Are you considering using a professional answering service in your medical practice? It is very important to understand why patients expect 24/7 care and support from your practice. Understanding that the customer comes first is the success mantra for your business. You have to understand that catering to all patients needs is a full-time task.
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Life today is fast-paced with a lot to deal with throughout the day. This limits time someone might have to contact his or her physician. It is no wonder that such people always look forward to getting their requirements handled by their physician 24/7. Failure to adapt to customers’ need will have a significant negative impact on your bottom line. Let us walk you through the major reasons why patients expect 24/7 care and support.
Expectations for the quick response
Today, you can’t wait to respond to patients’ queries in the morning. Patients always expect to get fast and reliable responses regardless of time and day. This has been encouraged by the presence of tech giants like Amazon offering customers immediate response. Therefore, customers are always getting benchmarks for a fast or not so fast service.
Patients always expect speedy service and response on calling your practice. Perhaps your in-house staff handles all incoming calls. This obviously means that your office is not available during after office hours. Patients who need your services during that period are likely to get frustrated and switch to other practices. Luckily, you should get answering services for doctors to ensure that your customer service is always available 24/7 to serve patients.
Accurate information
Patients are always inquisitive. Perhaps the customer wants to know whether you can handle their condition. Additionally, the patient might be seeking clarification on the right dosage or scheduling an appointment. Having a website puts your practice and services in the spotlight. However, you need an efficient customer service department just in case the patient wants to talk to someone in your practice. The customer might call to give a comment, ask a question, or give feedback regarding your service or their experience in your practice.
Customers will appreciate if they can talk to a live operator immediately. This is very important since the information on your site might not be updated. You have to cater to the needs of patients who might want to reach out to you any time of day. Your site might be offering general information but patients have particular needs. Hiring an answering agency is the best solution to ensure that your patients get the care they need and expect.
Talking to a live agent
It is not a good idea to make your customers talk to robots and scripted voice mail. Patients always need personalized service to meet their expectations. Having patients to talk to voicemail will make them lose trust in your practice. These encourage negative experiences and might make the patients switch to another practice. Making customers listen to recorded voice messages or automated robots is very irritating. This is likely to make them feel unappreciated and not getting the service they deserve.
Urgent response
It is not possible to forecast when a medical emergency might happen. Therefore, you always have to be ready to cater to the patients’ needs. A customer might call your practice during after hours service when having an emergency. Perhaps the patient wants to schedule an appointment with the doctor. Calling and getting no response from your practice will most likely make the patient switch to another practice.
A professional answering service will handle all calls to your practice 24/7. This will ensure that patients get the response they deserve. Talking to a live agent at odd hours will definitely impress the customers to become loyal to your practice. Additionally, offering round the clock customer service allows immediate response to emergencies. The agent can easily pass on the details to the appropriate physician.
Building relationships
Patients prefer physicians with whom they have a relationship. Offering a personal touch is the trick to enhancing patient relationships and for maximizing revenue in the long term. Therefore, offering timely service that meets patients’ expectations is the solution to building relationships between patients and your practice. Offering exceptional customer service will make patients feel better whenever they call your practice.
Automated systems make patients feel disconnected and impersonal with your service. A professional answering service will make your customers get a personal connection. This will make all patients feel comfortable coming back to your medical practice and encouraging more cash inflow into your business.
Wrapping up
Appropriate patient care is a 24/7 job. You should strive to offer patients appropriate attention and responses to their queries even after business hours. This will make your practice meet the expectations of regular patients who expect to receive necessary assistance regardless of time and day.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
