Proven Strategies for Turning Callers Into Patients

Ken Robbins, CEO of Response Mine Interactive

“Until recently, health care businesses often did little or no marketing as a general rule,” says Ken Robbins, CEO of award-winning digital agency Response Mine Interactive (RMI).

“Now, we are experiencing a seismic shift to the point where online marketing such as paid and organic search have helped it become a clear and distinctive focus in health care. But one area still falls short. While health care is becoming more adept at generating inbound leads, the efforts to properly handle a prospect and shepherd his or her journey to become an active patient is severely lacking. At the top of the list of possible solutions to address this problem is looking at how health care companies handle their incoming phone calls,” he says.

What makes the biggest impact? Robbins says swift follow-up is crucial: “In our research at Back Pain Centers of America (BPCA), we have found that only 46 percent of companies follow up with patient leads within 24 hours. By comparison, if calls are not answered at the first attempt to reach a business, the conversion rate drops by 73 percent.

“When a prospect calls, if he or she receives a long voice menu, voicemail, or an unprepared employee on the other end of the line, the lead is quickly lost. The moment the phone rings, if call handling is poor, marketing dollars spent to get the call in the first place go down the drain.”

For 3 tips from Robbins on making sure callers become patients, as well as a step-by-step guide to applying these steps in the real-world chaos of a call center, read the new article: Is Your Health System Call Center a Prospect Killer or a Conversion Machine?

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President