We celebrate holidays throughout the year, but the ones that happen near the end of the year and move us into the next are the ones that many people look forward to the most. We anticipate the time that we’ll spend with family and friends, some who we see often and others, not often enough.
We have an idealized vision for what each get-together should look like, the joy we’ll have, and the time together that we’ll share. Yet we also have the experience to know that not everything proceeds as perfectly as planned. Invariably something will occur where someone will do something that takes our utopian expectation and makes it less than ideal, less than hoped for, and less than what we wanted.
In short, something is bound to threaten some aspect of our holidays. Most of this is not within our control, but our answering service is. Don’t let a bad answering service ruin your holidays (again) this year.
Seek Excellence
What is your answering services normal quality level? Do they meet your expectations much of the time by answering promptly, giving out accurate information, and taking complete messages? Do they leave your patients and callers with frustration, or do they make a positive impression?
If they provide excellence around the year, it’s reasonable to expect them to reach the same levels on holidays. And if they fall short during the year’s normal times, they’ll certainly falter during the special days that we call holidays, when they’ll be extra busy and may be short staffed.
If they let you down on nonholidays, expect more of the same on holidays. The good news is you can still switch providers in time for the holidays. Seek an excellence-minded medical answering service. You’ll be glad you did.
Don’t Pinch Pennies
Aside from providing healthcare services, the underlying idea for your practice or clinic is to make money. One way to do this is to keep costs in check. But saving a few dollars each month by going with a bargain-basement answering service is being, as the saying goes, penny wise and dollar foolish.
Remember, an answering service that charges you less must cut corners somewhere to stay in business. This means they’ll do less for you. If you want to save money and don’t care about quality, accuracy, or patient experience, by all means go with a cut-rate answering service.
But when they mess up and ruin your holiday plans, remember that you’re getting exactly what you pay for. Which is not much.
Now is an ideal time to invest in a patient-focused healthcare answering service that will represent you well all the time, including on holidays.
Take Initiative
You may be fortunate by having already selected the right medical answering service. Congratulations!
You’ve past the biggest hurdle, but to maximize the chances for the best outcomes, take the initiative and review the information that your answering service has about your healthcare operation.
On a base level, do they have up-to-date information about you? This includes address, website, email address, and special phone numbers. Too often when these things change, the answering service is the last to hear about it.
Next, verify everything that relates to your on-call situation. Do they have a list of all possible on-call personnel? Do they have up-to-date contact records for each employee and their preferred method to be reached? Do they understand your specific protocol as to what constitutes an emergency and what can wait for the business to open?
Look at these things now and avoid unpleasant surprises during the holidays.
Action Step
You look forward to spending the holidays with family and friends. You want your gatherings to go well and produce happy memories. Don’t let your answering service ruin your holidays by letting you down. If you need to make a change, do it now.
And if your present provider regularly meets your expectations, great! Just make sure you’ve armed them with the correct, complete, and current information about how to best manage your account during the holidays—and throughout the year.
Learn how medical answering service from MedConnectUSA can help your practice, clinic, or facility during the holidays and throughout the year. Then get a free quote to discover how affordable their healthcare communication services are.