Not tracking referral volume is like watching a game with no scoreboard.

Who’s up? Who’s down? Who’s ahead?

It’s impossible to know where you have been, where you are headed, and what your return on investment is without comprehensive data.

Recently, we’ve been doing a series on the 10 Key Drivers of Exponential Referral Network Growth. (If you missed it, you can check it out here.)

Key Growth Driver #9 is a Comprehensive CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Tracking System.

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Me:  How are you tracking your physician referrals and referred procedure volume?

Practice:  Oh, we don’t really have a report for that, but we “feel” like we’re doing OK. We did more procedures this year than last year.

Me: That’s great. Do you know where those procedures came from?

Practice:  

Crickets…

What are the 3 biggest roadblocks to great data and how do you overcome them?

Roadblock #1:

It feels like things are moving in the right direction, so why should we invest in this?

I often hear, “We feel like…”

It’s easy to feel like things are headed in one direction or another, but the numbers don’t lie.

During a one-on-one coaching session with a physician liaison, I noticed that referrals from her top two referring practices had significantly dropped off. 

She had great relationships in both practices and was well liked, so she felt like everything was just fine.

It was an eye opener to learn that things weren’t fine, and the loss of referral volume had a significant impact on her territory.

She hadn’t been paying attention.

While she was coasting on autopilot, her competitors swooped in and stole two of her key accounts.

Yes, sometimes our feelings can get the best of us, so we must rely on dependable data to track progress.

Roadblock #2:

We’ve managed this far without a CRM and seem to be doing OK.

If you’re fine with OK and maintaining status quo, then keep doing what you’ve been doing.

You’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.

But..

If you want to be better than OK, impact more patients and referring doctors than ever before, and increase your practice revenue…

Invest in the data and a good CRM.

The data is like your report card.

It can tell you:

• How you’re doing
• Are your current efforts working or do you need to shift gears?
• Where should you increase efforts? Where should you back off?

Without this information, it’s impossible to determine the return on investment of your sales efforts.

Roadblock #3:

I can’t afford to invest in a CRM right now. 

It’s not uncommon for me to hear from a client that a CRM system is too expensive or that they can’t afford it.

Here’s the irony…

They usually have three or four people doing manual data entry with no solid reporting system to track the return on investment of their referral relationships.

One good CRM could handle all of the data entry and reporting, and would more than pay for itself in manpower hours, data, guidance, and opportunity cost. 

A good CRM will pay for itself 10x or more (usually within the first year).

Can you afford a CRM?

What is it costing you to lose 40, 80, 120 manpower hours each week? Or 10, 20, 30 procedures a month? Or 5 new referring doctors this quarter?

On the flip side, what would an additional 40, 80, 120 manpower hours mean to your practice? Or 10, 20, 30 more procedures a month? Or 5 new referring doctors a quarter?

The truth is, you can’t afford not to have a CRM.

Perhaps you’re still at ground zero and unsure of this whole CRM thing.

If you’re new to referral networks, patient tracking, or CRMs, here are a few simple steps to at least get you started:

(1) Start with a basic spreadsheet if you have to.

Although it’s a more tedious and manual process, at least you will have some data to point you in the right direction.

(2) Add fields or appointment types to your EMR to identify when a patient is referred and who their referring doctor is.

Once you have the fields in place, run reports on these fields to track progress.

(3) After you’ve gotten started, move to a more comprehensive CRM such as Salesforce.

The most successful practices use a robust CRM that integrates with EMR, allowing them to track the entire patient journey from beginning to end.

They can see who has referred and how many patients. They know from week to week whose referrals are up, down, or flat and use the data to figure out why.

Having this information and acting on it is precisely what enables them to grow.

A word of data caution…

Because there is a lot of information out there, it’s easy to get bogged down.

Don’t get into the weeds of looking at too many data points just because it’s there.

For a referral network program, the key data points are:

• Referrals in (how many and what referrals are coming in to the practice and by who)
• Referrals to consultation (how many referrals actually scheduled an appointment)
• Referred procedures (how many referrals converted to a procedure)

If you have to pick just one metric, focus on referred procedures because that’s the ultimate goal…

More procedures.

If you haven’t started tracking your referrals yet…

Start somewhere.

Anywhere.

Just…

Measure what you treasure!