4 Must Have Reasons Why Doctors and Group Medical Practices Need Message On Hold Advertising

According to recent polls, more Americans are shopping healthcare providers than ever before, and inbound calls to the physician’s office or group medical practice is still the most preferred communication channel. When a patient chooses a doctor or a hospital, the decision process is often driven by their first interaction with your office. While your staff does their best to handle patients calling into your office, they often times have to be put on hold. It’s just a fact of doing business in a busy practice.

Whether for family medicine or group medical practices, for most medical doctors, the typical workweek is somewhere north of 50 hours. And that doesn’t include the time thinking about the marketing part of the business. Some physicians dislike marketing; It’s too much like “selling” however, what the patient is buying is happiness. It’s the one and only reason people buy healthcare.

Studies show 80% percent of callers and placed on-hold, and an alarmingly high rate of 52% percent of who wait in silence will hang-up within 40 seconds, and callers who wait with music only terminate the call in under one minute. Lost calls, means lost opportunities to convert prospective patients into new patient appointments. With practices being so heavily telephone reliant, you need to use your telephone as a marketing tool, as a medium to connect, engage and convert callers. This is where an On-hold Message is a simple, yet highly-target and effective marketing tool which has proven to keep callers retained and hold on the line for up to 3 minutes giving the chance to serve them.Are you using patient on-hold time wisely?

Here are 4 Ways To Leverage On-Hold Time and Benefit Your Practice:

#1 Build Patient Trust, Loyalty.

Credibility does not only come with an authoritative appearance, it must be backed up by solid and stellar track record. Use your impressive previous performance in the industry as your arsenal in earning the trust of potential clients through message on hold communication. You can also provide the perfect words that remind that the customer (patient, prospective patient) that their health and well-being is of primary importance to your practice.

#2 There’s Nothing More Important Than New Patient Inquiries.

When prospective new patients call, they are simply evaluating your practice, but the fact is you may be setting up your staff to fail. New prospective patients assume that the way they are treated on the phone is a good indication of how they would be treated in your business. Studies show 96 percent of marketing budgets are spent to get the phone to ring, yet only 4 percent is spent towards properly handling inbound calls. Losing a new patient inquiry due to a poor telephone on hold experience means your practice was not prepared and opportunity was lost.

#3 Generate Referrals From Your Best Source, Existing Patients!

Whether marketing savvy or not, just about anyone can easily figure it that your most valuable source for new patients is getting referrals from patients you currently serve. Use your on hold advertising as a friendly way to remind existing patients that their highest compliment to your practice is the trust and confidence they place in your by referring family, friends and co-workers.

#4 Reduce On Hold Waiting, Use Time Efficiently.

There are undoubtedly questions that callers ask your staff time and time again. This causes long wait times, however On-hold messaging can answer those questions before patients ever ask them, thus reducing wait times to speak with staff. Everything from appointment scheduling, insurance procedures, medication refills and more can all be addressed while callers are waiting on-hold. Do you offer patient portals or online appointment scheduling? Include this information in your message on hold programming and save time for both your staff and patients.

What does a typical call into your medical practice say about you? Without medical on hold messages, your patient wait on hold time may be letting your healthcare brand down big time. Messaging on hold fills your patient’s telephone on-hold time with exciting information about your practice, health education, and treatment recommendations in a compelling and that establishes and builds your patient relationships by create a memorable service experience – a cornerstone of superior healthcare.