Southern Orthodontic Partners had a problem most growing businesses face: leads were falling through the cracks.
Ben Goodman, their CMO, did secret shopper calls and found that most practices followed up with new leads only once—if at all. No unified CRM, no automation, and potential patients just... disappeared.
They needed something HIPAA-compliant that could automate follow-ups across multiple practices without making anyone do extra work.
Enter ActiveCampaign.
What they're doing now:
- Instant automated response – New inquiry comes in? SMS and email go out immediately, plus a call to the practice. Works nights and weekends when competitors are offline.
- 10-day follow-up sequence – If someone doesn't respond initially, they get a series of texts and emails. 6% of people respond after 10 days (leads that would've been lost otherwise).
- Centralized oversight – Each practice has its own instance, central team has master account for consistency
- Lifetime value campaigns – Track which patients didn't get teeth whitening, send educational content as they near end of treatment
The results:
- 87% response rate within 24 hours
- 6% of "dead" leads converted after 10-day sequence
- Consistent communication across all practices
- Higher patient lifetime value through targeted upsells
Ben's take: "Our competitors can't respond at night or on weekends when someone submits a lead. We can. And that's been a game-changer for us."
Question for the group: Are you following up fast enough with your leads? What's your current response time?