Medicine has been, is, and will continue to be the most in-demand industry. The market entry price is small, and the payback is high because people always take care of their health.
Source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Competition in this niche is serious: there are free medical facilities, private centers, and multidisciplinary clinics. In this connection, companies providing services in the medical sphere must find an answer to the question: How to acquire new clients?
To tell about themselves to new clients and offer special conditions of service to existing clients, private clinics often launch advertising campaigns. But how do you understand what kind of advertising is effective and does not bring results?
Here is where call tracking comes into action — a technology that helps medical service providers obtain valuable information about their marketing efforts and attract more clients. It also ensures compliance with the requirements of preserving and maintaining an adequate level of confidentiality and security of medical information.
Equipped with a detailed guide to call tracking, you will learn about this technology and how it can benefit your medical center’s operations.
What Is Call Tracking & Why Do Healthcare Companies Need It?
Healthcare services are a sensitive topic. Healthcare clients expect a particularly attentive approach to their situation. They often need a detailed consultation, the opportunity to discuss the problem, and receive a prompt and competent response.
It can be impossible or extremely difficult to choose a convenient time for a visit and make an appointment for that particular time online via the clinic’s website.
In most cases, such a function is not implemented on the website (or it is inconvenient for the client), making it easier for a person to call the clinic. When on the phone, they can easily choose the best time to come for an appointment.
Source: NEON
A call tracking system is a technology that allows businesses of all stripes to identify call sources and assess the effectiveness of various external communication channels.
What is Call Tracking?
Tracking incoming calls is a valuable and highly sought-after tool for medical institutions and other companies that operate call centers or sales departments.
- According to a report by DataIntelo, the global market volume for call tracking software will grow from $4.6 billion in 2020 to $7.5 billion by 2028, with an average annual growth rate of 8.2% during the projected period.
Phone call tracking provides the following information:
- The advertising campaigns that attracted the caller
- The sources from which interested customers are coming and which ads do not lead to calls.
- At what conversation stage customers changed their decisions
- The quality of operators’ work with customers, including correct script usage during calls, identifying call gaps, etc.
Without analytic call tracking, determining how a client found a particular phone number is difficult or even impossible. Perhaps they were interested in an advertisement on social media, then visited the website and saw the number there.
This technology allows tracking the referral source, the complete customer journey, or even the triggering search query. It applies to online advertisements and campaigns driving traffic to the website through print ads, television, radio, and more.
Analyzing statistics using healthcare call tracking allows you to identify which promotion channels attract interested clients and where budget cuts can be made. In other words, it enables linking each incoming call to a specific marketing campaign.
How Does Call Tracking Work?
The technology is based on a dedicated pool of phone numbers, which can be used to identify site visitors and record all the necessary call parameters.
For example: from where the user came to the site, the date and time of the call, the duration of the phone conversation, gender, age, and other characteristics.
You can listen to the call recording and record the reason and result of the phone call. Analyzing the data allows you to make the right marketing and management decisions.
Technically, the following happens: a code is placed on the clinic’s website, which substitutes the phone number on the website for each specific user.
When a potential client of the clinic calls the spoofed number, the call is forwarded to your regular phone, and the call parameters and the phone conversation itself are recorded. All statistics and call records are available in your personal cabinet.
Modern client call tracking systems ensure high accuracy of the collected data. They also offer additional tools, from monitoring call quality and callback buttons to process automation (ad management, speech recognition, etc.).
Types of Call Tracking
There are two types of call tracking systems:
Type #1. Static
Different call-tracking phone numbers are assigned to each advertising channel. When a user calls the number specified in the ad, the system records information about where the lead came from.
Static call tracking is useful for tracking the effectiveness of both online and offline channels but has a limitation: it only counts the number of calls from individual traffic sources. This type is optimal for offline promotion when detailed information about the source of attraction is not required.
Type #2. Dynamic
Each website visitor sees a unique phone number automatically replaced by the call tracking service. The system records the referral source, the key search query, and user actions on the website.
Unlike static tracking, dynamic tracking associates the call with the website session, not just the traffic channel, providing more comprehensive information. This type is particularly useful for tracking the effectiveness of contextual advertising.
The choice between static and dynamic call tracking depends on your private clinic’s specific needs and goals. Each has its advantages and can be beneficial in attracting your target audience.
Metrics Provided by Call Tracking Systems
A good service should gather all the necessary call tracking metrics for analysis. Here are key indicators that can help you find ways to improve client satisfaction in hospitals:
- Number of calls within any given time
- Advertising channels from which the calls originate
- Waiting time for operator response and duration of the call
- Date and time of calls from interested clients
- Conversion rate
- Number of calls from each specific customer
These metrics enable call quality monitoring and help create effective promotion strategies.
Why Use Call Tracking: Reasons for Healthcare Companies
Now that you know all about incoming call tracking – what it is and how it works, it’s time to understand its benefits to your clinic.
Optimizing Your Advertising Budget
Healthcare call tracking helps make informed decisions about which marketing channels are worth investing in and which to reduce spending.
By tracking incoming calls, you can identify campaigns that attract more calls. What does this achieve? It prevents unnecessary advertising expenses that don’t lead to increased sales and profitability. It also allows you to focus on channels that deliver quality conversions.
