Chris (00:04.298)
Hey, welcome back. This is the No BS Dental Growth podcast. I’m your host, Chris Pistorius. And today’s episode is about a problem that almost every single dental practice I’ve ever worked with. And it’s been a lot. It’s a problem they all have. And most of them don’t even know what’s happening. What happens to your leads after they don’t book? Not the ones who booked and no show. That’s not what I’m talking about. That’s another problem. That’s another episode, right?
Not the ones who were patients and ghosted you. I’m talking about specifically the people who reached out, maybe filled out a form, maybe they called in, maybe they clicked on your ad, but never actually got on your schedule. What happens to them in your practice right now? If you’re like most practices, the honest answer is nothing. And that nothing is costing you a lot of money. So stick with me for the next 10 minutes or so because
I’m going to walk you through why this happens, why the typical drop off, what the typical drop off points are and exactly what a good follow up system looks like. And if you get value from this, please hit subscribe. New episodes come out every week. All right. Let me paint a picture for you. You spent money on Google ads. Someone searches Dennis near me. They click your ad, they land on your website, they fill out a contact form or they even call you even better, right?
You paid for that click. Could be five bucks, could be 50 bucks, depending on your market. Now, here’s the question. What happens in the next 24 hours? Actually, what happens in the next 15 minutes is a bigger question. Well, in a well-run practice with good systems, that lead gets followed up within minutes, if not seconds. They get a callback, a text, whatever the preferred method is, and if they don’t respond immediately,
they get a structured follow-up sequence over the next several days. In the average practice, someone on the front desk sees the form submission, tries to call once if they have time right then. If not, it’ll just sit there. Maybe they get a voicemail, they leave a generic message, and then they move on. They’re busy. It’s not their fault. If the patient doesn’t call back on their own, which most don’t, by the way,
Chris (02:22.348)
because nobody wants to go to the dentist. I hope I’m not telling you something you don’t know, right? It’s easy for people to put that stuff on the back burner. But if they don’t call back, that lead is dead forever, typically. And those ad dollars you spent, gone out the window. Even if you’re not spending ad dollars, right? It’s still money out of your pocket. And you have no idea that it’s happening because nobody’s really tracking it. This is what I call the invisible leak. The leads are coming in.
They’re just leaking right back out before they ever become patients. This is why sometimes I say it’s not always more marketing that you need. Sometimes we have to fix the holes in the bucket before we add more marketing. So let’s talk about why this happens. There’s really three main reasons. Number one, your front desk might be overwhelmed. They’ve got patients checking in, phones are ringing, insurance to deal with, maybe somebody called in sick.
and a stack of things that need to get done before the end of the day. Following up on a lead that went cold three days ago is not on their priority list. And honestly, it shouldn’t shouldn’t have to be. That’s what automation is for. We live in a world where automation does not have to replace humans. We live in a world where automation makes the humans that you have more efficient. If that makes sense. All right, number two, there’s no system in place. Number two reason why some of these calls get dropped.
If someone doesn’t book on the first attempt, there’s no defined process for what happens next. No second call, no text, no email. The lead just falls through the cracks because there’s no net to catch it in. And you don’t have to be a big practice to do this. We’ve implemented this in single doc practices where sometimes the doctor is the one answering the phones. You don’t need a lot of money to put something like this into place. OK, number three, pride.
This one’s subtle, I do see it all the time. There’s a mentality in some practices that says, if they want to come in, they’ll call us back. And I get it. Nobody wants to feel like they’re chasing people, but your competition is chasing them, and they’re winning.
Chris (04:37.013)
So let me throw some numbers at you because this is where it gets real. The average dental practice converts somewhere around 30 to 50 % of new patient inquiries into actual booked appointments. Not talking about referrals here. These are cold people that find you on a list somewhere. They don’t know anything about you. All right? Which means up to 70 % of the people who reach out never become patients. Now, some of those people generally are not a fit.
wrong insurance, wrong location, just browsing. That’s fine. I’m not talking about those. But a huge chunk of that 70%, they were interested. They just didn’t get followed up with in a way that brought them back. Here’s the kicker. People don’t make dental decisions the same way they make pizza decisions. They think about it. They get busy. They tell themselves they’ll call back. And then life happens and they forget. Your job is to stay in front of them long enough
that when they’re ready, you’re the name they remember.
