Why enquiries stop before the OPD
Most practices do not have a demand problem. They have a gap between the enquiry and the appointment, and almost nobody measures it.
A doctor recently asked us why her enquiries had gone up but her OPD had not.
It is the most common question we hear, and the answer is almost never the one people expect. The problem is rarely that too few patients are interested. It is that nobody is watching what happens to the ones who already are.
The gap nobody measures
Between a patient finding a practice and a patient sitting in front of a doctor, there are at least four points where they can disappear:
- They call and nobody picks up.
- They are told someone will call back, and nobody does.
- They are given a slot that does not suit them, and they do not ask again.
- They book, and then nothing reminds them.
Every one of these is fixable. None of them shows up in a marketing report, because a marketing report ends at the enquiry.
What to measure instead
If you only track one thing beyond enquiries, track this: of the people who contacted you last month, how many actually reached the doctor?
That single number tells you more than any impression count. It is also uncomfortable the first time you calculate it, which is usually a sign that it is worth calculating.
Where to start
Pick one week. Write down every enquiry — the phone, the website form, the WhatsApp message. Next to each, write what happened next.
Most practices find the leak in the first week. It is usually not where they expected.