WHAT IT IS
Most of the patients a practice loses never show up in a report.
The ad gets counted. The click gets counted. The person who filled out the form at nine at night, got one call on Friday and never heard from anyone again doesn't get counted anywhere. This checklist is a walk through each of those gaps, in the order I'd fix them. The first response comes before the website, because there's no point sending more people to a reply that takes a day.
WHAT'S INSIDE
Six checks, in the order I'd fix them
Time your own response.
Tonight, fill out your own website form from your phone and call your main number after hours. Whatever you get is what every 9pm patient gets.
The first response.
In a 2011 audit of 2,241 companies, the average first response to an inquiry was 42 hours. A new inquiry texts a named person. Every inquiry gets a reply within five minutes that offers specific times. A missed call gets a text back within a minute.
Follow up until you get an answer.
At least five attempts over about ten days, every attempt logged, nothing clinical in a text or an email.
Booked is not a patient.
Reminders at about 24 hours, two hours and fifteen minutes. A same-day call to rebook a no-show. A short-notice list somebody works.
Consultation to started case.
A follow-up within 48 hours from the person who presented it. Financing presented in the consult. A start rate you can actually count.
Money already in your software.
The list of accepted but unscheduled treatment, and the list of patients not seen in eighteen months, each with an owner and a finish date.
The full checklist also covers the page patients land on and knowing where your patients came from. Those come last on purpose.
WHO IT'S FOR
Written for the owner who decides alone
For
independent, owner-run dental, med spa, plastic surgery, orthodontic and bariatric practices, where one started case is worth enough that losing it to a slow reply actually hurts.
Not for
DSOs, private equity or hospital-owned practices. They usually have a call center and a process for this already. It's also not much use if your front desk already answers every call live and replies to every form within minutes. If that's you, you don't need it.
START TONIGHT
Five minutes, before you open the PDF
After you close, fill out your own website form from your phone, using a personal email nobody at the practice will recognize.
Write down the time somebody replies.
Call your main number after hours and note whether anything lets the caller book or leave a request someone acts on.
That number is the most useful one in the whole checklist, and you can check it yourself. Then go through the rest with whoever answers your phone. Tick a box only if you checked it this week. "I think so" counts as a no. Fix the first unticked box this week, then the next one.
IF YOU WANT A SECOND PAIR OF EYES
You don't need me for any of this
The checklist works without me. If you'd rather someone else timed your response, I run a free Response Gap Test for a small number of practices each month: test inquiries over two weeks, with your written permission, and a one-page result showing the gap between each inquiry and a first real conversation. It never books a real appointment. Nothing to buy at the end of it.
The response figures (an audit of 2,241 companies, an average first response of 42 hours, 37 percent answering within the hour) are from "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads," Harvard Business Review, March 2011. That study is from 2011 and covers companies in every industry, not healthcare practices specifically. The five versus thirty minute contact figure in the PDF is from the Lead Response Management Study by James Oldroyd, 2007. Nothing in this checklist is legal or compliance advice.
Dustin Hobbs, Louisville Web Lab