15.11.09 / Customer Service / Author: admin / Comments: (1)
Tags: Doctors, Fulltime Employee, Machine Message
Kurt Duncan asked:
A medical answering service provides a doctor with a live answering service instead of an impersonal voice mail system. A doctor answering service provides a few major advantages over hiring an employee or simply turning on an answering machine. What are some of these advantages?
First, consider the cost-effective advantage. Hiring a fulltime employee to record your messages will cost a yearly salary with benefits (if you want to keep your worker happy). Using a doctor answering service will be far cheaper because you are only paying for the services that were needed, not a yearly wage for labor. You can always choose to order medical call center on an “as needed” basis and adjust your needs for overflow or for slow months.
Another advantage is an hourly one. No doubt, you pay good money for the services of a secretary. Yet, you will only have such an employee during office hours and maybe on the weekends if he or she is willing to work this type of schedule. Most offices don’t even deal with this type of risk. They may hire one receptionist and then use a voice mail system to record messages at night or on the weekend. When you use a medical answering service, you can be available at all hours of the day, literally any day of the week. You can have a team of receptionists representing your office seven days a week, all hours of the day and even on holidays. This will be a tremendous relief to patients who absolutely must speak to a human being and not merely record a machine message.
Some doctors may have the tendency to avoid patients on the weekend or at night. Who can blame them? Being a doctor is hard work and patients sometimes cannot comprehend the idea of “off-duty.” However, avoiding patients is not the way to go about establishing a new medical practice. This is another reason why a physician answering service is ideal. You ensure that your office is represented at all hours of the day and still give each patient personal attention when on the phone. Your patients can be assured that you will be delivered a message promptly.
Furthermore, some doctor answering services also provide additional help to callers beyond just message recording. A doctor’s telephone answering service can provide question and answer sessions, appointment booking and perhaps even emergency response. For more information on a medical answering service, visit MedConnectUSA.com.
08.10.09 / Customer Service / Author: admin / Comments: (2)
Tags: Live Answering Service, Precious Time, Real Person
Kurt Duncan asked:
Medical professionals need to have a live answering service when they will not be in the office. There are many medical professionals that take extended vacations during the summer months. It’s not as if they do not need a vacation, everyone does. But when they are gone for an extended period of time and you only get an answering machine, it can be very frustrating. You could have even asked another office to cover for you, but it’s not the same. Having a human being answer the phones and give that type of information can save a lot of grief for when you return.
No patient would say that their doctor doesn’t need a vacation. They understand that their jobs are very stressful and at times they need to walk away from it to have time to their selves or to spend time with their families. The patients just want to be told what is going on. They don’t want to have to wonder why they have not received a return call. Having a live answering service will help put an end to that speculation. You can instruct the live operators to give as much or as little information as you would like for them too. If you want them to say that you are on vacation, then they will tell them that. This is also a great way to inform a patient that another doctor is covering for you while you are away. It is much easier to take while you are speaking with someone than to hear it on an answering machine message.
A live answering service can be a lifeline for some people. People are tired of having to not speak with a real person. In this day and age we do a lot of pushing buttons to get to a live person. At times, we may never speak with a live person. We may just get shuffled around a bit in the prompts of the voicemail. Nothing will make a person hang up faster than to waste precious time pushing buttons hoping that you have the right combination to speak to someone. When you have a live person, it means that you will have someone who is listening to you. Maybe they can’t help you medically but they are listening to you. They will listen to what you have to say and then pass it on to the doctor.
23.09.09 / Customer Service / Author: admin / Comments: (1)
Tags: Daily Basis, Third Party, Virtual Receptionist
Kurt Duncan asked:
Today’s business environment requires businesses to operate lean and concentrate on developing their core business and pour all their resources toward reaching that end.
One area where businesses are discovering that outsourcing can make a real difference in their bottom line is phone coverage. Many businesses are now using a phone answering service to handle their important phone calls whether they be for appointment setting, order taking, order processing or just handling the calls that may normally handled by a receptionist. This frees the business up to concentrate on their core business and frees up resources to hire staff that will work on core areas of the business, rather than having to staff up on receptionists and customer service personnel.
A phone answering service can provide a business with important and seamless telephone answering services just like the phones were being answered by the business themselves. Live operators in a call center are trained to field a company’s calls in exactly the way a company wants their calls to be handled. Callers do not know they are reaching a third party and will reach a live operator as opposed to an automated system or a voice mail system.
Whether it is a virtual receptionist who is just taking messages and relaying them to the appropriate party to a full blown customer service operation, a phone answering service can provide a valuable service to a company that needs to have their phones covered in a professional and reliable manner. Messages can be relayed quickly by email, text messaging, fax, or a live operator can call the appropriate party and relay the message promptly. Orders can be taken and fulfilled and the company can be notified on a daily basis as to the progress of the order taking and order processing operations.
It has been noted in research that customers that call a business prefer to speak to a live person than get an automated response when they call. They don’t like having to navigate through a series of menus with the hopes that eventually they will receive a live person to talk to if they have a question or want to place an order. A live phone answering service can really be an asset to a business that wants to provide the best phone service possible to its clients. A phone answering service can be a major asset to a business looking for a cost efficient way to handle incoming phone calls in a timely and efficient manner.
17.09.09 / Customer Service / Author: admin / Comments Off
Tags: Cookie Cutter, Doctor Treatment, Voice Mail
Kurt Duncann asked:
Medical offices use answering services to make sure their patients know that they are there for them. These types of services give a special touch. Although most patients know that they are not talking with someone who can give you doctor treatment, they want to know that their concerns are heard. That is why having an answering service creates a sense of friendship. The patient knows that their concerns will be addressed by their doctor.
Most people really hate being placed in a voice mail. If you are not feeling well, the sound of a voice mail can almost propel you into state of panic. You want to speak with someone right now. Even getting to the place where you leave the message can be cumbersome. After pressing four to five numbers just to get to the person you want to speak with, getting voice mail is a true crush to the heart. Anytime you call a doctor’s office, you want to speak with someone right now.
Answering services are a great way to personalize your service. They can be trained to answer the phone at all times of the night with the sound that they may be able to help you. You do not want to have a cookie cutter person on the phone that seems as if they are reading from a script. That is a turn off as well. Warm and friendly service people will help your firm grow. If your patients have a pleasant experience, they are more likely to discuss it with their friends or family. This type of advertising doesn’t cost you a cent. You could have this person refer someone to your office just based on the excellent treatment they received.
Answering services are the answers to problems that you may have with voice mail. You may find that a lot of people hang up on your voice mail. You may not know it but you have probably missed a few people who have stayed in the area but decided to choose another doctor. Having a live person there is very professional and allows your practice to seem like it is available at any time of the day. There is nothing better than that when you are trying to build your practice. A live person can help you go from a small mediocre practice to something that you would be proud to talk about. This process is being done all over even if the town is small.
