Running a small business and trying to boost your bottom line means that you have to be smart when using your resources. If you want to create a successful small business, you’ll have to take every advantage to make sure that you can compete against larger companies. It might sound very complicated, but there are several ways to achieve this.
One of the easiest ways to cut costs while maintaining – or even improving – the quality of your services is through outsourcing.
Medical practices benefit greatly from
outsourcing their calls. These employees don’t work full time for you, and they usually don’t even have to work on-site to produce results. As internet use became more widespread at the start of the 2000s, outsourcing started to gain popularity with many businesses. Nowadays, you can outsource many different services depending on the type of business you run. Creating a virtual reception, accounting services, handling collections and payrolls, you name it and there’s probably a way to outsource it.
Use a Quality Call Answering Service
But when looking to outsource a service, you need to make sure you’re hiring a top-quality provider. After all, your customers probably won’t know that they’re dealing with an outsourced operator if they receive bad customer service. They’ll just know your company’s name and that they were left unsatisfied and unhappy. By hiring poor-quality outsourced services, you could potentially create a PR nightmare for your company and do more harm than good.
Even large companies can fall prey to bad outsourcing. Take, for example, tech giants HP or Hewlett Packard. HP started to outsource different jobs to Taiwan; at first, they were seeing great results and reducing the manufacturing costs of many of their products. But then, managers started pushing to outsource even more tasks that the Taiwanese staff wasn’t prepared to take. Pretty soon, there was a steep drop in the quality of the services that they offered.
HP managers decided to outsource entire projects, even though the employees that were taking over these projects weren’t skilled in the necessary areas. A poorly written marketing ad produced in Taiwan read: “This glamour of new product will perfectly fit to your daily life from any of locations!”. Customers complained about receiving poor customer service. By the time that HP was able to correct the situation, six months and a considerable amount of money had been wasted.
That’s why it’s vital for any business starting out, but especially for
small medical practices, to hire top-quality
medical outsourcing services. A great outsourcing company will provide operators who are highly-skilled in the areas that are pertinent to the job, and who’ll bring a positive attitude to your company. One of the simplest yet most important jobs that you can outsource is that of a virtual receptionist.
Having an on-site receptionist or call center can require a big investment that you might not be able to make. But by using a call center service, you’ll ensure that each customer is greeted by a human voice that’s friendly and knowledgeable about any enquiries that clients could have. You’ll be able to give each operator the information they need about your company and the services you offer, and you can even ask for calls to be redirected to your on-site staff whenever necessary.
This is a great way to save money. Hiring a full-time, on-site employee is expensive. From advertising for the job, to training new staff and paying a full-time salary and benefits, hiring staff can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses. But a virtual receptionist service will allow you to provide a 24/7 call center for clients. Your business can be available year round through this low cost solution.
And by hiring the right outsourcing company, you won’t even have to worry about training new staff. Each operator is already a highly-skilled professional that simply needs to learn about each specific company that they’re working for, and they’ll be able to take on many tasks from your on-site staff. A call center service is a great way to make sure that you’re providing a positive customer experience from the moment a client first picks up the phone to ask for information or schedule an appointment.
Small businesses must provide a great customer experience in order to thrive and attract new clients. Outsourcing a virtual receptionist service through a reputed provider can be the best way to make sure your clients are having a great experience while working with your company. Over time, this can help your small business grow and edge ahead of the competition!