8 Strategies to Boost Your Leads-to-Appointment Rate

For any service business, getting online leads is only half the battle - you still need to get those leads to show up for their appointment.

It doesn't matter if you're an enrichment centre, a private practice, or any other service business. Getting your enquiries converted into actual appointments, as frequently as possible, makes all the difference in seeing a high return on investment in your performance marketing efforts.

Here are 8 best practice tips to help you maximise those online-to-offline conversions and grow your service business:

1) Respond (Very) Quickly

The old adage about striking while the iron is hot rings true for response rates. According to a Harvard Business Review study, follow-ups made within an hour were 7 times more likely to qualify as a quality lead vs those in the next hour - and 60 times more likely to qualify as a lead to those contacted after 24 hours.

The realities of operating a business mean that not everyone can afford a sales team waiting to engage enquiries within an hour, so if you need to rely on your busy counter staff, make sure that they achieve the next best alternative, which is to aim for contacting your leads within a day at least.

2) Send Confirmations and Reminders

Sending a confirmation that you've received an enquiry lets the prospect know they can expect contact from your business. A common option is to send an email confirmation with their submitted details.

Running messaging campaigns? Consider using automated confirmations to acknowledge that you've got their message, and also to prompt them to be more specific about what they are interested in.

It is also recommended that you send reminders to keep scheduled appointments fresh in the minds of your customers. How frequent should these reminders be? It really depends on the business, but a good rule of thumb is one text reminder after an appointment is made - so your client can lock the date into their calendar - and another about 48 hours before the actual appointment - so they can reschedule their appointment if necessary.

3) Stay Persistent

Don't assume no-shows mean no interest. 56% of no-shows say they miss events due to "overwhelming internal events". They are either too busy or have other priorities, but it does not mean they are no longer interested. Sending reminders helps them plan around their busy day, and offers you a chance to re-engage warm leads.

That said, follow ups should not make customers feel like you're stalking them. The appropriate number of times to send reminders to a client depends on your industry and should be based on tests you have done. However, a common practice you can follow is to follow up 3-5 times before considering the lead to be 'cold'.

Here's a guideline for how to space your follow ups apart:

Immediate follow ups:

• First follow up within 24 hours of receipt
• Second follow up 2-3 days later
• Third follow up 5-7 days after 2nd attempt

Additional follow ups:

• Fourth follow up 7 days after 3rd attempt
• Fifth and final follow up 3-4 weeks after 4th attempt

4) Personalise Your Outreach

Building on the previous point, personalise your outreach by giving people options. This helps keep the lead engaged after the initial ad conversion event and helps keep you on top-of-mind.

To do this, your digital marketing agency or in-house marketer should add qualifying questions to your enquiry forms that give prospects options. For example, include a choice on how they prefer to be contacted and when in the day is best for scheduling a follow up.

Another way to improve appointment show up rates is to make sure the message addresses their concerns. This is possible if you have more information about each lead, such as demographic details you have collected. Using such data, you can personalise the notes you send them, making customers feel seen and heard.

5) Use the Right Language

It's worth specifying to your business's frontline staff what kind of language they should use. For example, frontline dental clinic staff should be able to highlight the experience and unique expertise of the dentist, and the potential treatments available. Your staff should speak to the clients’ needs and outline steps they can take, as 88% of consumers favour brands that provide helpful information along their customer journey.

Staff should be encouraged to genuinely believe in the services offered by your business and to communicate this belief to the lead. This kind of infectious belief will help generate enthusiasm for your offer.

6) Remember Your ABCs (Always Be Closing)

When contacting a lead to schedule an appointment, remember that it is part of the sales funnel. For frontline staff, closing deals means setting appointments. Are they expected to consult the patient on the phone? No, but they should always be closing the lead, getting them to commit to an appointment.

On that note, you may be wondering: How do you deal with the common question on price? We recommend that you make the value of your service known to the lead before revealing the price. If you have a trial - be ready to explain what the usual price of the offer is, and how much they stand to save.

And always follow this golden rule: encourage the prospect to make an appointment so that you can recommend what is best for them.

7) Sweeten the Commitment

Consider sweetening the appointment. For example, offer a lead an incentive for committing to (and showing up for) an appointment within the next week.

It does not need to be a monetary incentive. Any incentive can work as long as it's valuable to the prospect. For instance, private clinics in Singapore can offer to share before and after examples of treatments during the appointment, as a way to reduce the barrier toward making the appointment.

8) Use Multiple Touchpoints

Use a variety of  methods to reach out to your leads. Do not just rely on a single type of contact. For instance, if you've been messaging them on WhatsApp, consider dropping a phone call if they've stopped responding. If you only have their email address, then this is considerably harder to do, but you can offer to follow up via text or phone call (offer your prospects a choice), which gives them a reason to share their contact details with you.

What is considered a quality lead?

It's unrealistic to expect all of your online leads to convert into appointments, but there are some helpful indicators of quality that you can look out for to determine if the lead is qualified or not.

Marketing qualified leads should:

• Show a genuine interest in the advertised product or service
• Show evidence of having the right budget for pay for the product or service

If the leads demonstrate these characteristics, they are the right type of prospects or audiences that should be responding to your ad. They may not all be ready to make a purchase, but you can always nurture them toward a sale later on.

via GIPHY

Unqualified leads are:

• Leads from outside your target area
• Asking about the wrong service
• Those with fake or incorrect contact details

These low quality leads should be compiled and be used for exclusion in future campaigns.

Increase Appointment Rates With Better Campaigns

If your business experiences low show up rates, try the strategies we’ve outlined here to help with turning your leads into appointments. That said, if lead volumes and quality are an issue, consider talking to our expert consultants to see how we can help.