How do I respond faster to new LASIK enquiries?
By the Margin Media team · Updated
A LASIK practice responds faster by deciding in advance who replies to each kind of enquiry, by what means, and what happens when that person is busy or the practice is closed. Speed comes from a routine, not from effort. The aim is a call or text to every new enquiry within minutes, including evenings and weekends.
Why does speed matter for a LASIK enquiry?
Speed matters because the patient is comparing. Someone who has decided to look into LASIK tends to contact two or three practices in one sitting. Whoever answers first gets to explain the consultation, hear the worry behind the question and offer a time. The others are calling back someone who has already booked.
How do you build a fast-response routine?
Write the routine down so it does not depend on one person's memory or mood. These six steps are enough for a LASIK practice of any size.
- List every way an enquiry reaches you: phone, voicemail, website form, ad form, email and text.
- Name one person responsible for each channel during office hours, and a backup for when they are with a patient.
- Set a target time for first contact and write it where the front desk can see it.
- Prepare a short first text and a short call opening, so nobody has to compose one under pressure.
- Decide what happens after closing and at weekends, because that is when forms arrive unseen.
- Review a sample of enquiries each week and note how long each waited for a reply.
What gets in the way?
The front desk gets in its own way, through no fault of its own. The same person who should reply in two minutes is checking a patient in, taking a payment and answering the other line. A target nobody has time to hit is not a routine. Either free up someone's time or hand first contact to something that is never busy.
How does Margin speed up first contact for a LASIK practice?
Mia, Margin's AI receptionist, answers every call as it comes in, day or night, so a phone enquiry never waits. A missed caller is texted back within a minute from the practice's own texting number, and leads from ads Margin runs are called or texted within a minute too.
Texting starts once carriers approve the number, in days to a couple of weeks. Clinical questions and anything she should not answer go to your team as a short list of people to call back, with the whole conversation attached.
What Margin sets up for this.
- Mia, the AI receptionist, on every call
- Missed calls texted back within a minute
- Follow-up until they book or say no
- Ads on Facebook and Instagram, in an account you own
What a business needs is decided on its audit. It is a one-time setup fee and a monthly fee, with exact numbers on the audit.
How Margin works for cosmetic and elective medical practicesSee the portal with a sample businessThe Surgery Accelerator, for plastic surgeons
Related questions
Is it better to call or text a new LASIK enquiry first?
Do both if the first is not answered. A LASIK practice should call while the enquiry is fresh, and if nobody picks up, send a short text saying who it is and offering a time. People at work can often answer a text when they cannot take a call.
What should a LASIK practice say in a first reply?
Keep it short: who you are, that you saw their enquiry, and an offer of a consultation time or a quick call. A LASIK practice should leave clinical questions for the consultation and avoid long messages that read like a brochure.
Who should respond to LASIK enquiries after hours?
Someone or something should, because evening is when people fill in forms. A LASIK practice can rota a team member, use an answering service to take messages, or use an AI receptionist that answers and books at any hour.