How Communication Impacts Appointment Conversion Rates

In today’s world of digital healthcare, it’s crucial for practices to keep track of their communication campaigns and measure their effectiveness. Understanding how different modes of communication impact patient conversion rates can be the key to building strong relationships and maintaining a steady stream of revenue.

Recently, a practice interested in our patient management software asked Brevium to illustrate how different campaigns produce different outcomes. To do this, Brevium’s data scientist analyzed the effectiveness of conversion rates among practices contacting patients who were lost or overdue for care in three categories—those that use automated communication only, those that use live calls only, and those that use a combination of live and automated communication. The data scientist discovered that practices using automated communication only had a conversion rate of 21%, while those using live calls had a conversion rate of 24%. However, practices that used a combination of both live and automated communication saw the highest conversion rate of 26%.

While a 5% difference in conversion rate may not seem significant, it can have a substantial impact on revenue. For example, in a practice with 10,000 lost patients, boosting conversion from 21% to 26% would result in a 23% increase in expected revenue, from $961k to $1.19m. That’s nearly a quarter million dollars difference in revenue. Diving deeper into the numbers, the data scientist revealed that modestly increasing the threshold of live calls for inclusion in the automated/live calling group resulted in a conversion rate of 28%, something that would add about another $100k in revenue.By tracking conversion rates across different communication campaigns, practices can identify which methods are most effective and adjust their strategies accordingly. While, the results presented illustrate that the combination of live and automated communication produces the best results, the main take away is the importance of a system that provides feedback for optimizing whatever sequence of communication is used—something that is crucial for patient retention and practice finances. With data mining, targeting, and tracking capabilities, Brevium’s software offers a superior outcome that practices can leverage to stay competitive. If you are curious about how this might apply to your situation, please contact us about your situation.