Leads and advertising
How to define a patient source
Defining the sources that measure where a patient came from, and separating organic from paid.
Where to find it
System SettingsPatient Source
The patient source is where the only correct answer to "where did this patient come from?" lives. Fill it in badly and every decision about where the ad budget should go becomes guesswork.
The system separates organic from paid sources by default. That line is the most valuable one in your reporting: you cannot work out cost per acquired patient until paid traffic is separated from organic.
Step by step
- Here you can define the sources where you obtained the customer’s information. By default, the system requires you to differentiate between organic sources and advertising sources. You can separate advertising sources such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google from organic sources such as referral customers. Open the Customer Source page from the main menu under Customers.
- Click on the Add button in the top right corner.
- Enter the name of the source you want to add for the customer, select whether it will be active or inactive, and decide whether it is an advertising source or an organic source. Click on the Save button to complete the process.
- If you want to edit the customer source, you can do so by clicking on the Edit button on the respective row.
- Delete the customer source information, click on the arrow button to the right of the Edit button.
Tips and common mistakes
- Tip Keep the source list short. In clinics with thirty sources consultants start picking at random and the data loses its value; 8-12 is enough for most.
- Tip Set a source you no longer use to inactive rather than deleting it. A deleted source leaves a hole in historical reports.
- Careful Flagging a source as "advertising" changes your reporting directly. Mark word-of-mouth patients as paid and your ad performance will look better than it is.
Frequently asked questions
What source do records opened automatically by a channel get?
Records opened from WhatsApp, Instagram and similar channels are marked with that channel as their source. To separate paid from organic within a channel, use ad forms and ad codes.
Can I change the source later?
Yes, from the patient card. Correcting a wrong first choice matters for the accuracy of your reports.
What is the difference between source and category?
The source says where the patient came from; the category says what they want. Two different questions, two different breakdowns in reporting.