The formula runs on four numbers you already have
Missed-call cost per month = calls missed, times the share who were new patients, times the share of those who book elsewhere when nobody answers, times a new patient's first-year value. Every one of those four numbers exists in your practice already; none of them should be guessed.
Where each number comes from
- Calls missed per month: your phone system's call log, or your carrier's. Count rings with no answer, calls that went to voicemail, and calls hung up in a queue.
- Share that were new patients: listen to a week of voicemails and look at a week of answered calls. New patients ask about prices, availability and whether you do a treatment; existing patients ask about their appointment.
- Share who book elsewhere: until you have measured it, assume most of them. A new patient calling about neurotoxin at lunch has three other practices on the same map. Measure it by calling back every voicemail within the hour for two weeks and counting who already booked elsewhere.
- Value of a new patient: your own average first-visit ticket, plus the average number of visits in the first year from your record system. Label it approximate until the record system confirms it.
A worked example, labeled illustrative
Say the log shows 60 missed calls a month, a week of listening says half were new patients, and you assume two thirds of those booked elsewhere. Say your records put a first-year patient at a figure you have checked. In this illustrative example that is 60 times 0.5 times 0.67, about 20 lost new patients a month, times your own first-year value. Replace every input with your own before you act on it.
When the calls go unanswered, and what the caller does
| When | Why nobody answers | What the new patient does |
|---|---|---|
| During treatments | The one person at the desk is also the person in the consult room | Hears voicemail and calls the next practice on the map |
| At lunch | The desk is empty and the line rings through | Sends a DM instead, or nothing |
| In the evening | The patient has finally sat down to deal with it and the practice is closed | Books with whoever answers, or whoever texts back first |
| A provider's day off | The desk is covering two jobs | Waits in a queue, then hangs up |
The fixes, ranked by what they return
- Answer every call in seconds, every hour, with an agent that knows your menu, your providers and your calendar and books into it. This removes the problem rather than shrinking it.
- Text back every missed call within a minute with a booking link. Cheaper, catches a share of the callers, loses the ones who wanted to talk.
- Call back every voicemail within the hour. Works only when someone is free to do it, which is the reason the call was missed.
- Add a second line or a receptionist. Solves business hours, does nothing at 9 pm.
How to measure yours in a week
- Monday: pull the call log for the last 30 days and count the misses by hour of day.
- Tuesday to Friday: listen to one week of voicemails with Priya at the desk and tag each as new or existing patient.
- Any day: call your own practice three times, during a treatment, at lunch and after hours, and write down what a new patient hears.
- Friday: put the four numbers into the formula. That figure is your monthly cost, and the page you show your partner.
What to do next
NorthCore's Answer every patient solution builds the fix for this leak: an agent on your number, calendar and menu that books, hands anything medical to a person and logs every call. Scoped in writing and covered by the promise on this site: results in 90 days, or we keep working until you have them.
