Walk-Ins

If you are an office in a shopping center or even a professional building, you may occasionally experience people walking into your office for appointments. One thing you should be aware of is that walk-in patients mostly decide to come to your office on an impulse; therefore, it is imperative that you see them as soon as possible, before they change their minds!

If you have a few minutes to squeeze them in between your patients, offer that spot to them. Tell them something like this: "Let me see... you know we actually had a change in our schedule and we have an opening. We should be able to see you now, at least for your exam."

Let me clarify this with an example. Let's say you are in a shopping mall to buy a jacket. While passing by a shoe store you see a nice pair of shoes that you like a lot, so you slow down and you go in. when you ask to try on that pair in your size, you are told that they don't have it but are waiting for a shipment to arrive sometime next week. Now, what do you think are the chances of you going back to buy those shoes next week?

Patients who walk in your door without a prior appointment are mostly there on an impulse (at least the majority of them), so you don't want to tell them that "what they want" has to wait until next week!