Operations
How physios and clinics cut no-shows with online booking and reminders
6 July 20269 min readRead
Repeat local
How physiotherapists and clinics get clients: a 90-day plan
How your buyer buys: Modest price, bought again and again. Retention is the whole economics.
A patient with a bad back or a torn hamstring wants to be seen this week. They search for a physio near them on a phone, usually in the evening, and book whoever has a slot they can see and take without ringing. If the only way in is a phone line that is busy while you are treating, they book the clinic down the road.
The second patient arrives on a recommendation. A GP, a running club, a personal trainer or a colleague who was treated well gives them a name. They still check that name on the HCPC register, and if they have private cover they check their insurer's provider list before they book. A clinician's registration number and specialism beside the booking button is what settles it.
The order follows from that. Online booking, the reminder ladder and a text back on every missed call come first, because an empty slot cannot be resold. Then the next appointment booked at the desk, the Google profile and the review asked for at discharge. Then the directories, the insurer lists and the GP and club relationships that send a patient a week for years.
Step zero
The free checklist, before the plan.
The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.
The Clinic Owner's DIY Growth Checklist
The free checklist for physiotherapists and clinics: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.
Where they look
Where your customers actually look.
Physio2u
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's public search for a chartered physio by town and specialism. Patients who were told to find a chartered physio land here, so the entry has to match your website's name, address and phone.
HCPC register(opens in a new tab)
Every patient who checks a physiotherapist checks here. Put each clinician's registration number beside their name and the booking button, so the check takes ten seconds and ends on your site.
Insurer recognised provider lists
Bupa, AXA Health and Vitality each keep a list of recognised physiotherapists that their members search before they book. Being on the lists you work with brings patients who pay no excess to see you and need no persuading.
Google Business Profile(opens in a new tab)
Physio near me ends in the map pack. Primary category Physiotherapist, each appointment type listed as a service, the booking link, and ten photos of the clinic, the rooms and the team.
GP surgeries and sports clubs
No website, and the most reliable source of patients there is. A named clinician for each surgery, running club and football team to refer to, and a direct booking link they can forward from a phone.
Your year
Steady all year, so start now.
Demand runs all year and dips over the August and Christmas holidays.
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug: quiet
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec: quiet
Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.
A physio clinic has no peak month. Injuries, post-operative rehab and back pain arrive all year, so there is no start-by date and the plan runs in the order it is written. The dips are August and the Christmas fortnight, when patients are away and the diary thins. Treat those as the weeks for the slow work: the Physio2u and insurer listings, the clinician pages with registration numbers, and the visits to GP surgeries and running clubs. The sports clubs start their season in September and bring a run of injuries from then until spring, and the marathon training block fills February and March. The six-week win-back email catches the patients who drifted over each holiday.
The 90-day plan
Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.
Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.
Week 0
Online booking
Put 'Book online' on every page, linked into Cliniko or Jane, with initial assessment and follow-up as separate types
- Cost: ££
- Low effort
- First result in 0 to 2 weeks
In the kit and the bundleReminders, deposits, cancellation policy
Confirm at booking, email at 48 hours, text the day before, and take a small deposit from new patients
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result in 0 to 2 weeks
In the kit and the bundleAnswer the phone, text back missed calls
Text back every call missed mid-treatment with the booking link, and return voicemails the same day
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result within a week
Month 1
Rebook before they leave
Book the next appointment at the desk, to the plan you set out in the session
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result within a week
In the bundleGoogle Business Profile, complete
Set Physiotherapist as the primary category, add the booking link and ten clinic photos, and list each appointment type
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
Ask every client for a review
Ask at discharge with a QR code on the front desk, and reply to each review in general terms with no clinical detail
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
Months 2 to 3
Due-again nudges and win-backs
Send one automated email to patients not seen in six weeks, with a rebooking link
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result in 0 to 4 weeks
In the kit and the bundleTrade and sector directories
List on Physio2u, your professional body's find-a-practitioner tool and your insurers' provider lists
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result in 2 to 8 weeks
Credentials a buyer can check
Put each clinician's registration number, professional body and specialism next to the booking button
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Month 3 onward
Gatekeeper partnerships
Visit GP surgeries, running and football clubs, trainers and Pilates teachers, with a named clinician and a booking link for each
- Cost: Free
- Medium effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
Ask for the referral at the high point
At discharge, hand over a card and ask the patient to pass your name to their club or workplace
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 2 to 8 weeks
Published prices or bands
Show a price per appointment type, and which health insurers you deal with
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
The cost of waiting
What doing nothing costs physiotherapists and clinics.
The leaks below are the ones the physiotherapists and clinics page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.
Industry estimates, not client results
Industry-typical ranges for a small private physio clinic: an initial assessment priced in the tens of pounds, most enquirers booking, and a treatment plan of around five further sessions.
Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.
Where it leaks
Drains close rate
No-shows and late cancellations leave gaps nothing refills
- Leaking now
- £255 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £153 a month
- The fix
- Deposits and card-on-file (about £375 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 10.6 weeks
Drains enquiries
Patients can only book by phone, during the hours you are treating
- Leaking now
- £623 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £374 a month
- The fix
- Online booking done properly (about £750 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 8.7 weeks
Drains repeat purchases
New patients book once and drift instead of completing their plan
- Leaking now
- £296 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £118 a month
- The fix
- Refill and rebooking automation (about £600 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 21.9 weeks
Drains repeat purchases
Reminders are manual, so they happen when reception has time
- Leaking now
- £61 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £37 a month
- The fix
- The reminder ladder (about £525 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 62.0 weeks
On these figures
£1,566 a month leaking
Fixing every leak above gets back about £814 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline, regulars kept included.
- The Full-Diary System (£1,395)
- Pays back in 7.4 weeks
- The Clinic Growth Kit (£49)
- Pays back in under a week
Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for physiotherapists and clinics.
What matters most
The levers that carry the most weight here.
Four steps fill a physio's diary. The reminder ladder with a small deposit from new patients, because a no-show is an hour that cannot be resold. The next appointment booked at the desk, to the plan set out in the session, so a patient who needs six sessions attends six rather than two. The directories: Physio2u, the professional body's find-a-practitioner tool and every insurer's provider list, with name, address and phone identical on each. And gatekeeper partnerships with GP surgeries, running clubs and personal trainers, each given a named clinician and a direct booking link. The text back on every call missed mid-treatment runs from week one beside them.
See every lever for physiotherapists and clinics in the registerReading for physiotherapists and clinics
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If you would rather we did this for you
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