An answering service is now an important aspect of managing a medical practice. Apart from helping with basic message taking and handling calls, the service can capture and retain customers to help your practice grow.
An answering service offers 24/7 live customer support and is cost-effective and highly effective in managing customer service requirements.
Look at these 5 ways an answering service encourages customer retention.
24/7 customer service
Patients don’t just call their physicians from 9 to 5. And, it’s not a good idea to only have your medical practice available on phone from Monday to Friday.
An emergency can happen any time and the first thing a patient or caregiver will do is to the doctor’s office. This is where a live support team after business hours comes in.
With this, patients can call at any time of day and get the necessary assistance. Outsourcing a professional medical answering team is a cost-effective option to keep your communication channel open 24/7.
In case a patient calls your practice and don’t get a response, they’re likely to become upset and hang up.
The chances are high that such a patient won’t contact your practice again. Giving your customers a live agent to talk to is very relieving.
Professional answering agencies have friendly and upbeat operators knowledgeable about customer services to respond to customer concerns.
This impressive first interaction will leave patients delighted making them develop a positive attitude towards your practice.
Appointment scheduling
Patients sometimes call a medical practice to schedule an appointment with the physician. Having 24/7 Physician answering services is likely to make patients inclined to reach out and schedule their appointment.
This would be a different experience when patients call and listen to your voicemail. Not all patients have the patience to wait for a call back to make their appointment.
It would seem outrightly fishy calling your practice and not getting the service they expected.
This is likely to make patients reach out to other practices that are more responsive. Some of the patient’s concerns might require urgent assistance.
Therefore, having to wait for a call back would be frustrating on their part. To ensure you don’t lose that income, hire a medical answering service to readily schedule patients’ appointments.
This can be made possible on your site with a calendar or integration with a web-based application like Google Calendar.
Sending follow up emails
With an answering service, your patients will always interact directly with a brand representative. Live interaction is two-way communication, unlike voicemail.
The live phone operators can keep the interaction going with post-call engagement through emailing callers requesting for feedback.
Alternatively, it can be a way to check on your patients. Taking the initiative to reach out to patients will be highly appreciated.
Reaching actively to callers will keep them interested in getting services from your practice. The patients will become more comfortable reaching out to your facility for assistance.
Making customers happier will make them more inclined to become loyal to your practice. The answering service must have a software system that allows sending out emails.
Alternatively, this can also allow sending out survey emails after every phone call to your practice. Relying on an answering service offering live chat and email support will encourage retention.
Customized script
An answering service does more than taking down messages or managing patient calls. Patients expect your customer service to be available when they reach out to your practice.
This requires more than taking messages. The best way to make the most from your answering service is to ensure that callers get the necessary assistance to their issues.
This requires setting up protocols to answer patients’ questions.
The answering service must allow a customized script to allow the agents to get closer to the patient’s concerns.
This is more effective compared to just taking basic messages and calling back customers if the patient’s concerns aren’t addressed on the first call.
Your answering service should charge for call duration but a flat rate to allow responding to patients’ concerns without worry of the call cost. Prompt response to patients’ concerns encourages a positive experience.
Emergency dispatch
Patients can reach out to your medical practice wherever they have an emergency. This can happen at any time of day.
Therefore, it’s a great idea to have a live agent talk to them and assure them that someone can give them the necessary assistance.
With an emergency dispatch protocol, customers are likely to become happier and loyal to your practice. Patients are likely to seek assistance elsewhere when they fail to get the necessary assistance from your practice.
Final thought
Professional operators from an answering service give patients a pleasant experience. This gives them confidence in your practice making them become loyal customers.
Hi, I’m the Founder and Developer of Paramedics World, a blog truly devoted to Paramedics. I am a Medical Lab Tech, a Web Developer and Bibliophiliac. My greatest hobby is to teach and motivate other peoples to do whatever they wanna do in life.