Try these five little changes to help you restructure your strategy to transform medical tourism patient enquiries to conversions
Around the world, I consult to medical tourism providers in every stage of business development. Frequently, they tell me that their most frustrating pain point is the frustration and uncertainty about how to desgin a winning medical tourism patient sales cycle to win more business.
Tip #1: Chose telephone over email.
Phone responses to medical tourism patient enquiries are far more successful than an email reply. About 5x more likely to convert to a closed sale. Even though you email a prospective medical tourism patient who has enquired about your offer, they expect you to call them. Don’t be shy. Don’t waste time. Call them right away. A phone call moves the user from the Awareness or Consideration stages through to Purchase. Email does nothing! So if you have their number, use the phone and win the patient. If you don’t, someone else will!
Tip #2: Call quickly.
This is the single fastest, easiest way to win a medical tourism patient. Patients often make an enquiry and if they don’t speak to someone straight away will go back and make another, and then another with your competitors. The clinic who is fastest to the phone almost always wins the patient. If calls come in on the weekend and overnight, have somone on duty at all times. If necessary, hire a service to help you. It is always midnight somewhere! Clinics with an average response time of less than four hours are in the top tier for customer service, repeat bookings and popularity. Don’t make them wait until Monday or in the morning!
Tip #3: Call every enquiry.
Don’t assume you can tell if an enquiry is bogus or a competitor. Unless the enquiry is really a competitor or a spammer, each medical tourism patient enquiry has just as much potential, no matter what the content. Someone asking for a price is really just looking to start a conversation. If you want to win more patients don’t ignore enquiries you think might not be promising. Call every enquiry as soon as you possibly can. If you don’t respond, you could get a bad rating on social media networks simply for not responding. Don’t risk your brand!
Tip #4: Speak to the patient.
Sounds obvious right? Many clinics feel that leaving a voice mail message is sufficient. If you want to win the patient, then leaving a message is like sending an email. The person who receives it will do nothing. It’s up to you to follow up and speak to the patient. This means working harder, calling more often to find and speak to the person who wants treatment.
Tip #5: Keep calling.
Medical tourism marketing is a numbers game. The more medical tourism patients you are able to speak to, the more you will convert. Call everyone and keep calling, until you get to speak to the patient.
Use these five foolproof tips from the top for winning more patients. Tell us what you did and how it worked by posting your comments below.
