Life Time Customer Relationships: How to Use Medical Answering Service
Want to improve personal relationships and enhance patient care? Explore your choices for a medical answering service to help you stay in touch.
Did you know that in 2014, Coca-Cola stopped using voicemail for all their employees? This fact represents a more significant trend which is that most Americans don’t use voicemail.
Many young adults say they won’t leave a voicemail and will try again later. Yet, typically, they will forget to try again, or if they do, they will end up with voicemail again.
If you manage a medical office and still use voicemail instead of a 24/7 call center, you are missing customers. Learn more about a medical answering service and why they are crucial to your practice.
Missing Calls
The issue with missing calls is that each missed call can harm your patient relationship. Patient relationships are at the foundation of any doctor’s office’s success.
Beyond that, your relationship with a patient directly correlates to their outcomes.
So let’s understand what a medical answering service is and how it can help.
Medical Answering Service
Medical answering services are your around-the-clock receptionist. This service can schedule appointments for you, give out basic information, and provide reminder calls.
Benefits
As previously discussed, the number one advantage is that your clients will be able to communicate with your office around the clock. If they have an emergency, the call can be rerouted to 911.
You could even choose to have the option to have prescription reordering available.
Holidays
Having an answering service also allows you to have the holidays off with less worry. Plus, it will help your patients’ relationship because they know they can still turn to your office every when it is the holidays.
Language
Another advantage is the fact that you can have an English and Spanish option for your customers.
Increasing your language options helps increase the number of patients you can take. It also helps ensure that your clients hear essential details about their appointment in their native language.
Having the additional language option also improves your relationship with the customer. It seems evident that a patient would be more likely to go to an office that helped them understand all instructions and communicate all issues without a language barrier.
Productivity
It also improves your employees’ productivity. Your in-house medical assistants can focus on the patients in front of them by having your calls outsourced. This focus will allow you to help customers move through check-in faster.
You could even teach your medical assistants to help with other parts of the visits to speed up the entire experience.
Your relationship with the patient is also improved here. By allowing full attention to your in-office patients, your assistant can focus on learning their name and building a relationship. Plus, by moving through patient care faster, you are improving their overall experience.
Doctor’s Load
Finally, having a medical answering service can lighten your load as a doctor. By freeing your medical assistants and nurses, they can take on any paperwork needs you have.
Plus, you are less likely to have no-shows or late patients because the answering service can give your patients reminders. Overall, getting this service should provide you more time to spend with your patients.
Having that time with your patient is the greatest thing you can do to improve your relationship. Individuals want to go to a doctor that they know and trust. This trust is built by spending time with them.
How Does it Work?
The individual’s call is redirected from your line to the call center reception. The receptionist answers the call using your office name. He/She will ask any questions that are required.
A recording of the call when then be check to ensure that it meets the office’s standards. Then, the doctor will receive a recording of the call, and the appointment will appear in their calendar.
In case of an emergency, the call center trains its employees to watch for any warning signs and call the doctor immediately if they have a concern.
HIPAA compliance
It is essential to pay attention to the different answering services to ensure that they are comfortable working with the medical field and know how to work with HIPAA compliance issues.
Pricing
The average cost per week of these medical services is $36. Four main factors can change this amount: number of calls, average duration, required duties, and holiday pay.
How to Choose an Answering Service
Ten primary answering services are recommended for medical professionals. This section will go over the differences between the services.
Ease
Some of these services prioritize being easy to use. They will have apps that you can quickly check your services and manage any payments.
Customers
Others will focus on their ability to help your customers uniquely.
For example, Voicenation prides itself on understanding all customers no matter what their accent is. They also specialize in assisting Spanish-speaking customers, which can be very helpful.
Your Relationship
Some companies will focus on improving your relationship with your customer by giving you valuable data.
For example, Stericycle works with your customers differently based on their stage of life. They also handle customers based on how long they have been with your office. This personal attention ensures that your company can meet their needs.
Healthcare
Finally, there are services available that only work with the healthcare industry. Having an exclusive company is nice because you know that they are experts in helping doctors’ offices.
These services also have advanced options like telehealth that can improve your customer’s experience.
Get a Medical Answering Service Today
If you want to strengthen your customer relationships, get a medical answering service today. No one wants to go to voicemail. Don’t lose clients that are reaching out to you.
To help you get started, check out this site that can get you a quote today.
