Software has changed the way medical practices operate worldwide. This much we can all agree on. For example, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software provides us with an increase in efficiencies, automation, organization, and storage. Selecting the correct medical practice CRM can have a direct impact on your bottom line! So what’s not to love? Well, one thing comes to mind: the selection process. Choosing the correct medical practice CRM can often be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! Here are some expert tips on what to look for if you are a practice owner.
1. An Industry-Specific Medical Practice CRM is Key
For starters, your medical practice CRM should be — you guessed it — specific to a medical practice! It is important to draw that line early on in your selection process. Software that is equipped to handle the unique nuances of your business will save you both time and headaches in the long-run. Medical-specific software, like Crystal Clear’s Social Patient Center, will be equipped to handle the unique KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of your practice like the conversion rate of new opportunity into consult scheduled, consult scheduled into consult complete, consult complete into procedure completed, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, this involves tracking the ROI of your marketing efforts. This ability to accurately gauge your return by marketing channel AND by employee is vital to compiling all of the necessary information needed for significant managerial decisions. Having the right medical practice CRM is crucial for your practice’s marketing success.
Consider this: Joey and Julia are your two front desk employees who are responsible for booking new patients and treatments. Let’s say they both receive about 100 opportunities a month. With software systems such as Crystal Clear’s medical practice CRM, you should be able to track the following:
Joey converts at 24% – 100 x 24% = 24 new opportunities into consults scheduled
Julia converts at 35% – 100 x 35% = 35 new opportunities into consults scheduled
Let’s get Julia some more opportunities, and maybe let’s get Joey on some training!
2. Opportunity & Pipeline Management Should Be a Part of Your Medical Practice CRM Tool
Next, all inbound leads, whether it be a phone call or a form, must be captured by your medical practice CRM. The magic truly happens behind the scenes. What we mean is once a web form has been filled out or a phone call has been made into your practice, they must be captured by one central hub. From here, a brand new “opportunity” can be created and managed. This is called opportunity management. Due to training put in place, when a lead does come in, your staff MUST be capturing their full name, email, AND procedure of interest. Determining the procedure that the prospective patient is interested in leads to the next feature that needs to be incorporated into the medical practice CRM solution you choose to use: pipeline management. A “pipeline” is a sales term that means anyone who has entered your practice’s ecosystem and potentially is interested in booking a treatment or procedure with you. Now that your staff has captured their interest, we know (with reasonable certainty) what that patient may be worth to the practice in terms of revenue. Any effective medical practice CRM tool will have a pipeline management feature that allows you to sort the pipeline by sell status (new opportunity, considering a consultation, consult done, treatment being considered, etc.) AND timeframe. It is the manager’s role to sort the pipeline and find what opportunities may be worth the most to your organization. Boom. The highest potential values rise to the top. Now you can ask yourself, “What is the next step in order to convert this opportunity into the next step?” Generate. Manage. Sort. Convert. Repeat.
3. Choose a Medical Practice CRM that is Fully-Integrated with Your Digital Marketing
In the past, digital marketing ROI (return on investment) has been elusive. Selecting the correct medical practice CRM that fully integrates with your digital marketing efforts completely removes the guessing from this equation. The medical practice CRM you choose should be able to track website visitors, where the traffic came from, what pages generated the most inbound leads (forms or calls), your site’s conversion rate, traffic by keywords, traffic by social media channels, and what mediums are converting into MONEY. Generating reports based on these metrics equips practices with the power to uncover profit leaks, inefficiencies, and areas of improvement. In turn, this will help you refine your marketing and management strategy based on facts, not feelings.
Crystal Clear Digital Marketing offers a cutting-edge medical practice CRM called the Social Patient Center. Please contact us today to learn more. We look forward to speaking with you and helping you find, serve, and keep more patients profitably!
