Six reasons why you should consider investing in the automated medical answering services
Are you in two minds about using automated medical answering services? Yeah, the receptionist could easily handle those patient calls. So, what’s the advantage of automating your medical office? But your receptionist is unsure when a patient will call, isn’t she? Maybe she is wondering if a patient can wait to listen to a lengthy voicemail while she fills out the form or processes payments, isn’t she? It means we have some good reasons to acquire healthcare call center services. So, let’s get to read them all.
Important to know before you read the six reasons
Do you know what ‘automated medical answering services’ means? Even if you do, we will make you understand it in a few words. As the name indicates, it is acquiring the services of a company with specialized agents who could listen to your patients over the telephone after hours or when your receptionist is not available.
Also, note that the healthcare call center services, medical answering services, and physician answering services are the same. Hence, we have used them interchangeably throughout this blog post. We hope you’ll enjoy going through this exciting yet very informational write-up.
Furthermore, most of the call centers or even contact center solutions around the globe are available to accept your healthcare call center outsourcing responsibilities. But only a few of them stick to healthcare call center best practices. To fit this list, a healthcare contact center services provider must have highly-skilled staff. Ready to deal with any medical answering services challenge thrown at them. Based on these points, All-star BPO is the top healthcare call center USA, which could easily fit the list of those few available.
You must be feeling comfortable with the concept now. Jump to the next paragraph to start reading the six reasons why you should consider automated medical answering services.
6 Reasons why you should consider automated medical answering services
Here are the 6 reasons that may convince you in investing in the automated medical answering services:
After-hour support
Your patients may call after office hours, so the receptionist will not be available to field them. But a trained agent from a healthcare call center services provider is available to hear them out professionally as you would like. Provided that you have already outsourced this responsibility to a decent medical answering services provider. If not yet, you have a good reason to do so.
Write down messages for you
Suppose a patient query or issue is not resolved at that moment. Perhaps a physician is unavailable, or it can’t be resolved for any reason. The trained agents from a healthcare call center services provider will note it down for you. So you can go through them in detail later on. Those written messages are most commonly shared with you via text messages, emails, or even voicemail. It depends on what mode you like. See how useful it is to count on healthcare BPO services!
Appointment scheduling
This one’s very consistent with your receptionist’s job description. But we are talking about appointment scheduling and rescheduling after business hours. Yes, a trained medical answering services provider agent can also check on the patients to ensure they actually show up. Likewise, a patient may get time to call after office hours for an appointment rescheduling. And guess what, you have a professional and highly-skilled agent on the phone with him for a smooth rescheduling process. Another reason, you can thank healthcare call center services for their existence.
Call routing
Finding the right person to route a patient call to is a slight dilemma for service providers. Because, a highly-trained agent is immediately on the phone with your patient. Asks him the right questions to understand what he needs. Then transfers his call to a physician or nurse as the caller wants. The agent can also record the call for morning review in case the requested person is unavailable.
Most commonly, a receptionist needs to be more well-trained in directing calls. Sometimes these calls are erroneously transferred to a person not intended by the caller. Like if he wants to talk to a nurse and the call is routed to a physician. It consumes too much patient time and effort, ultimately leading to losing interest in staying on the phone. Hence letting a trained agent do it is always your best bet.
Live operators
Some of the best automated answering service providers have live operators as well. They act like they are in the office and work as an extension of your team during office hours and afterward. Hence your clinic stays open for callers even after hours. Yes, they are slightly expensive but worth every penny you spend on them.
Setting an appointment by SMS
How about you give your patients the luxury of booking an appointment over an SMS? They sure will love this speedy way of appointment scheduling. Since it will take two or three messages before the date and time are finalized. Therefore, you will need to return prompt responses as these messages pop up on your phone. Yes, your receptionist is doing fine during office hours. But what about the long after-hours? Who is looking into these messages after your receptionist has left for home? The agent of a doctor services provider, of course.
Take away
You need someone at the office after the clinic time is over to handle your patient calls. Patients may be calling to book an appointment or to reschedule an appointment. Plus, they might want to speak up to a physician or nurse. Hence you need someone present by the phone 24/7 to answer and field these calls professionally. That’s where you can consider using healthcare call center services.
These call centers have a highly-trained staff to take on these calls for you. Plus, they can timely route them to the right person when needed. This blog post focuses on explaining six benefits that hiring a professional healthcare call center brings.