Tracking Offline Campaigns
With call tracking, you’ll know the effectiveness of online promotions and offline campaigns. You must assign a unique contact number to analyze advertising results for each campaign. This helps determine the exact source of promotion.
When calls start coming in from a specific number, you’ll know where the caller learned about your clinic. This makes it easy to track which campaigns work best and where to reallocate your marketing budget.
Personalized Approach to clients
Call tracking and recording provide a precise understanding of how clients interact with your clinic. It helps you understand the intentions of each caller.
The collected data and recorded calls allow you to analyze what users say during their calls. This enables you to gain new insights into the needs of your target audience and devise ways to meet them.
Managing Staff Effectiveness
Call tracking helps determine why healthcare call center employees struggle to convert potential clients into actual ones. Call recording provides insight into conversations between customers and operators. The gathered data lets you accurately picture which employees perform well and who might need additional training.
This provides an opportunity to improve eClinical customer service and develop effective scripts that help acquire clients.
Accurate ROI Data
With call tracking reports, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Having a clear understanding of what works well allows you to focus on optimizing successful campaigns to increase conversions and improve ROI.
- On average, companies achieve an 81% ROI from deploying call-tracking technology.
Reducing Missed Calls
Naturally, when clients call your clinic, they want their questions answered quickly. Long waits with music on hold or calls being dropped due to busy phone lines are unlikely to encourage them to use your services.
How to improve client experience? All you need to do is set up real-time notifications for missed calls via voicemail or email. They inform you about each “missed” call so operators can promptly call back the client.
How To Choose a Call-Tracking Service for Healthcare Companies
Choosing the right solution is essential to ensure that call tracking for healthcare organizations yields the best results. Let’s explore six crucial parameters when selecting a call-tracking service.
1.Call Quality
This directly affects the effectiveness of business call tracking. When choosing a service, inquire about the specific numbers you’ll receive. Companies providing the service may offer numbers from third-party providers or hold their own communication operator license. Call quality depends on the communication operator, affecting call clarity, potential conversation disruptions, and the number of calls reaching your company.
2. Number Capacity
This refers to the number of phone numbers available from the communication operator or the call tracking service provider. This parameter is particularly crucial if you promote your business in multiple regions and/or use various advertising channels.
Considering its potential growth, ensure the service has enough numbers to handle your entire traffic. You can assess maximum traffic in Google Analytics and request forecasts from advertising specialists. Also, check if the service offers phone numbers for the regions you need. With these numbers, website visitors can make toll-free calls, increasing conversion rates for inquiries.
3. Flexible Pricing Plans
A good call tracking service offers flexible pricing plans. Each plan should include a set of basic features to meet the general requirements of different companies. It’s excellent if the plan is customizable based on the size of your business and its needs.
For example, if you don’t need dynamic call tracking, the provider can offer a solution that includes only static tracking. There’s no point in overpaying for unnecessary features included in default plans.
4. Call Recording Capability
This feature lets you record all client and call center staff communications. The collected data can be used to assess service quality and call scripts. It provides valuable insights to improve call handling processes and better understand customer needs.
5. Integration With CRM
This eliminates the need to correlate the database’s calls and client contact information manually. Integration also enables tracking the path of potential clients as they interact at various touchpoints.
It helps identify the final step that led to conversion. Detailed reporting shows which actions or channels are most effective in attracting leads.
6. Analytics for Any Time Period
Having analytics for any period allows you to monitor real-time changes in data and analyze past statistics simultaneously. This enables making well-founded decisions and helps find crucial customer information to consider when forming advertising strategies.
Make sure that the call tracking platform you choose includes reports on user acquisition and behavior.
Recommendations for Using Call Tracking
You should consider several aspects to avoid unnecessary expenses and improve analytics quality when using the service.
Let’s look at some of the main tips:
- Monitor the number of incoming calls. To increase client engagement, regularly track healthcare calls and the volume of phone inquiries. Based on call tracking data from previous years, you can forecast activity in the future and take necessary actions.
- Accept calls on SIP numbers. You can establish instant direct connections between clients and call center operators, enhancing communication and saving package minutes.
- Combine call tracking with Google Analytics. This approach provides a more accurate evaluation of online advertising effectiveness and helps understand which campaigns generated leads and which didn’t yield results.
- Hide unnecessary call tracking numbers. Using multiple substitution phone numbers can be costly. It’s more practical to display only one substitution number to visitors.
- Use a combination of call tracking types. Most medical companies employ online and offline advertising. Therefore, using dynamic call tracking in conjunction with static tracking is advantageous.
- Define the objectives of call tracking. It’s not necessary to track all traffic. You can configure the system to track only specific platforms, thus saving the advertising budget.
By following these recommendations, you can effectively use call tracking and enhance your clinic’s performance.
Wrapping Up
Call tracking for healthcare providers is critical during advertising campaigns. After all, in such institutions, communication with clients takes place mainly by phone.
This system allows you to track effective advertisements, conversion rates, advertising platforms, or even individual user search queries. Moreover, you will have the ability to analyze:
- The volume of incoming calls
- Referral sources to your website or resource
- The client’s journey from the call to appointment booking
- The effectiveness of phone communication between call center operators and customers
Medical marketing phone call tracking is a must-have. By gathering and analyzing data, you stay in control and can interact effectively with your audience, as well as improve the efficiency of your staff.
Connect the call tracking system and gain all the advantages for your clinic!
