Every Medical Practice Should Have a Live Answering Service

Most individuals are thinking of incorporating a live answering service to aid them in their medical practice. Most people have doubts about the capability of this service to solve medical-related cases. In general live answering service is suited to handle all kinds of industries and you may opt for one that focuses mainly on the medical arena.

When you are busy attending to clients, guiding patients as well as working on essential tasks such as recruiting new staff, planning the yearly budget, the ultimate task you have to worry about is the scheduling of appointments and issuing directions via the cellphone can be tedious.

Utilizing a live answering service can provide your client’s similar personalized interaction which you could provide but it saves you a lot of time to handle critical matters. Here are the reasons why every medical practice should have a live answering service:

Frees Up Time

It can solve the ordinary tasks which you are unable to attend during the working hours. You can concentrate on patient care when the live service is handling the incoming calls, answering questions as well as appointments. You will be relieved because you will only concentrate on your area of specialization and the service will cover all the other things such as incoming calls and scheduling of appointments.  Here is a look at how they can help your practice.

Well Trained Staff

The appropriate live answering service for medical practice should have a skilled and trained staff, preparedness, as well as availability, needs to be completely HIPAA submissive and capable of providing customizable prospects. Because live answering service has the capacity to manage your calls 24 hours in a day, it becomes essential for a medical practice which may receive emergency calls at any time of the day.

Customer Service

A live answering service is able to handle the incoming calls in a professional manner and can be entrusted with your hysterical patients. Opt for a service which has an outstanding staff who shows professionalism as well as courtesy. Ensure they have adequate knowledge to determine the calls to be conveyed to a nurse or doctor from the ones they can handle by themselves via message or by calling back.

Confidentiality is the key issue in the medicinal field but all live answering services are HIPAA compliant so there is nothing to worry as far as patients confidentiality is concerned. They are part of your medical business so you should ensure the privacy of the private information as your employees would. Ensure your staffs are people who can be entrusted with medical records as well as personal information.

How a Live Answering Service Increases Customer Satisfaction

In the modern world, many businesses have replaced their live answering services with automated phone systems. These systems often prompt users to state the issue they are having, or press a number on their keypad that corresponds to the desired option. Although automated phone systems were created to make businesses more efficient and to reduce wage expenses, they have had a negative influence on customer satisfaction.

Problems with Automated Phone Systems

Automated phone systems ultimately inconvenience customers and the business itself. One of the main problems with these systems is that customers are usually calling with a very specific issue. The options that are offered by automated systems are often too broad, and customers end up selecting the closest category possible in hopes that their questions can be answered.

A second problem is that customers will do whatever it takes to eventually be transferred to a live employee. They will select irrelevant options, and end up speaking to someone from the wrong department entirely. The time spent transferring the caller to the relevant department, where the caller will likely have to re-explain the issue, actually harms the efficiency of a business.

Benefits of a Live Answering System

The most important difference between a live answering service and an automated system is that at the end of the call, an employee can ask whether or not the customer has any further questions. In doing this, an employee can ensure that the customer is completely satisfied with the service provided. When limited to an automated system, a customer may feel it is more convenient to hang up and call back with a separate issue. Another benefit is that employees who answer live calls have a larger range of abilities than an automated system. For example, if a customer needed a new debit card because their chip had stopped working, they could explain the issue, ask for a new one to be sent, and even ask the employee to change their address simultaneously. In this scenario, the customer could also ask the live employee when they would receive the new card, which would be impossible with an automated system unless that answer had been pre-programmed.

Improving Service

Overall, though automated phone systems do reduce the amount that businesses spend on wages, they inconvenience the customer. Without the ability to ask any questions that come to mind and receive live feedback, a customer will never be fully satisfied. Furthermore, a customer’s first instinct is often to bypass automated systems, harming the overall efficiency of the business.