Healthcare Marketing for Clinic Owners

Lost Patient Reactivation Script For Front Desk Phone Training

Written by Rick Lau | Jun 9, 2021 12:00:00 PM

Steal These Two Proven Lost Patient Reactivation Scripts To Win Back Patients You Can't Afford to Lose Tomorrow!

Fact: the average outpatient Physical Therapy practice loses about $250,000 of revenue per year as a result of patients not completing their plan of care according to WebPT.

Similar for Chiropractors too.

When was the last time you spent any time thinking about fall offs? If you're like most clinic owners, not very often.

In the beginning, I was the same. I would spend all my time focusing on bringing in new patients. At one point, I was spending over $65,000 a month on Facebook and Google ads. 

It wasn’t until I could barely make payroll that I realized what a costly mistake that was by not spending a little time calling back those fall offs with a simple reactivation script I’m about to share with you.

In fact, when I ran three 10 million dollar Chiropractor and Physiotherapy clinics, reactivation scripts were responsible for 15-25% of the revenue for each clinic... that would have otherwise been lost.

If you're looking to get your front desk to sell WITHOUT being salesy, watch this:

So recently in the Clinic Accelerator Community (where we help clinic owners 2x and 3x their revenue) we talked about how to reactivate lost patients. 

And the community of over 400 clinic owners shared a lot of great phone scripts for clinics that they’re using to win back fall offs inside of our private slack channel. So other clinic owners could swipe and deploy in their area.

And here’s a phone script Elizabeth shared that wins back 10-25% of her patients.

"[Practitioner] wanted me to call just to see how you're doing. How is your home care program going?.... Are you having any difficulty gardening/playing with grandkids/whatever goal they mention that the condition was keeping them from."

If they answer anything other than no problem at all. Then if the therapist is calling, they will ask what happens when you try the self-management strategies I gave you.

If the patient says...

"I haven't been doing them". The Therapist will say, "Why don't you give it a try and I'll call you back next week to see how it is?"

If Elizabeth has her Front Desk calling the script will go like this...

"Would you like [Practitioner] to give you a call to see if there's anything that might help or would you like to book in with him for a review?

Using this phone script they get anywhere from 10-25% of patients reactivating

That’s huge when you think about it. 

Say she is averaging a 20% reactivation rate. So 20 out of 100 patients and they stay the rest of their treatment plan (2,3,4 or as needed). That’s a lot of revenue they would be leaving on the table. Enough to pay for two admin’s salaries. Not to mention the extra referrals and 5 star Google reviews from the ones who graduated.

Never Miss a Call, Even on Sick Days or Staff Turnover.

CallHero’s Virtual Receptionist are fully trained to convert callers directly into your software

  • Custom Trained For Your Clinic
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Also, It doesn't need to take much time either and the return can grow your revenue exponentially.

Then another clinic owner Cass asked a great question after seeing the reactivation script above.

"If you have your front desk calling fall-offs, should they check in with the practitioner about the status of their treatment plan before calling?

And one of our Clinic Accelerator coaches responded...

The short answer is - yes. You should always do this for fall offs or reactivation calls

However, I prefer to have the therapist call their own fall offs. The reason is, the conversion rate will be much higher than if you had your front desk call.

To have your front desk calling, it may be time consuming to have them meet with the therapist for each fall off. I would have them check the EMR to read up on the patient before calling to save time.

Recently inside of Clinic Accelerator, Elizabeth also shared a win-back script she used to win back 20% of callers that did not book.

You see, her admin was off for a week and was asking her if she should call back the DNBs (did not book) from last week... even though they were booked for 3 weeks. So Elizabeth said, of course, not expecting to get anyone booking. 

Even a week later she was able to book 2 out of 10 with this script!

Here it is...

"This is C from [INSERT YOUR CLINIC]. You called us last week looking for an appointment but we didn't have availability. Were you able to get in somewhere else?" 

20% of calls naturally led to an appointment without being salesy.

Even the people that didn't book were thankful that they took the time follow-up elevating them above other clinics in the community.

Then Cass sent over a "front desk" script and we edited the script to make it even better based on what we see working right now for other clinic owners. Here it is...

"Hi [first name], this is [front desk person]. [Practitioner] your therapist asked me to contact you. He/She wants to know... from 1 to 10 (10 is emergency room) how much pain are you experiencing in your shoulder? What kind of pain is it - sharp, burning, achy, numbness? What activities cause the pain?

Ok - good thing [practitioner] told me to call you. Do we agree we don't want your pain to go up? (Yes, No).

Let's book you in with [practitioner] for a follow up this week. How about your previous time - Tuesday at 6 pm?"And If the old time doesn't work for them, offer them two. For example, Or, would Tuesday at 5 pm or Friday at 6 pm work best for you?"

And if those two options don't work either, offer them a virtual or 15 minute consult.

There you have it, two lost patient reactivation scripts you can deploy to win back lost patients instantly. These scripts should be a part of any front desk phone training or how I like to call it, patient care coordinators phone training.

Check out this quick video on "Why you should be spending at least 5 minutes talking to a new patient on the phone". Or just continue reading...

So be sure to make the above scripts a part of your next receptionist phone training and see the results for yourself.

Plus, to make sure they are utilizing the scripts, it's a good idea to use call recording for Physical Therapists or call recording for Chiropractors.

Beat Your Competitors With Every Call

Discover your front desk’s strengths and areas for improvement with our Mystery Caller Audit

  • Convert more calls into booked appointments.
  • Improve your team’s phone etiquette and skills.
  • Boost overall patient satisfaction and trust.

Now this lost patient reactivation script is just one of 7 ways to get more patients without spending more $$$ on marketing. You see we analyzed over 2,000,000 phone calls from over 1800 clinics that use our CallHero software... across the U.S and Canada. We know why a patient didn’t book and why they did. Across a wide range of clinics like Dentist, Chiropractor, Physio, and Doctor clinics. 

Get your hands on the FREE "7 Secrets of a High-Revenue Front Desk" checklist to uncover strategies such as a 3-sentence follow-up script for missed bookings, turning around low-performing receptionists, and a simple motivation trick for boosting revenue and patient count. Click here to get the checklist.
 

FAQ 

1. Can I have my admin make reactivation calls instead of a therapist at my clinic?

The clinician should make the call. The reason is they should feel a sense of accountability if their patient doesn't complete their plan of care or get their desired outcomes.

Plus the conversion rate will be much higher having your clinician make the call than having the admin do it.

2. How many hours does this take a week?

According to coaches , "2 hours a week is a good investment for the return. Here's why. Patients who stop coming, then you reactivate them, will stay for the rest of their treatment plan (2,3,4, or more treatments as needed).

The revenue gains can be substantial but so can the losses. How much is that worth to your clinic?

3. Are the front desk staff allowed to know the confidential information regarding a patients treatment or area of concern?

Yes! They are allowed because they are past patients and have their consent to the patient files... so they can check in about their back pain or find out if they’re playing tennis again.

Who is Rick Lau and CallHero?

Rick has built three 10 million dollar healthcare businesses over the past 15 years including a network of 127 clinics with over 1400 employees. He is one of the most sought-after mentors for clinic owners in Canada and USA where he helps owners double, triple, and even quadruple their profits by optimizing their clinic operations using his proven systems and leadership strategies. Plus, he has spent over millions in google and facebook ads during his career.

You can follow him on Instagram