EYECARE BY THE NUMBERS

The Economics of Conversion

How analyzing inquiry patterns can help turn phone calls into exams

a number of years ago, a client lamented to me about the fact that his office received many calls from telephone shoppers. He voiced disappointment that he was in a highly competitive market and such “shopping calls” consumed too much of his receptionist’s time. When asked how many of these inquires were converted to appointments, he had no information.

My response? “Eureka! What an opportunity!”

KEEPING TRACK

Let’s look at the power of conversion measurement, and how it can be done easily in any office.

Conversion in this context is “the act of turning an inquiry into a sale.” For an eyecare practitioner, conversion measurement starts with the simple act of tracking phone or email inquiries.

No sophisticated software is needed here. In my experience, nothing much beats pen and paper by the phone to handle this level of tracking. A simple “chit sheet” for each week captures the necessary raw data. The receptionist, or whomever takes incoming calls, simply marks down the result of each inquiry—whether an appointment resulted, or not. (see Table A, below)

Table A

INQUIRY TRACKING FORM WEEK OF 7/14/14
	NON-PATIENT INQUIRIES	EXAMS SCHEDULED
Mon	////	//
Tue	///	/
Wed		////
Thu		///
Fri	//	/
Sat	/
TOTAL	21	11

Once you are armed with at least a quarter’s worth of raw data, you can use ratio analysis to develop information that will help guide your decision-making. You can now determine your conversion rate—how successful you are at turning inquiries into exams—for each day of the week. (see Table B, below)

ARMED AND READY

Once we’ve completed a conversion analysis, we now know that during this particular quarter, we converted 50% of our inquiries into exams. That seems OK on the surface. But armed with some additional information, we can demonstrate the power of performance measurement.

We can add some known values to the information, and apply the revenue earned by converting those inquiries into exams. Conversely, we can also chart the potential revenue that was lost by not converting those inquiries. (see Table C, below)

The analysis in Table C now provides information of significant value. First, observe the conversion rate outliers. On Mondays, we’ve only managed a conversion rate of 34%, while on Wednesday that same ratio is 84%.

Why?

Perhaps it’s because we have the same amount of reception time devoted on Mondays as we do on Wednesdays. The difference, however, is that on Mondays the call volume is significantly higher than other days and on Wednesdays there’s no doctor scheduled. As a result, our receptionist is tearing her hair out on Monday but on Wednesday can devote more time to the inquiries and not feel rushed. The result? Your conversion rate is higher.

The Achilles’ heel of sales is time. If we don’t have time to sell, we simply won’t.

LOST OPPORTUNITIES

Also, take a look at the lost revenue opportunity in Table C. In this case, we’re leaving over $250,000 “on the table.” What might happen if we beefed up our reception staff? What would result from providing specific sales training to our reception team? What would happen if we implemented a three-month contest for our reception staff focused on improving their conversion rate? What actions might we take if we understood the conversion rate history of specific reception staff?

That which gets measured improves. Conversion and the resulting lost opportunity is rarely measured in ECP practices, but this set of ratios is certainly as important as many others.

What’s your conversion opportunity?

— Alan Cleinman

Alan Cleinman is founder and CEO of Cleinman Performance Partners, a business consultancy specializing in the development of high-performance optometry practices. The information in this column is derived from the database of Cleinman Performance Network, the members of which are generally large optometry practices, and is not intended to represent national averages. ©Cleinman Performance Partners, Inc.