Enquiry
Any contact a prospective patient starts with the clinic: a call, a message on social media or a messenger app, a website form, a walk-in. It is the first stage of the funnel and the base for calculating conversion.
≈ enquiries · patient enquiry · patient enquiries · inbound enquiry · incoming enquiry
What counts as an enquiry
An enquiry is the moment a person contacts the clinic on their own initiative. The channel does not matter: phone, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, a website form or a walk-in at reception. A missed call is an enquiry too: someone wanted to talk, and the clinic did not answer.
Enquiries and leads are often confused. A lead is usually any contact the clinic receives, such as a phone number from an ad form. An enquiry means the person has already written or called and is waiting for a reply. Agree inside the clinic on what exactly you count, or marketing and front-desk figures will never match.
How to log enquiries at the front desk
Every enquiry should land in one place — a CRM or at least a shared spreadsheet — with the date, channel, reason and outcome: booked or not, and why. Without this you cannot calculate conversion to booking, speed of first response, or which channel brings patients and which only brings calls.
- Only calls are logged, while written conversations stay on the receptionists’ personal phones.
- Missed calls are not recorded and nobody calls back.
- People who ‘only asked about the price’ are not counted, although they are potential patients like anyone else.
- The source is not recorded, so nobody knows which channel actually brings patients.
Start simply: one place to log every channel, mandatory fields and a daily check of missed calls and unread messages. Once you can see all enquiries, it becomes clear how many people the clinic loses before they even book.