Why are Existing Patients Booking In?

You might find when you start using the CRM, some enquiries come in that are  existing patients. 

Because, we have a dedicated team member that listens to call recording, we can identify if the caller is an existing patient and mark the outcome as 'Existing Patient'. We also remove these from being counted as enquiries. If you are on a performance fee model, you will NOT be billed for these enquiries. 

However, we cannot identify all existing patients from coming through and most likely, you will have discovered a few enquiries are existing patients during the follow-up call. It is imperative you add Notes to the Opportunity Card if the enquiry was an Existing Patient BEFORE you mark the enquiry as Lost. 

It is absolutely normal for existing patients to call in from the ads. If someone is searching for your practice in Google Search, they will most likely come across a Google Ad listed for the practice as a part of the campaigns. It is also important that existing patients are able to easily find your practice via a strong Google Ads campaign. If your existing patient can easily find your ad, then they are less likely to be lost to your competitors and you are much more likely to retain these patients.

As much as we take measures to prevent existing patients from booking in from your campaigns, this is somewhat unavoidable. It is important to remember that the amount is generally very little, so it is negligible.

If you are still concerned about this, it might be better to work together on a fixed monthly retainer as opposed to the per enquiry model (this usually works out to be more expensive). For example: 3 existing patients works out to be $150, vs a monthly retainer.

If you have any further questions regarding this, please do get in touch with us via email: support@dentalmarketingaustralia.com.au or schedule a call here.