For healthcare providers, dealing with high call volumes is an everyday task. They not only have to do handle all the walk-ins and patient queries but also cater to on-calling customers who may need anything from an appointment rescheduling to the urgent assistance of a specialist. Therefore, all calls must be answered and none can be taken for granted.
This is where services of a medical answering call centre prove to be highly beneficial. These service providers offer end-to-end support to medical offices and ensure that all the calls are answered, all the customers satisfied, and that too well within the purview of HIPAA compliance.
The best answering services for medical offices include answering calls, taking messages, handling appointments, and do lots more. These live agents are trained to work as an extension of your business and offer seamless integration with your practice to avoid any disruptions in your workflow.
How a Medical Answering Services Works
Medical answering services offer support to not only your customers but also current staff without the burden of hiring new resources. They work in the forefront providing accurate and valuable information to your customers which improves trust and customer experience. While they may be an outsourced service, they help to fill the gap of after-hour calls and dropped or missed calls, providing your customers with round-the-clock assistance.
Despite its many benefits, many healthcare businesses avoid going the outsourcing way worrying about the service bill. However, by working with a reliable vendor, you can not only increase your profits but also use the tips discussed in this article to reduce your bills.
Tips to Reduce Medical Answering Service Cost
There are multiple ways to reduce the medical answering service bill. Depending upon your call volume and average length of each call, your cost of working with an answering service provider can be reduced. Here are some of the ways you can use to do that.
- Put a recorded pre-screen voicemail message: If your business experiences large call volumes of routine calls that do not require live assistance 24/7, then playing a pre-screen message before each call will reduce the costs significantly. These messages can be customized to provide basic information such as business hour information, directions to your office, answering FAQs etc. You can set these greetings in multiple languages to cater to a wider audience. These pre-screen voicemail messages can also help remove the robocalls that creep into your precious billable hours.
- Text messaging service: Another cost-saving method is to switch to text messages for connecting with the healthcare staff rather than calling which is a more expensive way of delivering the message. Text messages are cost-effective and time-saving. They also reduce costs by eliminating the need to speak to an agent. Instead, the information is written down, also eliminating the possibility of an error. There are many text messaging apps used by medical answering service providers that are secure and follow the standards of HIPAA compliance.
- Use web call scheduler: Another way to reduce the pressure on calls is by giving your customers the option to use an on-call calendar to schedule their appointments. You can make your on-call changes within seconds and these changes happen real-time. Doing this on-call with live agents attracts a service charge. But giving your customers the option of doing that themselves can be of huge help.
- Populate caller information on screen: Another great way to cut down call time is by prepopulating the screen with customer information. This allows the agent to quickly confirm their caller’s identity and move on to the issue on hand. There are many ways you can upgrade this system to even carry out basic customer verification checks to further reduce the call time, thereby reducing the bill as well.
- Review the pricing plans: You may be a small business with a long way to go. So, a great first step in that direction is to hire answering services. If you are worried about the added cost, then you can use these tips to cut down the costs and also review the plans before bringing them onboard. Discuss your budget restrictions with the service provider and see if they can provide you with a customized solution suitable to your needs and finances.
Having the right medical answering service by your side can make a huge difference to the way you do your business. Apart from providing easy access to your customers, you can also give them top class service not just in person but also on the phone. By doing that, it is only a matter of time when your healthcare practice will achieve great success and your answering services will literally pay for itself.
