If I told you that you could spend less to increase your new patients per week, would you think I'm crazy?
I recently did a talk for a large group of veterinary and physical therapy practices and it was so successful that I wanted to share it with you. When I'm done here today, you will see the value of training your front office staff and how vital it is to your practice success and survival.
As practice owners, we spend thousands of dollars per year making sure our clinical staff get CEUs but little to nothing training our front office staff. Have you ever had any of the following thoughts about your front office staff (and if so, you aren't the only one - these came from some of the owners I have spoken to...):
“I struggle managing a $12 an hour employee.”
“They’re only admin staff – they’re replaceable.”
“Why train them up, they’re just going to turn over anyway…”
“I have no idea how to manage my front end.”
“All they need to do is answer the phone and schedule patients/clients.”
We don't always give our front office staff the level of importance or credit they deserve regarding our practice success. I surveyed the practice owners I spoke to last weekend and they all agreed that their front office staff usually haven't been formally trained, most only have a high school education and they haven't had any formal higher education. And yet, we as practice owners expect them to be successful in their positions.
But, when someone calls to find out about your practice, when you spend thousands per month on marketing and new leads call in, when the phone rings...who is the very FIRST contact that the patient has with your practice?
Yeah...exactly. The front office.
When you market to your public, leads come in.
AND EVERY SINGLE LEAD HAS TO GO THROUGH THE FRONT OFFICE BEFORE THEY EVER GET SEEN.
Are you starting to get a clear picture yet?
It doesn't matter how or where you market unless your front office can capture those calls and turn them into scheduled and arriving new patients.
When we track statistics on marketing ROI, we often tie our marketing efforts to the # of new patients scheduled. But the truth is, that doesn't give us true, clean data because we're measuring the # that was scheduled and not comparing it to the # of potential patient calls that actually came in. That's because our marketing funnel is missing something extremely vital...and that's the front office.
Your practice will only be able to grow and expand if your front office staff can convert new patient calls to scheduled and arriving new patients.
The average front office staff are possibly converting only 60-70% of new patient calls to scheduled and arriving new patient appointments. (I have been told that I am probably estimating that on the high end because there are no studies on front office conversions)
That 30-40% loss of new patients will result in slower growth and expansion for any private practice and result in a lower return on investment for all the marketing that you do. Your practice is hemorrhaging revenue every day that you don’t track the ratio of calls to conversions. And even if you do track them, if you don’t provide your front office staff with higher level training, you’re still going to hemorrhage revenue.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say a physical therapy practice has 50 new patient inquiry calls come in per week but the front office staff are only able to convert 70% of the calls to scheduled evaluations. That would mean that they were only converting 35 out of 50 calls. If you want, you can look at it this way, that’s 15 potential new patients who are NOT getting the care they need. (And I’m not even taking into account the scheduled evaluation appointments that cancel which would increase that number of lost patients or patients who aren’t getting the care they need)
If we look at an average plan of care being 12 visits and the average reimbursement of $100 per visit, (I wish that were true for many of us, but it makes math easier here so I’m going with $100/visit) that would mean that every new patient to the practice meant $1200 in gross revenue (again assuming that all our other processes are in place to get paid for each visit but not going there in this article)
Those 15 lost leads add up to an average loss of $18,000 per week to the practice.
That’s almost a million dollars!!
Ok, I was going to extremes and let's be honest, not every single call will convert. But most should!
Let’s look at it this way:
If you trained your front office staff so they were able to convert just ONE additional new patient per week than they could’ve before, that would increase the practice revenue per year by $62,400. That's someone's salary or the difference between the practice having reserves or constantly using credit when there isn't enough revenue coming in.
But wait!
What if we could improve their skill so they could convert 90% of those calls instead of 70%? What if they had all the tools they need to handle even the biggest challenge?
(My average one on one clients convert over 90% of ALL new patient calls that come in and see growth because of it...)
What would it be worth to you to have an entire system in place to train your front office staff? If you had a program that ran them through the entire process from that first contact through a fully scheduled out plan of care.
(My program provides what you need to implement immediately...)
If the practice above increased their new patient conversions from 70% to 90%, they would increase their weekly new patient visits from 35 to 45 and they would add an additional $624,000 in gross revenue per year! What would that mean to you?
And what if you could do it over and over, year after year, with every new front office hire you made?
What would your practice look like 1, 2 or 10 years down the road?
Would you be meeting your practice goals?
Would you be able to pay yourself what you always imagined?
Front Office GURU provides you and your front office staff with the training and tools you need to increase your new patient conversions.
With training and my proven systems, you will:
Increase your ROI on marketing expenses,
Have more certainty and control over your practice growth and expansion,
See improved revenue per week...per month...per year,
And, your front office staff will have more certainty and control over getting their product.
Don’t wait! Click here to schedule a FREE Discovery Call today and find out how you can help your front office staff convert more new patients without having to spend more on marketing!
Wishing you the best, today and always!
Dee
I started Front Office GURU with a single goal in mind and that’s to help private practices thrive. Your front office plays an integral role in your success and yet, most practices don’t have set training and systems to ensure that everyone in the front office manages patients the same way.
Don’t wait until the perfect time to get started because there will never be that perfect time, that perfect staff.
As a practice owner, former manager, and the Front Office GURU, I understand the difficulties you face because I've been there. And my programs provide the solution.
Then schedule a FREE Discovery Call to learn more about my programs.
The Front Office GURU Training Academy is an online training platform for you and your front desk! It's great for team building and establishing successful systems and training for your front desk. And the BEST part? YOU don't have to recreate the wheel - it's ALL done for YOU!! Just set up your team and they can get started right away...
Your Patient Care Coordinators will feel welcome and supported as the training is ALL about them. And even MORE is coming soon! Click HERE for more info and get started right away!
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