Based on a PracticeCare® podcast conversation, Matty McLain on The Fortune Is in the Follow-Up, with Matty McLain, CEO and co-founder of Boost Patients.
How much money is a private practice actually losing to bad follow-up?
More than most owners think, and it’s invisible because it’s hard to measure.
Matty McLain, CEO of Boost Patients, tells a story from before he got into healthcare marketing. A bariatric surgeon he knew casually asked him to look at his practice’s marketing. McLain secret shopped the practice first — filled out the contact form, said he was cash pay and ready for surgery. Nobody called. Nobody emailed.
When he finally showed the surgeon what happened, the office found 30 to 40 unanswered contact form leads sitting in a junk mail folder nobody had checked. That’s the kind of leak costing practices real money, and most owners have no idea it’s happening.
What does good lead follow-up actually look like?
It’s fast. McLain calls it “speed to lead.” Patients today expect an answer the moment they reach out. Not by end of day, not within the hour, but instantaneously.
Beyond speed, McLain says most practices lose leads in three specific ways — what he calls the three leaky buckets:
- Following up too slowly. What used to be a 24-hour standard, then same-day, then 60 minutes, is now expected to be instant.
- Not using every channel. If someone reaches out, they’ve given you permission to contact them back by phone, email, and text — use all three.
- Giving up too soon. One call and done isn’t follow-up. It takes weeks of consistent outreach to bring a lead back.
What did the mystery shop project actually find?
McLain’s team mystery shopped 40 to 50 private practices across every time zone, contacting each one by form, phone, and email, then tracking every response.
The results: a handful answered within 5 to 10 minutes. Half took at least 24 hours. Some never responded at all — even to a self-pay lead worth $10,000 or more.
Most of those practices believe they’re doing a good job on follow-up, McLain says. Without tracking it, there’s no way to know otherwise.
Should AI handle follow-up, or does it need a human too?
Both, working together. Boost routes a new lead into two-way AI texting, an immediate voicemail, and an immediate email the moment it comes in.
If the AI conversation hits something it can’t answer, a real person takes over — calling, texting, and answering as if they work at the practice, introducing themselves by name and carrying the conversation through to a booked consult.
The automation buys speed. The human keeps it from feeling automated.
What kind of results should a practice expect from fixing this?
A 50% increase in new patient bookings isn’t unusual, McLain says.
Part of that comes from something practices overlook: more than half of a typical practice’s website traffic happens after hours Patients want to reach out then, and most want to do it by text rather than a phone call.
Engaging leads outside the 8-to-5 window effectively doubles the time a practice is open for new business, even with nobody physically in the office.
Is this the right fix for every practice?
Not automatically. McLain says the clearest return shows up for practices generating at least 50 leads a month with a patient lifetime value worth $2,500 or more. Practices in that range often see 30% to 40% more scheduled consults almost immediately.
Lower lead volume or lower-ticket procedures can still benefit from fixing follow-up. The math on a dedicated system just takes longer to pay off.
A final note from Carl White
This isn’t really about follow-up scripts or software. It’s about whether you know what’s happening to the people who already raised their hand and asked for your help. Most practices don’t, because it never shows up on a report. Check your own leads the way McLain checked that bariatric surgeon’s inbox — I’d bet you find money sitting there too.