Call Tracking: Boost Your Dental Practice with 5 Proven Methods

Most clients will call in to inquire about treatment or book an appointment, even if you have an appointment form on your website.

Call tracking is a great way to understand your marketing strategy and optimize it for your advertisement platforms. It provides you with data that you can analyze to make the best decisions for your clinic. Especially if your clinic uses multi-platform advertising strategies to reach a broader audience.

When you use multiple platforms to advertise your practice, such as referrals, billboards, TV ad spots, social media‌, you don't know where your leads are coming from and which platform is generating the most leads. When you don’t have the numbers from your platforms to analyze, you cannot make informed decisions. Because of the lack of information, you don't know if your marketing strategies are paying off and which platforms are performing well.

There are several call tracking systems ‌you can use. However, there are certain limitations to a few of them.

1. Manual Call Tracking Systems

You might get leads because of referral systems, social media posts, website searches, or billboard ads. You won't know where your patients are coming in from unless you ask them on inbound calls.

Most clinics have a script for taking inbound calls so they do not miss any crucial information.

Adding “Which platform prompted you to call in?” is easy enough.

This type of system has only one phone number the clinic uses.

The problem with a manual type of call tracking is that it is incredibly inaccurate and will not provide any effective insight into the success of your marketing strategies.

When you ask which platform bought the patient in, there is a high probability that they won't remember or provide the wrong platform information. Either way, your data from the system is flawed, and it will in no way help you make an informed decision.

In such cases, it becomes time-consuming to ask, “Which platform prompted you to call in?” for all patients, since the data may not be correct. And analyzing the data collected will lead nowhere and will only waste the time and resources of the clinic that you can assign to other operations.

2. Static Call Tracking Systems

It allows you to assign a unique phone number to each marketing platform you use, meaning that the phone numbers featured on your billboards, website, brochures will be different.

This is a simple system that can be effective. The problem arises when you want to compare the lead-generating power of each platform.

You can compile all the data and filter it according to your needs. It is incredibly time-consuming and can take up a lot of resources.

3. Call-Back Function

This is a web-based system, wherein the user provides their contact information (like their phone number) on a company website and the system automatically sets up a call with the company and user.

The cookies on the website save the information as an event. There is information about the website used in the event.

This type of system is limited to the internet and web applications.

4. Dynamic Call Tracking Systems

This is very similar to web-based analytics software, with an additional feature.

This type of system uses a dynamic element when presenting phone numbers to consumers. It controls what phone numbers are shown to the user on websites.

This is popularly also referred to as Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI).

There are two types:

• Channel-based
• Unique session base

In a channel-based dynamic call tracking system, they assign each marketing channel a different phone number. This provides insight into source-generated data, specific to the platform.

The unique session call type tracking system provides the data for each session. It assigns each marketing platform a unique phone number for a specific duration. After the duration lapses, the software swaps the numbers on the platforms, and another session begins, and so on.

If a call is made at a specific time, we can link the phone number to a specific channel during that period. This can accurately link a phone number to a channel and we can integrate such data sets with CRM systems or Google Analytics for further processing of metrics.

5. GrowthPlug

From SEO to optimizing your digital presence to streamlining your front desk operation, GrowthPlug does it all.

It helps you manage your bookings and tracks inbound calls. It also helps you rank higher for related keywords and provides relevant social media content to boost your following.

GrowthPlug makes all the data generated by your clinic available to you. You can easily analyze key metrics and optimize for your business goals.

GrowthPlug will enhance your patient experience by automating and optimizing all of your processes for ease of use. It analyzes current trends and creates a custom marketing strategy for your clinic as well as increases office efficiency, increasing your customer base and subsequently the revenue your clinic generates.

GrowthPlug recently launched an AI-driven call intelligence capability with the help of which dental and other health practices can analyze the effectiveness of their staff members on the phone, and enhance the patient experience. This also leads to converting more new patient calls into completed procedures.