Research across service industries consistently shows that it takes five to eight touch points before a lead actually converts a cold lead. Five to eight. Most practices make one or two attempts and call it done.
Now just imagine in the back of your mind if you know what if some of those peeps just 20 % you were able to convert. What does that add up to month over month, year over year, dollar wise?
Chris (06:05.695)
Okay, so what does a proper follow-up system actually look like? Let me walk you through what we build for our clients. Day zero. Same day someone reaches out, they get an immediate response. If they called and left a voicemail, they get a text back within minutes, acknowledging we received their message and giving them a way to respond that’s convenient for them. If they filled out a form, same thing. Day one, a personal phone call, not a robocall, an actual person trying to connect. If no answer,
A voice mail is left, a very strategic voice mail by the way, is left with a specific callback number and a warm message. Not call us back, but hey, we’d love to help you to get in for whatever they inquired about. We have some openings this week. Day two, a follow-up text. Short, friendly, low pressure. Just wanted to make sure you got my message yesterday and you’ve been taken care of. We’ve got a spot open Thursday morning if you’d like. Day four, an email.
This one can have a little more content, maybe address a common concern, maybe share a patient story. That works really well. Give them a reason to say yes. Day seven, one more call, one more text, and then the lead doesn’t die. It goes into a long-term nurture sequence. Monthly emails, maybe a direct mail piece, because six months from now that person might be ready. And when they are, you want to be the practice that they’ve been hearing from.
This also works great for higher end cases like implants, because those are typically a little bit longer of a sales cycle. Now, none of this happens manually though. This is all automated. This is no more man hours for your front desk. It triggers the moment a form is submitted or a missed call is detected. Your front desk doesn’t have to think about it. It just runs. All right. And maybe some of you are thinking, I already have this. I have it through Dentrix or Weave or whatever system you’re using.
You probably, that may be true, but when you’re using solutions like that, they’re out of the box. They’re the same exact stuff that a thousand other dentists are using. All they’re doing is basically changing your name. You really need a customized approach to this. So it makes every person feel like you’re their only patient. And that’s where an agency like us can really help to write that.
Chris (08:24.019)
So what I want to specifically talk about one version of this problem that we run into a lot in our own business, and I know that dental practices see too, they no show. Somebody books a consultation, they’re on the schedule and then they just don’t show up. No call, no text, they ghost. What happens next to your practice? Do you have a specific recovery sequence for that? Some practices don’t. They might call once and say, hey, we missed you today and that’s it.
Don’t give up that quickly. A proper no-show recovery sequence looks like this. An immediate, we missed you text. Make it easy for them to rebook right then and there. A follow-up call the next day. An email that acknowledges they showed interest. Life got in the way and you’d still love to help them. And then a slower, longer follow-up cadence over the next 30 days. Some of your best patients are going to come from no-shows who were recovered. Because they already know you, they already like you, they already trust you.
They made that decision already. So don’t give up on them after just one missed appointment. So here’s the bottom line. If you don’t have a defined automated follow-up system for leads who don’t book, you’re just throwing money away as a significant percentage of your marketing spend every single month. And even if you’re not doing marketing, you’re still throwing money away. This is one of the first things we look at when we work with a new practice. We’re a marketing agency, but we’re not looking at their ads. We’re not looking at their website. I mean, we are, but…
The first things we do is we look at their systems, their follow-up process, their front desk health, because you can’t build on a leaky foundation. Pouring more water into a leaky bucket isn’t going to fix the problem. It’s just going to cause more leakage, right? Now, the good news is this is completely fixable and you can fix it pretty damn quick. You know, it’s more of a systems issue, not even really a people issue. And the ROI on getting it right is absolutely massive.
So that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re sitting there thinking, generally don’t know what happens for sure to my leads when they don’t book, that’s a sign you might need to fix or at least start asking some questions. So head over to kickstartdentalmarketing.com, shameless plug, book a free call with me and let’s take a look at everything together. And if you haven’t subscribed to this podcast yet, please do it right now. It takes two seconds, costs you nothing. And I promise
Chris (10:47.78)
every episode is going to give you something actionable that you can take back to your practice. I’m Chris Pistorius. We’ll see you next time.
