Healthcare telephone team training generates a massive 42 to 1 ROI (Case study)

We believe it’s very important to evaluate the training we deliver so that we can (a) monitor behavioural adherence to the processes we teach and (b) correlate our efforts with business results. When we evaluate training, we often discover insights that we can use to improve our training programs, increasing the chances of getting better and better results for our clients and their sales teams.

We’re delighted with the recent results of a year-long program with a major private hospital chain in the UK. In this post we’ll share the insights derived from this intensive and progressive project to improve our client’s conversion rates on the telephone.

Background:

This case is an excellent example of what a company’s call centre can accomplish over one year of intensive and progressive sales training.

Problem:

This was our second long-term project with the company over the last 3 years. During the first project we increased conversion rates by 113%, which everyone agreed was a tremendous success. A year passed and at the beginning of the second cycle of training, the company reported a telephone conversion rate of 71.3% (contact centre operators were converting 71.3% of its leads – from web sources and over the phone – into consultations). After analysing a sample of recorded calls, we found that contact centre operators, while doing well, were still only performing just over 45% (3-month average) of the LiveseySolar Sales Process. We felt there was room to increase the team performance further.

Solution:

The client’s aim was increasing process adherence whilst increasing the conversion rate performance. We recommended four training cycles over a 12 month period. The training cycles focused on:

  1. Handling Enquiries Core training – Fundamentals
  2. Handling Objections
  3. Handling Objections
  4. Handling Individual Differences between Callers.

Results:

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Over the year, conversion rates rose from 71.3% to 83.7%

This was an impressive increase with a percent change of 17.4%, over one year. The company measured conversion rates by calculating the percentage of consultations arising from telephone conversations over the year. It should be noted, that as conversion rates rise closer to 100, it gets harder and harder to get increases, so this is a terrific achievement.

Adherence to the LiveseySolar Sales Process rose from 45% to 93.7%

A team’s adherence to their trained sales process is one of the best predictors of what their sales success will be. This team saw a huge positive increase in sales process adherence (an increase of 108.2% over one year). We monitored adherence weekly and held calls with the contact centre manager and telephone operators on a weekly basis to improve their adherence to the process over the year.

In this study, the company’s conversion rate correlated with their adherence to the LiveseySolar Sales Process at a rate of 0.4 (a positive correlation).

Return on Investment (ROI) for the team training was 4153.2%

Based on lead to consultation volume and conversion rates (before and after), we estimate that the return on investment on training was 4153.2%. In other words, the client got £42.5 in value for every £1 spent on training over the year.

One could argue that correlation does not necessarily imply causation. It should be noted, however, that over the same period other key metrics for the business declined. Gross lead volume declined, forcing the contact centre team to achieve more with less. Second, the average product price increased, requiring the contact centre to sell an appointment for a service that carried a higher price point. If it hadn’t been for the conversion rate increases, the business would have certainly lost sales.

Insights from this case study used to update our training program

With every long term training client comes a great number of insights and incremental improvements to our training programs. We have already implemented some of our most recent insights successfully with a hospital training client in Estonia, and a new hospital client in Denmark will also benefit from these insights starting this month.

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What our clients say…

“In a matter of weeks, we already saw results with LiveseySolar. Far before we were even finished with our project.”

Erik Chotiner, MD, FACS, Ophthalmologist

“The whole group has been very, very professional. We’re quite early in the stages, but we can see the benefits.”

Dr Nick Mantell , MBChB FRANZCO

“They’re very professional. They know what they’re doing, but they also put us at ease. This helped us to cut through what’s needed to get what we want.”

Mr Praveen Patel, MA (Cantab), MB BChir (Cantab), FRCOphth, MD (Res)

“It’s wonderful to work with an agency that engages on our level and understands our market.”

Dr Anton Van Heerden, MBChB; FRANZCO, Ophthalmologist

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Meet our Co-Founders

We’re passionate about helping leaders of high-quality, growth-minded practice owners double their practice revenue

Rod Solar

Founder & Scalable Business Advisor

For over 20 years, I’ve helped ophthalmology entrepreneurs scale their private practices. I specialise in doubling revenue within three years by offering a proven framework, hands-on experience, and a team of experts who implement what works. We take the guesswork out of growth and scale, so you can focus on delivering exceptional patient care while maximising the value of your business.

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LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.

— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO

Laura Livesey

Founder & CEO

I’m the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. I’ve developed powerful eye surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.

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Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.

— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK