phone trends and conversions 2-17 2010

Elective Surgery Phone Trends and Tips On How to

Improve Conversions

Bill Mercier- President, CEO OptiCall, Inc

Special Guest Speakers:

Mike Malley- President CRM

Michael Dobkowski- President Glacial Multimedia

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Who Is OptiCall

•OptiCall Elective Call Handling

•OptiCall ACEtm- Actual Consumer Experience

•OptiCall- RefracTraktm- Web based contact management and phone scripting program

•OptiCall “Boomerang” patient recall services

•Mystery Shopping


What We’ll Cover

• Timeline- from the seat of our pants

• 2009...what happened and why

• Call volume trends

• Current challenges


What We’ll Cover

• Marketing-what’s working and what’s not!

• Positioning your practice for success

• How are your phones handled?-poll

• Handling the price question- listen to real calls

• Tracking your patients-poll

• Following up

• Growing your services organically


What we experiencedfrom the seat of our pants

• Post 9/11, call volume showed a slow, but steady call volume increase

• Call volume peaked in Q1 2007

• Substantial changes in consumer confidence started to have a major affect on call volume

• Q1 2008 call volume was off the previous year by 13%

• Economic conditions continued to worsen throughout 2008 and into 2009

• Weak consumer confidence and tighter credit contributed to the lowest volume call volume in years.

• 7 consecutive quarters of double-digit declines had finally hit rock bottom!


What we experiencedon a happy note :-)

• Mid 2009, early signs of improved economic times sparked rejuvenated patient interest

• Summer 2009 stayed level with the previous quarter, and in some offices, increased!

• Q4 2009 had stronger call volume that Q1 2009!

• Practices that were actively advertising were getting the patient calls.

• Oct 2009 was the strongest month for call volume in all of 2009

• Jan 2010 calls increased by 29% over Jan 2009

• Feb 2010 is tracking 10% over call volume in Jan 2010 MTD


Overall Call Volume

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Fish While The Fish Are Biting!


Current Referral Source Trends


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It’s about the multi-faceted approach to marketing. Marketing initiatives should be supportive of each other.

Special Guest Speaker

Mike Malley

President/CEO

Centre for Refractive Marketing (CRM)

713-839-0202

[email protected]

www.refractivemarketing.com


mailto:[email protected]


http://www.refractivemarketing.com

http://www.refractivemarketing.com

Special Guest SpeakerMichael Dobkowski

Business Director

Glacial Multimedia

207-854-9340

[email protected]

www.glacial.com




http://www.glacial.com

http://www.glacial.com

Positioning Your Practice For Success!

The phones are ringing.

Are you ready???


“The Slight Edge”

Doing those little things correctly today that have a huge impact down the road

Book by Jeff Olson


Saving a dollar analogyGoing to the gym analogy

Today’s Business Mentality

• Bean counters are looking for instant results

• Cutting expenses- marketing, sales promotions

• Lack of attention to customer service

• Trying to do more with less


Immediate results on the bottom line will not have lasting positive results in procedure volume and customer service.

If you don’t take care of your patients, someone

else will!


Investments in sales promotion is not enough. In today’s business climate, it is imperative that you invest in the customer service support to maximize your results.

Is Customer Service Working For You Or Against You?

• 45% of all prospective patients DON’T have a procedure at the first place they call due to poor customer service!

• An astounding 30% of all new leads are let off the phone with NO action or way to follow up on the lead

• In over 1000 mystery shop calls placed with the primary focus of the call as price, we were let off the phone in 90 seconds or less 80% of the time!


Examples

9 Phone Tips To Better Conversions!

1. Capture every lead routinely

2. Ensure that calls follow a format that maximizes the potential of gaining new business

3. Assign informed and well educated counselor’s to handle your refractive/elective calls

4. Script your calls in advance so you can dependably predict the outcome

5. Ensure that your staff is kind and correct on every call.

6. Call your own office as a patient to experience and improve upon your own front office

7. Research your competition and improve upon their style

8. Allow your staff to answer your refractive/elective calls uninterrupted

9. Prepare to make mistakes and accept that they will be made. The key is to learn from them while maintaining morale which ultimately reflects on your call quality.


CEASE CRAP

Poll

Who handles your elective

surgery calls for your practice?


Let’s Listen To Some Calls!


3 calls

The Anatomy Of A Call

• The Introduction

• Exploration- learn about the caller and their needs

• Education- what to do next

• Closing- What is the end result of the call?


Each call should accomplish 1 of 2 goals:

• Book an appointment

• Capture the lead if the patient does not book

• Have a follow up plan for mining captured leads


Poll

How do you track your patients?


Following up

• All leads need a follow up plan

• Categorize in “buckets”

• Existing patients/clients should have routine communications regarding new services and promotions


Don’t Fumble At The 1 Yard Line!


Summary

• Call volume and patient interest is up for those willing to go after it!

• Keys to success:

• Focus on creating superb customer service

• Make sure your team is capturing ALL leads whether they book or not

• Create a follow up plan that maximizes your investment in promotions and customer service


Thank you!

Bill Mercier

Pres/CEO OptiCall, Inc

941-893-2400

[email protected]

www.opticall.com




phone trends and conversions 2-17 2010

Health & Medicine

volume increase

lowest volumecall volume

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ceo opticall

patient calls

weak consumer condence

callvolume q1

real calls