How to Keep More Patients Using a Medical Answering Service

Medical answering service

A recent 2021 survey showed that out of today’s forms of communication for contacting a business. In the survey, about 69% of respondents still prefer to talk to a live agent on the phone.

Good customer service is essential for keeping customers happy, whether you operate a retail store or a medical practice. High medical call volumes can deter patients from attending scheduled appointments. It can also cause your patients to go elsewhere for care.

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How can you retain your patients? A medical answering service. Wondering how a medical answering service can help you keep patients in your medical practice?

In this guide, we’ll explain how you can improve your healthcare phone systems with a healthcare answering service. If you’re interested in finding out the details about medical phone systems, keep reading for more information.

Provide a 24/7 Doctor’s Answering Service

As much as you want to devote every waking hour to serving your patients, it just isn’t possible. There will be times when the phone lines are congested and patients may not be able to get through.

Some offices use automated service menus, voicemail services, and hold music to field calls but this can just frustrate your patients even more. If they can’t get through on the phone they may hang up. They may even go to another medical office instead.

With a medical answering service, you can utilize 24/7 healthcare phone services to give your patients access to answers for their concerns at any time day or night. This could be an after-hours service, during lunch breaks, or during times when your medical practice may receive heavier medical call volumes.

You can also use a medical answering service for taking calls over the weekends and holidays. This ensures your patients still receive prompt attention to their concerns no matter when they may arise. This will keep your patients happier so they’re more likely to stay with your practice.

Improve Patient Satisfaction

The use of a 24/7 medical answering service will allow your patients to have more ways to communicate with your office. This will improve their overall satisfaction. Your patients will feel like they are valued and made a priority.

Patients who feel listened to will see you as a medical practice that cares about them. This, in turn, leads to a favorable view of your practice. Patients who experience increased satisfaction will be more likely to attend their regularly scheduled appointments.

Patients who are happy with your practice will also recommend your office to others. Friends, family, and co-workers receive word-of-mouth referrals from satisfied patients.

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Enhance Patient Communication

88% of consumers prefer a form of communication that doesn’t require them to repeat their previous interactions or information.

A medical answering service keeps a record of all of a patient’s messages made in the service. This cuts down on the need for repetition. There are no jumbled voicemail messages to decode either.

Patients who know they’re being heard will also be more open about communicating their needs. This will help open up the lines of communication between the doctor and the patient.

Whether it’s an issue with a medication dosage, a troubling side effect, or some other issue, they will know it’s okay to come to the medical answering service with questions.

Offer Bilingual Medical Answering Service Messaging

Giving your patients the option of a bilingual medical answering service ensures that they have a way to communicate their needs in their native language. Bilingual services through a medical answering service let your patients chat with a Spanish-speaking live agent.

Your patients won’t have to worry about something getting lost in translation when communicating with your office. You will gain the respect of your Hispanic patient base and your medical practice will attract a wider base of patients.

Forward-thinking medical practices must embrace diverse cultures to stay relevant. A medical answering machine with bilingual language capabilities can accomplish this.

Create an Appointment Scheduling Line

Managing appointments can take up a large part of a medical office’s day spent on the phone. Patients needing to schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments have busy lives themselves and don’t want to spend a lot of time trying to call the office.

If a patient is unable to get through to your medical office over the phone to change an appointment, they will just end up as a no-show. This leaves you at a deficit as each unfilled appointment slot costs you money.

If you have a medical answering service, it can function as a dedicated appointment scheduling line. This will make the appointment process easier to navigate.

Canceled and rescheduled appointments can be filled much easier with more notice. Your appointment book will stay full and your patients will be much happier too.

Modernize Your Medical Office

Cluttered stacks of notes and paperwork may get lost in the shuffle of everyday office work. This may further frustrate patients who feel their messages aren’t getting through. Don’t let important patient calls slip through the cracks.

A medical answering service keeps these messages organized in a secure computer database. There is a record of the date and time each message came through the service and when it was resolved. You can also have HIPAA compliance and privacy settings built-in.

Modern forms of organizing phone messages help you streamline your medical office. A smoother operating medical office will benefit both patients and doctors in the long run.

Find the Right Medical Answering Service for Your Needs

A medical answering service with a live agent offers your patients a personal touch when interacting with your medical office. It can help set you apart from other medical practices.

Using a medical phone answering service to field calls can save you time, money, and frustration. When your patients are happy, your medical practice can thrive. You’ll both reap the benefits of its service.

Medical Call Service helps you find the right healthcare answering service to meet your needs. We provide quotes for the top medical answering service companies.

Contact Us today to receive your free medical answering service quotes.

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