not every business has the same needs, that’s why there are different platforms available to help you with lead generation and call tracking. Your CQ Partners team will go over your options with you and help you decide what’s best for your business’ needs.
Every missed call is a missed opportunity. Stay ahead with proven strategies and a team of experts by your side.
About the Author
Vikki Edmond, Senior Marketing Account Executive. Vikki earned her bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from West Chester University and completed graduate coursework in Digital Communications and Advertising at the Newhouse School for Communications at Syracuse University. Her background is in healthcare marketing and public relations. When she’s not dreaming up marketing plans or coordinating calendars, Vikki enjoys spending time with her family and lounging in the sun.
