Does your answering service provide you with the attention you deserve? Are they attentive to your needs? Do they meet your expectations?
How your answering service handles your calls and treats your patients is of critical importance in your overall effort to provide quality healthcare. Don’t let them be the weak link in your operation. Find a service-focused medical answering service that gives you the attention you deserve.
Responsive Call Handling
When it comes to receiving the attention you deserve, the first element is responsive call handling. This doesn’t mean they must answer every call on the first ring. That’s unrealistic, and no caller expects that. But answering your calls within three rings is a great goal. Some will be faster, and some will take a bit longer, but a three-ring average is ideal.
A second element of responsiveness is minimal hold time. Yes, a no-holds goal is great, but it’s not always achievable. Sometimes a call must be placed on hold. But when this occurs, the amount of time spent on hold should be minimal.
Third, responsive call handling means giving out accurate information to the caller when needed and taking complete messages. This allows you to respond to messages efficiently and effectively.
A final aspect of responsiveness is communicating urgent information to you in a timely manner. Though most messages can—and should—wait for the next business day, some can’t. You need to receive these urgent communiqués quickly.
Quality Interactions
Next, you deserve quality interactions from your medical answering service. The outcome of quality interactions are callers and patients who feel heard and properly responded to.
Call quality starts with responsive call handling, but there’s more. Many calls to your answering service come from hurting patients or concerned callers. Quality interactions means treating them with respect and being empathetic to their plight. Not only do they expect your answering service to listen, but agents need to show that they heard.
Positive Outcomes
When your caller hangs up after talking with your answering service, they should feel confident and not concerned. This is the ultimate measure of a medical answering service’s success. This is what you deserve and what your callers expect. Don’t accept anything less.
Bonus Tip
Though answering service employees strive to treat every client with care and respect, you can help make this easier by how you treat them. Let them know you appreciate them and the work they do on your behalf. Then they’ll be more apt to go the extra mile for you.
Conclusion
When you hire a medical answering service to interact with your patients and callers after business hours, you should receive the attention you deserve from your provider. It starts with responsive call handling, continues with quality interactions, and concludes with positive outcomes.
Though not every answering service can meet this expectation, some can. Make sure yours does.
Learn how medical answering service from MedConnectUSA can provide your practice, clinic, or facility with the attention you deserve. Then get a free quote to discover how affordable their healthcare communication services are.