Specialty hospital: every international patient enquiry answered and followed through
- INDUSTRY
- Healthcare: rehabilitation hospital serving patients from the GCC
- LOCATION
- Kerala, India
- ENGAGEMENT
- 4 months
- FOCUS
- Patient enquiry management, CRM implementation, admissions conversion
The challenge
Most of the hospital's patients came from families in the Gulf, and the first contact was almost always an enquiry by WhatsApp, phone, social media or referral. Those families were often comparing several hospitals at the same time, so speed and follow-up decided where they went.
Enquiries were handled by whoever picked up. There was no single record, replies could take hours or days, and many enquiries were never followed up at all. The hospital could not say how many enquiries it received or how many became admissions. It was receiving about 600 enquiries a month, around 70% of them from the GCC, which led to about 60 admissions a month.
What we found
We traced recent enquiries from first message to admission or drop-off, sat with the front office and coordinators, and put a value on the admissions being lost along the way.
-
01
Enquiries lived on personal phones.Messages were scattered across staff phones and channels, and 35% were never followed up. That cost an estimated 20 admissions a month.
-
02
First replies were too slow.Families comparing hospitals moved on while they waited. The average first reply took 6 hours, and some took two days.
-
03
Conversion was never measured.With no tracking from enquiry to admission, marketing spend and staff effort could not be judged. About ₹ 4 lakh a month in marketing spend had no measured return.
What we built
Across the layers of the Organise to Grow model.
The results
Every enquiry is now captured, answered quickly and followed through to a decision. The hospital knows how many families contact it, where they come from and how many are admitted, and it can grow its international patient base on facts rather than guesswork. First replies dropped from 6 hours to 15 minutes, and follow-through rose from 65% to 95%. Enquiry-to-admission conversion went from 10% to 14%.
