Managing a medical practice requires offering the best care to patients and working conditions to staff. Patients derive satisfaction from practices that offer timely appointments and appropriate assistance. Having a highly efficient answering service is a way to offer better service to patients while saving your staff from burnout. Check the tips below on how to customize your service delivery in your medical practice.

Customized greeting

It is important to customize the greeting for anyone calling your practice. This will significantly act as an extension of the wonderful services to expect from your business. You have to give your answering service a script with how you would like phone calls to be answered always. Perhaps you would like to use your brand tagline. You might also consider the call operator to answer the phone and ask the caller whether they have an emergency. Ensure to give the operators a script to use when answering all callers to your practice.

Offer basic business information

Apart from offering a script with a greeting, you have to give the answering service answers to some of the frequently asked questions. This allows giving callers answers to all the basic questions about your practice. These might include

• Services offered
• Official business hours
• Modes of payment accepted
• Medical insurance accepted

Having answers to the FAQs is time-saving by eliminating chances of callbacks.

Active listening

Giving call operators a script is very important in medical answering. However, patients have various needs. Therefore, it’s a great idea to hire a medical call center offering customized services. This should offer tailor-made services to customers including holding non-urgent messages and delivering them at a convenient time. The operators explain procedures in your practice including insurance billing to address patients’ concerns. This requires the operator to listen actively to the patient’s concerns and questions and advising them accordingly.

Offering commonly-requested services

Patients usually call a medical practice  to seek solutions to problems. Perhaps they want to schedule, re-schedule, or cancel an appointment. This eliminates the chances of frustrating no-shows that cost a lot of time. Fortunately, an answering service will handle appointment scheduling on your behalf. For patients who call with emergencies, the call operators offer a triage for such calls to meet your customized specifications. Offering assistance to commonly-requested services encourages more cash inflow with subsequent improvement on your bottom line.

Safe protocols for message delivery

It is very important to have a reliable and 100 percent HIPPA compliant message delivery system with the help of a professional answering service. The agency has the appropriate technology to allow safe transfer of patients’ personal information through text and email. You have to work with the agency to select a convenient and affordable option to receive messages that suit your preferences. Safe handling of patients’ information saves your practice from fines for non-HIPAA compliance and reputational damage.

Bilingual or tri-lingual service

In a globalized economy, it is not easy to determine what language callers to your practice are going to use. To offer more customized service, hiring an answering service with operators speaking more than one language is a great idea. Patients will like speaking to someone who understands them. They will be in a better position to clearly state what is disturbing them. The solution is to use professional call operators speaking English or any other language including Spanish, Chinese, Polish, or Russian.

24/7 availability

Medical emergencies can happen at any time of day or night. Therefore, you have to plan for callers with emergency calls at any time. It would be a bad experience calling and hearing voicemail on the other end. The caller is likely to hang up and call another practice. This leads to loss of income and negative consequence on your bottom line. Luckily, operators from an answering agency are available 24/7 and prioritize emergencies to the benefits of patients. This gives patients a positive impression leading to more return customers and good reviews.

Bottom line

Offering customized service delivery in your medical practice is a commitment to improved patient care. You will also be marketing your brand to meet growth goals. Collaborating with a professional answering service offering customized services is the trick to making this possible.