Originally published on June 7, 2016 in Buzz on Biz
By Mark Alison
I called an attorney’s office the other day around 3pm to make an appointment for a consult. I had researched ahead of time to be sure they specialized in business law and asked my CPA for some referrals. All three firms looked equally good on-line. I chose one of the three because one of the attorneys looked the most like me…bald. I hoped there might be some wisdom in there. The receptionist answered and I asked for the lawyer by name, explaining in brief the reason for my call. “He’s in a meeting right now but I can put you through to his voice mail,” she said politely. I left my message, name and repeated my number twice. By noon the next business day – no return call. So, I called another attorney.
I’ll bet I’m not alone in this frustration. As a marketer it’s doubly disconcerting because we are paid to deliver motivated customers. When the first touch is lost before it begins, money and energy is wasted. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the case.
When we created the first ever, marketing campaign for a joint replacement medical practice, we understood the consumer, the decision maker and the limitations of a medical practice. Neither a receptionist nor a nurse is a professional sales person. But we needed to capture the lead when they called and respond appropriately. We also needed a back-up process to be sure the potential patient was well served and the lead not lost. Basically we created a call response team.
Here’s how it worked.
- Lead generated through external marketing calls the practice.
- Secretary assessed the nature of the call using a simple call response flow chart we developed. It was easy to follow. Minimal training necessary.
- Packet of information sent to the lead. Observing HIPAA regulations the information was passed to a qualified caseworker to follow up and a due date assigned. The caseworker was held accountable by a senior member who met with them each week to assess progress on each assign.
- The caseworker called at a time designated following the packet arrival and spoke with the responsible party. Following a similar call response flow chart he/she had the goal of setting an appointment.
That’s the 30,000 foot view. Simply setting up a call response team and a process helped net potential patients that may otherwise have fallen through the cracks like my call did to the attorney. The external campaign we developed created calls. The internal marketing procedure we implemented turned them into business. Our capture rate with the joint replacement group was nearly 100% and the conversion to actual appointments within 6 months was over 60%.
I spoke with a realtor last month who told me his sales were very good. “What do you attribute that to?” I asked. “I answer my phone,” was his reply. “Most realtors let the call go to voice mail and call back later,” he said, “the person on the other end won’t wait. They’ll call someone else.”
Consumers are more impatient today. It was not that long ago when we waited 10 days or more to get a reply to a business query; typically by letter in the mail. A recent customer service study shows the amount of time people are willing to wait for a company response has gone down from 10 days to 10 minutes in just one generation. It’s simply too easy to dial another number or shoot out another e-mail. Back to my attorney call – His slow/no response made me second-guess him. I figured he might be just as slow about handling my legal needs if I signed up with him. He made up my mind for me.
When external tactical marketing is paired with well-designed internal execution the ROI can be spectacular. Most people are too close to the business to develop this “hand in glove” program. They don’t see the cracks and, eventually, the excuses why things slipped through become tiresome and the whole internal support process is abandoned. At the increasing cost of securing business, that simply cannot be tolerated. If one person is responsible for your lead capture and fails, I suggest reeducation, motivation or termination. As Tom Peter’s admonishes, to build a great business, “Make sure you have the right people on the bus.” A well-designed program will work!
It’s not just in the service sector either. Let’s suppose I need tires for my wife’s car. Response time is immediate on Amazon. I Click – “tires”. Click – rating. Click – consumer comments. Click- comparative pricing. Click – selection. Click – bought. Why would I buy a set of tires on-line, for example, and not through a local dealer? Well, my call locally isn’t handled timely and professionally so Click – I hang up. I figure it’s the same tires, same price. They ship them to my installer and he puts them on my car. I’d prefer to shop local but the local tire guy put me on hold and Amazon didn’t. Multiply that a few thousand times and you see the magnitude of the business lost. Marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. It has to be executed.
Your phone and inbox are the place where the first hand shake takes place. Make it a good one. Our company, the Alison Group specializes is helping business happen at the hand-shake level. We’ll be happy to explain more when you call. (706-724-3758) By the way, that attorney has yet to call me back.