When you’re in the business of filling patient slots and meeting revenue goals, you always want to be sure that all your leads are turning into clients. Clients mean money in the bank, but they take a lot of work to get there. We’ve got some tips on turning your leads into paying customers — or at least get them to come back around so they can become paying customers.
They may want more time to make a decision.
Even though you want to follow up with your clients, it’s important to remember that you can’t force them to make a decision. If they say, “I’ll let you know,” then leave it at that!
Don’t try and pressure them into deciding by asking for a commitment or pushing for an answer during the same phone call or email exchange. Don’t hint at how much time has passed since their initial inquiry (e.g., “I hope this isn’t too late…”). You need to respect their wishes and give them space—at least until they’ve had enough time to think about everything thoroughly.
On the other hand, if they have already made up their mind and decided not to go through with surgery with you, don’t feel wrong about this either! They may not be suitable for your practice or vice versa; it happens all the time in business relationships and shouldn’t be taken personally by either party (as long as neither party is lying).
They may want more information.
There are a couple of reasons they may want more information. If they ask you for more information, they are interested in learning more about the procedure or treatment you’re offering. They may also want to know if there is a cost associated with the service and how much it would be. To help prevent this from happening, ensure you always include essential details about your practice and pricing in all of your correspondence with patients.
If someone asks for more information, give them what they need! You can offer them an opportunity to do so by including a link or phone number where they can get additional details on their own time (which will relieve some pressure off you). If they request something specific that isn’t already included on your website or in your correspondence, don’t hesitate to send it over as soon as possible—and if possible, enclose any relevant supporting materials like recent news stories related to the topic at hand.
An urgent matter came up that they needed to take care of first.
Let’s say you sent out an email blast to your list of leads with a great deal on Botox.
You get some responses, but not as many as you hoped for. Maybe they’re too busy to call you right now? Or perhaps they have an urgent matter that came up, and they had to take care of it first?
They got busy and forgot to call you.
When you ask for the lead’s contact information, let them know that you will follow up with them. This is important because they may not think of it or get busy and forget.
It’s also important that you follow through on this promise and call the prospective patient back at a convenient time for them. If there’s a long time between when they leave messages and your calls, it can make them feel like your practice doesn’t value their time.
Their credit card was declined, or it maxed out.
When you follow up, you have a couple of options. You can try calling again or sending another email. If they don’t answer the first time, it may be different in the second round.
Or, you could try to send them an invoice via email or snail mail (if they’ve given you their physical mailing address). If that doesn’t work either—and for some reason, it doesn’t seem like it will—the next step could be to get in touch with a collections agency and let them know what’s going on here: someone owes me money, but I haven’t been paid yet. The collection agency can then contact this person directly and remind them that they still owe money and threaten legal action if they refuse to pay up soon enough.
They found a promotion with a competitor.
They found a promotion with a competitor.
This is the most common reason why patients don’t follow up after you’ve sent them an email or text message. They found a better offer; they saw something that caught their eye while browsing the web, and your site didn’t capture their attention, or perhaps they have family members who work at the competitor’s location and would instead go there for their surgery. It cannot be easy to anticipate all of these possibilities when sending out follow-up messages, but it’s important to remember that your job isn’t done just because you’ve sent out an email!
They liked your competitor’s website more than yours.
It could be that your competitor’s website is more well-designed, more informative and user-friendly, and better searchable. Or it could simply be that they have a better reputation than you in the community. Whatever the reason, and there are many, your prospective patient has decided that your competitor’s website is better suited to meet their needs. This means you will need to work harder to get them into your practice as a client.
They found a promotion with another service provider.
While you may have tried to close the deal alone, it can be disheartening to think they found a promotion with another service provider. But this is a good sign! It means that they are open to other ideas and alternatives. They would not have been interested in these promotions if they were completely set on getting plastic surgery with you.
So how can you use this information? When speaking with prospective patients, you should ask them what kind of promotions or discounts they saw from other providers. This will give you valuable insight into where else the patient has considered going for their procedure and whether any aspects of your practice could be improved upon (such as pricing).
They didn’t read their email.
One of the best ways to keep your name in front of potential clients is by sending them an email you know they’ll read. And if they don’t read it, you should follow up.
We all get plenty of emails every day, and many people sign up for multiple newsletters, so we’re all bombarded with too much information. It’s essential not only to ensure that any emails you send are exciting and relevant—but also that they’re timely! This will ensure that readers see them as valuable enough to open and interact with immediately (or at least within a few hours).
If someone doesn’t respond after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed since their initial communication, follow up again—just like you would with a patient who misses an appointment or isn’t showing up at the gym anymore! In this case, however, there are no real consequences other than missing out on potential revenue due to lackadaisical behavior on behalf of both parties involved in this process: The doctor/practice owner who sent out the initial message; and especially those people who may have lost interest after not hearing anything back right away but eventually would have been interested if contacted again later down the road (a few weeks or months down the line).
Follow-up is the key to turning leads into clients for your plastic surgery practice.
Following up with your leads is the key to turning them into clients. And there are several ways you can do it:
- Phone call
- Text message (in addition to email)
- Video chat through FaceTime or Skype if they’ve already given you their information and consent to contact them this way. If it’s not an option, use Google Hangouts instead.
- Postcard with a handwritten note on the backside (you could also send a handwritten letter)
- Letter in the mail—not as good as a postcard because of costs involved but still effective if done right (see above).
We hope you’ve taken away some good ideas to make your follow-up more effective. Remember, there are many reasons why people procrastinate or forget to follow through with their intentions, so don’t be discouraged if you’re having trouble getting responses from your leads. Just keep at it, and eventually, they’ll come!
