Chain of UK private hospitals get 88% higher conversion rates on the phone

Background:

A chain of private hospitals hired us to help them convert more callers into consultations.

Problem:

Before training, the call centre converted 26% of the calls they received at their call centre. We conducted mystery calls over a period of two weeks. Scoring the calls on our standardised call quality tool, we found that sales people greeted callers inconsistently, and often didn’t request basic information to register leads.

Sales people didn’t gather useful information from callers, and instead provided them with information about the clinic and its services, unasked. We also noted that sales people failed to ask for the appointment, sometimes when buying signals were presented.

When presented with objections to the appointment, they didn’t handle them appropriately. Often, they would not take the callers details for follow up, to avoid appearing pushy. Given that each caller represents nearly £5000 of business to the company, and all buying decisions happen at consultations, increasing conversion rates on the telephone is very important.

Solution:

Working with management to determine a set of optimal learning outcomes, we prepared a customised training program to address the salespeople’s telephone selling weaknesses. We delivered the program over 2 days. All participants reacted positively after training. All passed their learning outcome exams a week later. We conducted mystery calls following training, which demonstrated that new skills were being applied.

Result:

Conversion rates rose dramatically the week following training and averaged 50% over the 5 months immediately following training. The team continued to perform well after training, with an average conversion rate of 49% over the 10 months. Given that the conversion rate rose from 26% to 49%, that’s in an 88% increase in conversion rates over 10 months.