The Challenge

New York Bariatric Group (NYBG) is an expert team of bariatric surgeons who provide surgical and non-surgical weight loss procedures. In 2021 they carried out over 33,000 successful procedures and have been expanding across the United States since 2000.

NYBG approached Harte Hanks Sales Services with a backlog of over 82,000 leads that were yet to be effectively processed or qualified. Additionally, they were receiving 60 – 100 daily inbound inquiries.

The team at NYBG wanted to clear through the backlog of leads to discover genuine appointment opportunities while defining a more effective approach to managing inbound inquiries and to ultimately increase conversion rates.

Our Approach

Provide best-in-class inbound resources and processes

Before addressing the backlogged inquiries, we first had to stop this list from continuing to grow. By deploying a team of 12 SDRs with a best-in-class tech stack and IVR system, Harte Hanks was able to effectively filter inbound inquiries to the most appropriate seller protecting the time of NYBG’s key sellers while ensuring all inbound inquiries were being processed within one business hour.

This dedicated team had more time to empathize with inbound inquiries focusing purely on qualification as opposed to the operational challenges that come with qualification and then appointment booking. This more focused approach nearly doubled inbound conversion rates to 95%, a figure which previously sat at 48%.

Test & measure

An interesting challenge for Harte Hanks Sales Services was understanding how we could apply B2B best practices to a B2C environment.

The answer was to do what we do best: experiment, test and measure. After building an Outbound Play targeted at re-engaging the backlogged database, we ran 5,400 prospects through the sales cycle to see what we could learn.

The outcome? We discovered that of the seven touch points within our Play, only five were resonating. If a prospect was not engaging with our messaging in the early stages, they were not going to engage in the latter stages.

Armed with this insight, our Play Ops department shortened the Outbound Play, reducing the sales cycle length while condensing the value propositions. This adjustment allowed more prospects to be engaged daily and increased overall conversion rates from 22.5% to 32.6%.

Engaging the B2C mindset​

It also became clear that prospects were less engaged midweek between the hours of 9am and 5pm, because this was B2C, and they were most likely at work.

As a result, we increased coverage after 5pm and provided Saturday morning coverage, allowing for more conversion opportunity and more empathetic conversations that were not restricted by time.

The Results

95%

Inbound inquiry conversion

Harte Hanks Sales Services converted 95% of inbound inquiries into appointments, a figure nearly double the previous conversion rate of 48%.

32.6%

Re-engagement conversion

Since working with Harte Hanks Sales Services, the conversion rate when re-engaging with backlogged inquiries increased to 32.6%, up from the historic conversion rate of 22.5%.