How can a physio stop missing calls while treating patients?
Send every missed caller an automatic text with your online booking link, your self-pay prices and what insured patients need to have ready, and say when you’ll call back between sessions. Physios spend most of the day hands-on with patients, so a useful text beats a voicemail that waits until the evening.
By Sammy Morgan, who runs M1 Studio in Chichester. Updated .
Not sure this is your biggest leak? Enquiry Leak Scorecard: 12 questions, about 3 minutes, no email needed.
- Industry
- Physiotherapy clinics
- Problem
- Missed calls
- The fix
- Missed-Call Rescue, £800
- Do it yourself?
- Yes, the first steps below
Why it happens to physiotherapy clinics.
- Hands-on all day
- You can’t stop a treatment session to take a call, and many clinics have no receptionist. Calls stack up until the last patient leaves.
- Callers are in pain
- Someone with a bad back or a fresh injury wants help soon. If nobody answers, they ring the next clinic on Google.
- Insured patients need a different answer
- They need to know you’re recognised by their insurer and what to bring, such as an authorisation number. That’s easy to send by text and slow to explain on the phone.
- Many would book online if they could
- A lot of callers only want a time. If your text links to online booking, some will book before you’ve finished the session.
What to do, in order.
Put the answers on your website
Initial assessment and follow-up prices, the insurers you work with, what insured patients need before booking, and your HCPC details.
Write the text you’d want to receive
For example: “Sorry we missed you, we’re with a patient. Book online here, self-pay prices and insurer details are here, and we’ll call back after 1pm.”
Keep clinical detail out of texts
Don’t ask callers to describe their injury by text or reply with advice. HCPC standards expect you to protect patient confidentiality, and a proper assessment happens in clinic.
Block out call-back times
A short gap in the diary mid-morning and mid-afternoon, stated in the text, so people know when to expect you.
Automate it
Missed-Call Rescue texts every missed caller, keeps each enquiry in one list and sends appointment reminders.
Where M1 can do it for you.
Fixed prices, or a fixed quote before any work starts. No VAT is charged. Any running costs are listed before you agree.
- Missed-Call Rescue £800
Every call you miss mid-session gets a text with your booking link and prices, and each enquiry goes into one list so none are forgotten.
Missed calls get a text back, automatically.
- Online Booking & Deposits £1,800
New self-pay patients can book their first assessment straight from the text, with a deposit if you choose and reminders before they come.
Bookings taken online, with a deposit paid up front.
- Website Chat Assistant £1,800
It answers questions about prices, insurers and opening hours on your website in the evening, then passes people to you on WhatsApp.
Questions answered day and night, then passed to you on WhatsApp.
Want to check the rest of your business first? Take the free Scorecard: 12 questions, about 3 minutes.
Before you decide.
Something else? Ask Sammy on WhatsApp.
Should the text give any advice about the injury?
No. Keep it to booking, prices and when you’ll call back. Advice needs an assessment, and texting it creates records you don’t control. If the caller sounds urgent, your call back is the place to deal with it.
Will it work with my clinic booking system?
Usually. The text simply links to the booking page your system already provides. Sammy checks what your system does before anything is set up.
What does it cost to run?
Missed-Call Rescue is a fixed £800. Text and app fees are paid at cost or directly by you, and listed before you agree. See Missed-Call Rescue, or read what to text when you miss a call.
Keep reading.
Know what to fix. Then decide.
Sammy writes down what’s holding your business back and what to fix first. The Foundation Blueprint is yours within 5 working days of your answers.
From £200No VAT, one payment through Stripe
Not ready yet? Take the free Scorecard, 3 minutes.