Before a clinic can reply faster, it needs one place where every new enquiry is written down. For many small practices that place is a shared spreadsheet; for others it's a CRM or the practice management system. Here is how to choose without overspending.
When a spreadsheet is enough
- You receive a manageable number of new enquiries a day and one or two people handle them.
- You mainly need to know who to call back, in what order, and whether they booked.
- You already use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, so access and sharing are familiar.
- You want something you can see, filter and change yourself, without a new subscription.
A spreadsheet is also the quickest way to start measuring response times. If you later move to a CRM, the same columns import cleanly.
When a CRM or your practice software is better
- Several people work the enquiry list and you need assignments, reminders and a history of every contact.
- You run follow-up sequences, such as checking in with people who enquired but didn't book.
- You need finer access control than a shared sheet gives you.
- Your practice management system already handles new-patient enquiries well — in that case, use it rather than adding another tool.
Columns worth tracking either way
- A unique ID for each enquiry, so nothing is recorded twice.
- Date and time received.
- Channel: website form, email, missed call, social media.
- Type: urgent, new patient, existing patient or general question.
- Status: new, contacted, booked or closed.
- Time of the first automatic reply and time of the first real call back.
- Name and the best way to contact them.
Leave out anything you don't need to make the call back. A short reason for the enquiry is useful; detailed health information belongs in the clinical record, not in an enquiry tracker.
Keep patient details safe in either tool
- Keep the sheet or CRM in an account the clinic owns, not someone's personal account.
- Share it only with the people who make call backs, and remove access when someone leaves.
- Turn on two-step verification for every account that can see it.
- Decide how long you keep enquiries that never became patients, and delete them on schedule.
Our LeadFlow Starter setup logs every enquiry in a Google Sheet with columns like these, sends the acknowledgement and handles a follow-up. For clinics, Missed-Enquiry Recovery adds front-desk flags and a daily summary.