Use Dental Call Tracking to Improve Your Patient Conversion Rate
The industry standard phone conversion metric for dentists is 30%-50%. That means for every 100 people who call your private dental practice, 30-50 of them are scheduled for an appointment by the end of the phone call. That number may sound acceptable, but most dental practices fall below that conversion rate. Your phones are the first point of contact for your dental practice, and having a poor phone conversion rate can be a breaking point.
So how do you find out how many phone calls convert into appointments, and are these appointments helping your production rate? Dental call tracking software can help you wrap your head around your conversion rate and zero in on your opportunities for improvement.
What is Call Tracking?
Call tracking lets you monitor who is calling into your practice and when, which dental marketing effort that they responded to, if you missed a phone call or sent it to voicemail, the quality of the communication with your dental office staff, if the call ended with an appointment, and the value of each appointment. That is a lot of information critical to the success of your private dental practice.
How Does Call Tracking Work?
There are a variety of functions packed into dental call tracking software. However, there are a few features that rise above the rest when trying to understand and improve your dental office’s phone conversion rates.
Feature # 1: Voice Recording
When a patient calls into your dental practice and your staff answers the phone, call tracking automatically logs their information. Most call tracking software will record the conversation for you to review. Recording how your front office team is handling incoming calls lets you screen for strengths and weaknesses in how they talk to patients. With this information, you can offer each person on your team individualized suggestions on how to improve their conversion rates.
Additionally, you will be able to narrow down the marketing channels that are producing the most valuable leads. As you review the recording, you can classify each call as a good lead or bad lead, letting you see where you are more likely to receive calls that convert to high-revenue procedures.
Feature #2: Unique Call Tracking Numbers
You are likely putting a lot of time and money into different dental marketing services to keep your practice busy. Dental call tracking software allows you to assign a unique number to each marketing effort. When a patient calls in, it will log which marketing channel they are responding to, whether they scheduled an appointment, and what kind of appointment they scheduled. It then becomes easy to see which marketing sources generate the highest volume of patients as well as those most likely to convert.
Feature #3 Analyzing Call Volume
A missed phone call at your dental practice can cost you a lot of money. There is a slim chance that a person who is sent to voicemail will ever call your office again. Call tracking for dentists lets you easily view what days and times are the busiest in your office. If you know when the phones will ring off the hook, you can hire and schedule office support staff more effectively.
Tracking Means Conversions
Call tracking is an essential tool in increasing your practice’s profitability. Knowing how many phone calls end in an appointment and for which procedure and from which marketing effort is invaluable information. With it, you can both strategically plan your staff schedule and focus your marketing efforts on the initiatives that have generated the strongest ROI. For more information on how to use metrics to make your practice profitable, download our free guide, Transform Your Dental Practice by Tracking These 8 KPIs.
