Enquiries Response Speed And Booking Rate. Is There Any Correlation?

1. The importance of replying fast to enquiries

Proper and timely communication with a potential patient has an impact on the probability of converting an enquiry to a booking. An important factor that contributes to higher booking rates is the clinic's response time to a patient’s enquiry from any channel. The challenge for your clinic is to respond fast to enquiries and get ahead of your competition. (Learn more in our article "How important are phone calls for your Medical Aesthetic clinic?")

We analysed 48,000 enquiries from patients to medical aesthetic clinics in the UK sent via WhatClinic.com and found a strong correlation between the time to respond to an enquiry and the probability of booking the patient. In fact, not responding within 1 day reduces the chances of booking by 42%! This means that you may be losing almost half of your potential clients by just not responding as fast as patients expect you to.

2. When to expect patient enquiries?

To be better prepared to handle patient enquiries, it is essential to know when to expect them. Our data shows that clinics receive the majority of enquiries during the opening hours when practitioners are carrying out treatments. If the clinic does not employ a receptionist, the practitioner should either interrupt the procedure or delay responding. Enquiries are also sent during after-hours. In this case, the speed of response is crucial, as it is most likely that the potential patient will contact other clinics as well. If the practitioner does not employ external help, such as InDesk, they should decide on either handling enquiries during their free time, or risk losing a potential booking. (Learn more about how to gain more patients.)

What we also found in our data, is that the number of enquiries received on Saturdays and Sundays is almost at the same level as during the week. When it comes to telephone calls, they are almost as frequent on Saturdays as on weekdays.

When it comes to the number of enquiries in relation to the day of the month, the figures are significantly higher at the very beginning. Probably, patients feel financially more comfortable paying for their treatments at the beginning of the month. With the higher demand, it can be a challenge to cope with all the calls and messages, and even a 1-day delay in contacting the patient may lead to losing 42% of your bookings.

3. Why do Aesthetic clinics need InDesk?

With all these challenges in mind, InDesk was developed to help aesthetic clinics manage their new and existing patient enquiries through all channels. We are flexible to operate the hours the clinic chooses, including weekends, after-hours, and holidays. We also call your patients to confirm their visit and reschedule, if needed. Our goal is to help you gain peace of mind and allow you to relax after work without worrying about emails and phone calls.