How Duck Hunting Can Help Fill Your Appointment Book During Slow Times

Posted October 16th, 2007

When business is slow, should you advertise to fill your appointment book?
by Chuck McKay

Most health care practices experience some seasonality to their business. Does yours? Are you tempted to advertise more heavily during slow times in an attempt to boost productivity?

Many media sales people will tell you that if you don’t invite people to call for an appointment, they won’t do it.

At some times of the year you won’t get better advice. At other times you’ll waste your money.

Pretend with me that we’re going duck hunting.

You may choose between two strategies.

1. Wait until the ducks are flying overhead and then to shoot, and continue shooting, as long as the ducks continue flying.

2. Shoot into the empty sky and hope a duck flies into your shot.

Pretty obvious, isn’t it?

You shoot when the ducks are flying.

Your slow periods are very similar to those times when there are very few ducks in the air. Wasting your valuable resources shooting into the ether in hopes that a new patient might get hit by your message is equally silly as shooting at ducks that aren’t there.

First, determine your practice’s seasonal production.

Some successful practices are not affected by the seasons, and will be booked for weeks in advance, regardless. Others will have some down time.

Look at your billing numbers, monthly, for the last three years. Be careful to use billing and not collections figures - the lag between your actual production and receiving payment will mess up the usefulness of this exercise.

Add all three Januaries, all three Februaries, all three Marches, and each month through the Decembers. Then express your three-year totals as percentages of the three year annual total. If charted, a typical practice could look something like this:

The influence of any unusual happenings (a hurricane going through your community at the hight of tourist season, for instance) will be minimized by averaging three years of history.

Once you’ve looked over the chart…

… it becomes obvious when is the best time to schedule a vacation with minimum loss of income. It also indicates when you should be promoting your practice – when the ducks are flying.

If you want to fill your appointment book during your slow season, don’t do it with external promotion. The return on investment during those periods when fewer patients want your services is too low to be justified.

Instead, move follow-up appointments for your existing patients to fill in the slow times. This will not only improve productivity in your traditional down times, it will create openings for new business while you’re promoting during times of higher demand.

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How Duck Hunting Can Help Fill Your Appointment Book During Slow Times copyright © 2007 Chuck McKay and AdvanceMyPractice.com. All rights reserved.

Chuck McKay is a marketing consultant who works primarily with professional practices and owner operated businesses. Questions about eliminating slow booking periods in your health care practice may be directed to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com.