The Single Biggest Mistake TMS Clinics Are Making

Meet your patients where they are

Depression presents differently for everyone. But one of the prime responses is withdrawal from social situations.

Depressed people often don't go out. They don't write or text back. And they don't answer the phone.

So why are you expecting them to call to set up an appointment at your clinic?

The majority of the websites for TMS practices have a phone number in bold somewhere on the front page with instructions to call for a consultation or to set up an appointment. Obviously, some people do that.

But how many do not? How many people who are mired in depression cannot pick up the phone and make that phone call? I bet it is more than you think.

The evidence agrees

As someone who has battled depression, I can vouch for this first hand. I have refused to make phone calls to get help. I have hung up rather than wait on hold. (Irritability is another classic result of depression, and there are few things more irritating than hearing the hold music cycle through to the beginning.) And I have refused to answer unfamiliar numbers.

But you don't need to take my word for it. A Scientific Reports article from 2019 categorized phone users as proactive, interactive, and reactive. The reactive group makes fewer phone calls than they receive. And the more the disparity, the more depressed they are.

This is not a groundbreaking discovery. Mental health experts should be aware of this. Yet so many TMS and behavioral health practitioners do not have alternative ways for patients to reach them for that initial contact.

The lack of compassion, empathy, and accommodation doesn't feel great.

The upside

As someone with depression, this is frustrating. But it does provide an opportunity. If you aren't going to do it for the appropriate reason, you can at least do it for a business and marketing one.

Offering alternative means of contact is a way you can differentiate from your competition. If given the choice between making a phone call and doing almost anything else, your depressed patients are going to opt for the latter. Giving them an alternative means of contact makes you stand out.

It shows you understand their struggle and the problem they are facing. Which is the first step to demonstrating you have a solution to that problem.

An added bonus

Allowing prospective patients to opt-in with their email has additional benefits as well. Email capture allows you to reach out to patients when you want in a manner that they often prefer.

Email allows you to educate, nurture, empower, and encourage your patients in an effective and efficient manner. You can provide valuable resources and build rapport at scale and with low investment in time and money.

And by offering a valuable lead magnet in return for their opt-in, you can start building the trust and credibility necessary for them to trust you with their mental health and choose you for their treatment.