A successful dental practice depends on a lot of factors. The one crucial factor that engages the clients and helps in building a long lasting sales funnel is your marketing and front desk team. From creating solid marketing ideas and engagements to answering dental queries, these teams do a lot to ensure that you have a successful business running. But, all these efforts also bring up a “happy problem” which is too many enquiries. While every enquiry you get is an opportunity to convert it into a successful appointment, how often is your dental team tapping into this golden reservoir? Are they reviewing every enquiry they are getting? If not, it’s time to do so.
5 Reasons why you need to review every enquiry you are getting
You may have started a new campaign with new services and want it to reach maximum people or you may have updated your service fee or location and have created facebook ads for the same. Either case, you are bound to get many enquiries. Reviewing each enquiry is an important part of your business. It gives a proper insight into whether your marketing strategies are working or not and also tells you what your customers are looking for. Here are 5 reasons why you need to review all the enquiries you are getting:
1. To understand whether your marketing strategies are working or not
According to reports, nearly 77% of customers use online reviews to select healthcare providers. Hence, marketing trends and practices have evolved with emerging times. Online platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have taken over the front seat. The good news is, you can now target your desired audience better using modern marketing approaches. For example, Facebook local awareness ads let you reach out to customers within 30-50 mile radius of your practice location and via Google Ads you can create Click-To-Call-Ads, which are call only campaigns. There are other marketing techniques like Google Maps Ad where a potential client can straightforwardly be directed to your office. Other commonly used marketing practices include email marketing, videography, pamphlets and calling. All these leads to your front desk getting hundreds of enquiries per day. Each call and conversation can give you an insight into whether your strategies have worked or not. So, for example if you have posted an ad about a limited period offer on a certain service, you can analyze if people are actually calling to avail that. This can help you strategize better in the future.
2. To understand the needs of your clients better
The next and the most important reason why you need to review every enquiry is to understand what your customers are looking for. Companies spend time, hours and money trying to determine consumer trends whereas these simple marketing techniques mentioned above can help you get meaningful insights. For example, your clients might be looking for a cosmetic dental service like dental veneers or dental whitening. In case you are not providing those services, you can think of expanding your area of expertise. Or you may have working professionals enquiring about bookings during a particular time slot. You can then adjust your schedule to fit your client’s. All this works to improve your overall dental practice in the market. It is a known fact that dental practices also work on word of the mouth. Giving a top-notch service will automatically spread the word in your area and improve your chances of getting more patients.
3. To track missed calls
Every dentist knows the importance of their front desk team. Having an expert front desk team can help you manage your services better. Not to mention, tracking missed calls. It is only humanly possible to attend to as many calls as you can. The rest of the enquiry go to voice mails or are simply missed. This can spell trouble for your business. Every call is a golden opportunity to convert into an appointment. And by reviewing those enquiries that have been missed, you can not only get appointments but also create a good impression on your customers about your clinic.
4. To follow up with clients
The next crucial step why reviewing every enquiry is important is to follow up better with your existing patients and serve them better. It is not necessary that all the enquiries you are getting are new ones. Some old patients may be calling as well to find slots or to get some procedures done. Some might be calling under an emergency. Reviewing enquiries helps you get to your patients better and reduce service time considerably.
5. To create a successful sales funnel
Last but not the least, one reason why you should most definitely review every enquiry is to get more organic appointments and maintain a continuous sales funnel. Dentistry is as it is a very competitive market and it is important that you not let your sales funnel dry up. Especially so after Covid-19 pandemic. Most customers like calling up or making an online enquiry before making an appointment. To make the best use of this, it is important that your front desk reviews each call or message and takes necessary actions accordingly.
Now that you have seen the 5 reasons why reviewing every dental enquiry is so very important, the next obvious step is to have a solid phone tracking and front desk system in place. A good phone tracking system will let you know who has called and in case you have missed any calls, you can always get back to that patient. And who else to answer and track these calls other than a trained front desk professional?
Let us first understand why you need to install a good quality phone tracking system in place.
The importance of a good call tracker
Every dental business thrives on its customers and having a proper tracker system in place is the first step forward in that direction. According to Spectrio, nearly 60% of customers who are put on hold will hang up and look for a different service provider. You definitely don’t want to lose your clients to other practices in town, do you? So, here is why you need a good call tracker:
A tracking system helps track the source of any phone call. So, whether you are getting phone calls via an ad, social media campaign or even flyers or billboards, you can track the source of the call with a unique phone number assigned to it. This helps you measure the success or failure of your marketing efforts.
Call tracking also helps improve customer experience. As with any other business, the dental business also thrives on a good customer experience. Using a call tracker, you can get to missed calls which can be good opportunities for conversion. Using a call tracker, you can also understand customer patterns. For example, if you get missed calls at around 5pm on Fridays, you can train your front desk or appoint more staff to handle calls during that time slot. Not just that but call tracking also helps you listen to a conversation between your patients and front desk. By reviewing each call, you can understand what your patients need and also train your front desk better.
Another benefit of call tracking is evaluating your market strategies better. By understanding the source of your calls, you can plan your marketing strategies better because you know which one is more effectively working.
While call tracking is a great way to tap into dental enquiries you get every day, it is an expert front desk team that makes your work easier and improves your rate of success.
Importance of a good FD team
Your front desk creates the first impression on your customers. In 90% of the cases, they are the first point of contact for patients seeking dental services. Hence, a well trained FD is what you need to upholster your business growth. Training your dental FD team can not only help them take calls better but also respond to emergency situations in a timely manner.
Giving your Front desk a detailed training about call tracing can help them review every dental enquiry you are getting. It is also stress free on your part to know that you have a dependable team who can help grow your business.
Needless to say, reviewing every dental enquiry may seem like a tedious task when not all calls convert, but it certainly has the untapped potential to grow your dental business exponentially.
