Saving Nickels and Spending Dollars
By: Author Unknown
In the past months, practices have seen patient inquiries for Lasik slow down. This is no secret as the economic challenges facing the U.S. consumer are making everyone think twice about the “must have” vs. the “nice to have” services. In the eye care industry, we have seen practices look at their past and current marketing spends and make knee jerk decisions that although today may make the budget look healthier, but in the long term could prove more detrimental as volume picks back up.
In reviewing inbound calls received by Opticall, (a national provider of consumer communications solutions for the refractive industry), for its clients over the past six months, the trend is in line with comments we hear from refractive practices every day. Beginning in mid April, call volume was beginning to slow. This trend continued into May and then June, with June showing a noticeable slow down in new patient inquiries. However, July calls were strong and in fact maintained a healthy upward trend throughout the entire month.
As we spoke with several practices there was a notion that by slowing or stopping external marketing campaigns as well as usage of outside resources, things would get better. However, just the opposite is true. Practices that have gone “black” will in the short and long term realize greater losses than those that maintain their message and continue to provide the consumer, albeit fewer now than in the early part of the year, the opportunity to come in and have their vision restored.
Recently we reviewed conversion rates of practices that at one time outsourced their new patient inquires and maintained conversion rates of call to consult in the mid 70% range. In an effort to shore up the practice financials these practices made the financial decision to have their staffs assume responsibility for those calls. These same practices who may have been spending $3000 or so per month in external services have now seen their conversion rates drop to as low as 45%, a change of 37.33%! In simpler terms consider this scenario:
This practice used an external resource to manage their new Lasik inquiries through the end of May. In June, the practice had their internal staff assume call responsibility in an effort to save approximately $3000 per month. Call volume fell 30% from April to May and maintained similar call volume in May and June.
- March: Practice receives 25 calls with a 75% conversion rate to consult = 19 consults
- 70% of consults convert to surgery at $3500 per patient = $46,550
- May: Practice receives 18 calls (30% loss) x 75% conversion to consult = 14 consults
- 70% of consults convert to surgery at $3500 per patient = $34,330
- June: receives 18 calls (30% loss) x 45% conversion to consult = 8 consults
- 70% of consults convert to surgery at $3500 per patient = $19,600
- Practice saved $3000 by eliminating outside resource but lost $14,730 in patient revenue for a net loss of $11,730
- Make sure when consumers look for your practice on the web, they can:
- Easily find you
- Quickly identify a “call to action”
- Identify a phone number to reach out to you. (many practice web sites do not have dedicated Lasik phone numbers or phone numbers that are apparent on the home page)
- Maintain your refractive message with an emphasis on low risk/high visibility campaigns
- Leverage your best sales team…satisfied patients with effective “Word of Mouth” programs
- Stay in front of a selective group of Lasik candidates that are likely to respond to your message
- Be visible in your community at health fairs, local events and networking opportunities
- Now more than ever, if a prospective patient calls it is critical to make sure that this consumer becomes an in office consultation. Don’t save dollars at the “phone/cash register”
