Tips on Choosing Medical Telephone Answering Services

Activity in medical offices simply never stops. When it comes to round the clock availability, healthcare providers have their work cut out for them, which is why it is critical to put in place strategies that will keep them on-call, 24/7. Because having a live secretary on your staff doing round-the-clock shifts is nowhere near as practical, cost-effective (or humane) as a professional medical answering service is. Medical answering services are a powerful addition to any medical practice because they give healthcare offices the ability to provide patients the help they need whenever they require it. However, because a medical answering service is usually the first point of contact that patients and callers have with your office, it is critical that you find a service that will help you make the correct impression. The service you choose must be able to reflect the kind of quality your patients can expect from your office. Be sure to consider the following factors when choosing between medical answering services:

•         Their affordability – While price shouldn’t be the sole driver of your decision, it should make up a good part of it. After all, you are probably turning to medical answering services to cut your overhead costs. It is never wise to choose a service just because they offer the lowest price rates. It’s often smarter to set a realistic budget range and look for services within what you are willing to pay. This way, you can weigh the quality of the services of companies you can comfortably afford, without necessarily settling for a lower-priced, mediocre quality service.
•          Their compliance – Choose a company that has strong credentials and the right qualifications. Medical calls aren’t like any other customer service calls. They should be handled with the right knowledge and skill set as well as a higher level of security to ensure the overall well-being and privacy of patients.

• Their technology – Choose medical answering services with up-to-date technologies and methodologies so you can ensure service quality and stay relevant in the field.

Reducing an organization’s work pressure with the use of Telephone Answering Services

A call centre is a centralised office which is commonly used for answering large volumes of telephone calls. It is an open workplace for all of the agents at the call centre, complete with workstations for every agent, a telephone set to telecom switch and one or more supervisor stations.

This work station can be independently operated or net worked with additional centres which are most often linked with a corporate computer network containing main frames, micro computers and LANs. This contact centre is one of the central points from which all customers contacts are managed and handled.

Via contact centres, precious information regarding the client’s company is routed to the appropriate people, contacts are tracked and data is gathered. It is usually a process of customer relationship management for the company.

The majority of large companies use these telephone answering services as means of managing their customer interactions. These centres can either be run by an in-house department or they may outsource their customer interaction to a third party.

Inbound telephone answering services are run by companies to handle incoming information enquiries from consumers. While outbound centres are operated for the purposes of telemarketing, debt collection, market research etc.

Some of the most common reasons why a lot of new businesses fail are down to a poor planning process, poor customer service and a lack of capital. Most start-ups are often unable to employ full time receptionists for their new business venture and as a result, the owners of the business will often answer any incoming calls themselves.

As a solution to this problem, some businesses hire virtual receptionists for their telephone answering service. In fact, most people feel there is a huge benefit to using live answering services, with respect to its cost. Some of the main reasons for companies using telephone answering services for reducing their work pressure are-

Ø  It is considered quite an affordable service, especially when compared to alternatives such as hiring a part time receptionist. Hiring an employee will cost more due the costs of their salary, health benefits, paid holidays and sickness cover etc. Telephone answering services are cheaper than hiring a new staff member in most scenarios. In addition, some of these services are ready to take calls seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, during nights, weekends and even on holidays.

Ø  Another reason for enlisting telephone answering services are to help protect the company’s image. Having well trained secretaries and virtual receptionists put across a great image for your company that reflect professionalism and success in your organization.

Ø  A good telephone answering service will help prevent the loss of any new customers. When new clients are in need of services in competitive industries such as attorneys and medical fields, the customer will require immediate attention. Who responds first will have a far higher chance of getting the customer’s business.

Medsecretary.co.uk is a company that offers honest, dedicated telephone answering services in the medical fields. Their telephone answering staff satisfy each customer’s queries and provide accurate information regarding either the client’s company. It reduces a lot of the company’s work pressure and also helps to provide new customers with a good first impression.