A New Way to Connect with Refractive Surgery Prospects
The LASIK Link call center can field inquiries, pre-screen patients and schedule appointments for your practice.
BY JERRY HELZNER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR

One of the obstacles to marketing an elective procedure such as LASIK is that the evening and weekend hours when patients find it most convenient to discuss the surgery and schedule preoperative exams are just the times when your office is most likely to be closed.

Rather than allowing those important calls to be handled by answering machines or "call us back when we're open" messages, TruVision's new call center service called LASIK Link has moved to fill the breach. Essentially, LASIK Link offers refractive practices a way to have calls from potential LASIK patients handled by trained customer service representatives for up to 93 hours a week.

The representatives not only field the calls, they're able to answer basic questions about the procedure, pre-screen candidates, and actually schedule preoperative exams in time slots designated by your practice. In this article, I'll explain why LASIK Link believes it's a cost-effective way to grow your refractive surgery practice within your normal and customary fee structure.

Trained Staff Members Handle Calls

"LASIK Link is really a natural outgrowth of one of our other services, which is to facilitate laser vision correction for health plan members," says Mark A. Ray, vice president of practice development for TruVision. "We already had a staff of LASIK specialists in our call centers who were experienced in providing information about LASIK, qualifying patients and scheduling appointments. We also had demand from practices that wanted us to take their calls when they were closed."

With trained in-house staff and indications that practices would welcome the service, LASIK Link began testing its service in October.

"We offer practices a totally seamless call center service," notes Ray. "The practice decides when it wants its calls forwarded to our representatives. When the calls come in they're answered in the name of the practice, making prospective patients feel that they've reached a virtual extension of the doctor's office. Our representatives have scripts that we've developed with each practice that we represent, so the candidate is essentially receiving the same information he or she would get from the clinic's LASIK coordinator."

LASIK Link representatives are able to ask questions that at least start the process of determining if the caller is a good candidate for LASIK.

"Some practices want us to ask several screening questions before scheduling an appointment, but others would rather just get basic information and have most of the callers schedule a pre-op exam," says Ray. "We follow the wishes of each practice in this regard."

Among the screening questions that LASIK Link representatives ask of callers:

• What is your current prescription?
• What type of vision correction are you using now?
• Do you have any eye diseases or conditions?
• What is your age?
• Are you pregnant or nursing?

In addition to pre-screening callers, LASIK Link customer service representatives will also answer frequently asked questions about the procedure, discuss individual surgeons' education and experience, explain financing options, schedule appointments and ask how the caller heard about the practice.

"By learning how the caller heard about the laser center, we can help determine which of the various marketing efforts are most effective," says Ray. "We provide practices with a comprehensive daily record of all the calls received for each day, including the number of appointments scheduled, and information that allows practices to help track the response to their marketing efforts."

Payment Options Offered

LASIK Link offers refractive practices three payment options, depending on the number of minutes used on a monthly basis. If you go over your allowed minutes, you're charged an additional cost per minute. The plans offered range from a basic fee of $495 a month for 240 minutes of "talk time," to $895 a month for 600 minutes of talk time, to a fee of $1,295 a month for 1,200 minutes of talk time. Additional minutes range from 99 cents a minute on the $1,295 basic plan to $1.39 a minute on the $495 plan. There's also a one-time set-up fee, which varies.

"Our LASIK Link representatives are available to take calls a total of 93 hours a week, including 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (MST) on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. MST on weekends," notes Ray. "The different plans allow laser centers to choose the most cost-effective plan for them. It usually adds up to about $2.50 to $3.50 an hour for having your phones covered up to 93 hours a week, which is a lot cheaper than hiring an extra employee to answer phones evenings and weekends."

Ray says the early response to LASIK Link from practices has been very good with only initial minimal marketing of the service.

Capturing "Impulse" Calls

Bloomberg Eye Center of Newark, Ohio, uses LASIK Link from 8 p.m. to midnight on weekdays because much of the practice's TV and radio advertising airs during the evening hours. A practice spokesperson says LASIK Link is able to field the impulse calls that are generated by these ads.

The practice has been using LASIK Link for about 3 months and estimates that the call center has handled almost 200 inquiries during that period, and booked many of these callers for appointments.

"At about $750 a month, the service is more than paying for itself," the practice spokesperson concluded.

"Even one additional procedure a month pays for the service," says Ray. "And the number of calls we're handling shows practices do much better than that."

For more information on LASIK Link, log on to www.lasiklink.com.