When you’re a healthcare provider, your utmost priority is to keep your patients healthy, safe, and satisfied. And while your medical skills may be unmatched, your patients’ satisfaction relies on many different factors – the daily functioning of your medical office can play a huge role in determining whether your patients leave your practice with a good, neutral, or negative impression of the services that you offer.
If you’re trying to make your office work more smoothly, you may have heard of medical answering services. But at the same time, the thought of outsourcing something as vital as your telephone lines may seem outlandish to you. Which is perfectly understandable – telephonic attention is a big factor for any business, medical or otherwise. So, how are you supposed to know who will be able to provide great attention if you’re not there to supervise them directly?
Fortunately, you don’t have to be afraid of medical answering services. You do have to make sure that you do your research and hire a trustworthy company, of course. But a great medical virtual reception can actually do a lot of vital work to improve your medical practice.
Consider hiring a medical answering service if you want to…
Provide a better experience for your patients
When patients put their care in your hands, they’re trusting you with their most precious possession: their health. It’s your responsibility to ensure that they have a positive experience while receiving care at your office, but this goes beyond just providing adequate treatment.
Your patients’ experience encompasses many other factors, including the quality of customer service that they receive. If your on-site staff is struggling to answer all phone calls along with taking care of multiple other tasks, an answering service provides a quick and easy solution.
Answering service operators will collaborate with your practice to guarantee that every phone call inquiry receives a prompt response. They can also schedule appointments, take cancellations, send out automated reminders, and carry out many other tasks according to your instructions.
As a result, your patients will have a positive experience from the moment they first call your office to make an appointment. They won’t have to call numerous times, wait in line, or risk talking to a staff member who is already stressed out and trying to hurry.
Additionally, by keeping your phone lines taken care of, virtual receptionists will be able to create an efficient schedule that will shorten wait lists and help you manage your appointments more effectively.
Offer customer service that’s tailored to your office
Depending on the community that your practice operates in, you will probably find yourself having to take different needs into account. Some communities may be more likely to require 24/7 attention, while others could need access to bilingual service.
Thankfully, a good answering service will be able to help you cover those needs while merging seamlessly into your everyday operations. This customization can play a big role in your office’s success, since it will help ensure that your community identifies with you and your role. Hiring a medical answering service that can be tailored to your requirements will also help you communicate with your patients in a more efficient manner so that you can offer a higher quality of care.
Stay prepared in case of emergencies
Everyone is vulnerable to unexpected events and emergencies — even doctors. An emergency can leave your practice out of business for days or weeks with no reliable way to communicate with your patients or send them updates.
But through a virtual answering service, you’ll be able to establish a solid emergency preparedness plan to make sure that you always have backups when something goes wrong. Even if circumstances make it difficult for you or your staff to get to work, operators will still be able to contact your patients and keep them up to date on the situation. This can result in fewer losses and a faster restart to your usual activities.
Save money
Let’s be honest: hiring new staff and training them costs money, time, and resources. And when you’re trying to grow your practice — especially a small one —, you can’t afford to waste any resources.
That’s another inconvenient that you can forget about when you choose to hire a virtual answering service. A medical answering service will provide your office with virtual receptionists or operators who have already received extensive training, so you can be sure that your patients are receiving the best possible service.
