At even the best answering services one employee does work for multiple clients. This is a normal answering service practice used to provide high value at a fair price. Yet to maximize profits too many answering services push this model too far. The upshot is that each employee ends up trying to do too much, with too many balls in the air at one time.
Here’s what can happen when your answering service ends up juggling phone calls because they have too many balls in the air at one time.
Increased Mistakes
An answering service operator with too much to do pushes multitasking too far, attempting to go beyond what they’re capable of handling. When this occurs, mistakes happen. This results in dropped calls, confusing messages, and mishandled follow-up.
This person breathlessly rushes through their day, trying to keep too many balls elevated and not crashing to the floor. Yet they can only do so successfully for a time, usually a short while. Then disaster strikes. Errors occur. Some mistakes are minor in degree and correctable, albeit embarrassing. But too many of these mistakes have dire consequences, negatively affecting both the caller and the practice they’re calling. This can hurt your reputation in the community, cause your practice extra work, and damage bottom-line profits.
These are the all-too-likely outcomes from an answering service that tries to do too much in too short of a time.
Rushed Calls
Remember the operators breathlessly going through their day? Because they have too many balls in the air, they scurry from one call to the next. They rush each call, hoping to eventually catch up so they can catch their breath. Guess what? This seldom happens. But what does occur is callers—your patients—feeling rushed in their communication with your answering service.
As a result, they may not get all their questions answered. Or they may not be allowed to leave all the information they wanted to—and that you need. Yet the answering service operators accomplish their goal, moving on to the next caller as quickly as possible. This is what happens when they have too many balls in the air.
Disrespected Patients
How do these rushed callers feel at the end of their conversations? They won’t hang up feeling satisfied, that much is sure. And they also won’t feel they were heard. Few things leave patients more frustrated than when they feel no one listened to them.
To show your patients and callers the respect they deserve and that you want to offer, you can’t have your answering service’s desire for efficiency at all costs thwart your healthcare service paradigms. But if you go with the wrong answering service provider, that’s precisely what you’ll get.
The Outcome
Increased mistakes, rushed calls, and disrespected callers are exactly what will happen when your answering service has too many balls in the air. Instead, go with a medical answering service that places a premium on meeting the needs of your practice and your patients.
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.