With 82.8% of patients finding and choosing a healthcare provider based on what they see online, it’s not surprising that healthcare organizations are increasingly investing in Google ads to expand their online presence and reach potential patients.  Statistics like these underscore the critical importance of a robust digital marketing campaign for healthcare providers. As patients actively search for healthcare information, reviews, and recommendations online, having a well-executed Google ads campaign can make all the difference in attracting new patients and ensuring the continued success of healthcare organizations in an increasingly competitive landscape.

The Importance of Call Campaigns for Patient Acquisition

Running Call campaigns in Google Ads is of particular importance for healthcare clinics as they easily enable potential patients to connect with a clinic frictionlessly with a single click. Users don’t need to visit a website or fill out forms like traditional text ads or display ads (but don’t ditch these – they have their place in your marketing mix). Let’s face it – timely personal assistance by a well-trained front desk staff professional has the potential to close the most leads.

What’s more, Google Ads provides detailed data and insights into the performance of call campaigns, such as call duration, call conversion tracking, and click-through rates. Even more so, call tracking tools like CallRail allow marketers to track phone calls from Google Ads right to the source, campaign, ad group, and keyword allowing clinics to measure the effectiveness of their ad campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize them.  

So Why is Money Being Left on the Table? It Boils down to a few factors:

Overburdened front desk staff resulting in:

• Prospective patients being placed on hold for extended periods, resulting in dropped calls at worst and frustrated callers at best.
• Unanswered calls – which are missed opportunities for scheduling appointments, addressing inquiries, and providing important information that leads to a successful patient booking.

Voicemail systems or call routing options:

• When front desk staff can’t get to the phone, unanswered new patient calls can reduce engagement by 47% leading to a dramatic loss in potential revenue. Rerouting is better, but if the staff person answering is not properly trained in lead closing, there is still potential revenue being left on the table.

After-hour call centers and answering services: 

• HIPAA compliance issues aside, answering services mandate their agents adhere to predefined, impersonal scripts which don’t bode well for lead closing.  Also, live agents are simply not going to address inquiries such as pricing, treatment options, insurance or medical questions adequately leading to a poorer return on investment. New patients may choose to go to another clinic that is more responsive.

Steve Poley, Founder of RingIQ an AI platform designed for healthcare clinics to assist in identifying and prioritizing previously unconverted calls, shared insights. After analyzing 164,687 calls over the past three months and assessing over 4,000 online appointment requests submitted through forms, it became evident to Poley that even with a consistently trained phone operator, up to 30% of appointment requests remained unbooked. For new operators, says Poley, the failure rate can be as high as 50%. While returning patients have higher booking rates than new patients (Returning patients book 80% of the time), new patients with more questions book as low as 50% of the time:

 “As many as 20% of marketing-sourced phone calls are missed, not answered, reach busy lines, or go to voicemail. Operators generally are receptionists juggling walk-ins, patient arrivals, patient forms, and credit card billing.  Phone rings?  They will call back maybe…Even with rollover lines, patient calls reach busy lines. Voicemail? 90% of callers reaching voicemail during retail office hours hang up.”  

Solutions

What are some possible solutions when, as per Poley and others, over 90% of patient appointment requests come through phone calls rather than form fills?

Human Resouce Improvements

• To address these challenges, healthcare facilities may implement strategies such as hiring additional staff during peak times, improving call routing systems, offering online appointment scheduling options, and providing additional training to front desk staff to handle high call volumes efficiently.

• Healthcare providers may explore telehealth options to reduce the volume of phone calls for routine inquiries, allowing front desk staff to focus on more critical tasks.

Speed to Conversation

Technology Solutions

• Conversation Intelligence tools like RingIQ are designed to help healthcare clinics optimize phone interactions by leveraging AI to identify operational performance, prioritize previously unconverted calls, and offer practical guidance on effective call-back strategies and conversion techniques. RingIq summarizes patient calls using   ChatGPT and Generative-AI. allowing clinics to make informed decisions based on what patients are saying about you on the phone. 
• Call tracking tools like CallRail and RingCentral offer various advantages, including providing valuable insights to optimize marketing campaigns, enabling call tracking for pay-per-click ad campaigns, offering call recording capabilities for coaching and skill improvement, and facilitating lead scoring when integrated with a CRM.
• If the call is missed and attempts to reach your leads are unsuccessful, conversational AI  tools like Mav can reach clients through text messaging and prompt them to speak to your front desk team through live call transfers. Mav also allows patients to book appointments online, provides chat transcripts for future evaluation, and uses their technology to prequalify leads.

Other Best Practices

• Have a dedicated line for incoming marketing calls, avoiding automated messaging options.
• Ensure your staff greeting is warm, brief, and clear.
• Create protocols of how you want your incoming calls to be handled effectively
• Install power backup arrangements
• After hours ensure that you work with a highly trained medical answering service provider who follows your protocols

There is much you can do to ensure you are fully benefitting from your paid campaigns.  Perhaps the one element that is most significant to healthcare companies (and all service-based organizations to quote Steve Poley one last time) is to”make every call count”.

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