When your patients and callers reach your answering service, they can’t see the operators or where they’re located. But does that mean location doesn’t matter? You may conclude the setting isn’t relevant since everything happens over the telephone. However, if you care about your practice and your organization, where your answering service is located is a key consideration.
When Answering Service Location Doesn’t Matter
If providing professional communication services over the phone for your patients isn’t important to you, you view your answering service as a commodity purchase instead of an investment in your future. Then you’ll look for the lowest-cost provider, so their whereabouts doesn’t matter. You’re in business for the money and don’t really care about your patients’ wellbeing.
If that’s your perspective, then you’re right: answering service location doesn’t matter. Your answering service could be situated in some Third World country, thousands of miles away. And their operators, who your patients talk to, might be working from home: still in their pajamas, gulping down lunch, or trying to shush a barking dog.
If that image doesn’t frighten you, then their setting is irrelevant.
Why Answering Service Location Matters
However, professional telephone communication is important to most healthcare professionals. They want a US-based medical answering service, with office-based staff answering their phone calls 24/7. That’s why setting matters.
The first answering service location requirement is an onshore answering service, instead of offshore. This removes the problems of cultural misunderstandings, time zone differences, and language issues. It also increases stability and reliability. This sets the foundation for effective communication between your patients, your answering service, and you.
The second answering service location requirement is for office-based staff, as opposed to home-based staff. Though many jobs can be done with excellence from people’s home offices, coffee shops, or anyplace with an internet connection, this isn’t true of a professional medical answering service. To best oversee staff, ensure high quality service, and meet the strictest security protocols, answering service staff must work from secure locations with a state-of-the-art call center configuration. It’s simply cost prohibitive to provide all this when they work from a remote site.
Summary
Providing quality answering service to patients in the United States requires an answering service that’s based here. That’s why answering service location matters. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. No careful hiring, in-depth training, or cultural adaptations can make up for an answering service based in a different country or for staff working from their home or dubious places.
That’s why the smart move is to hire a medical answering service that’s located in the United States and has all their staff working from a secure, stable, and managed environment. That’s what your patients deserve and what your medical practice or healthcare facility must provide.
Learn how medical answering service from MedConnectUSA can help your practice, clinic, or facility. Then get a free quote to discover how affordable their healthcare communication services are. Peter Lyle DeHaan is a freelance writer and call center authority.