You’ve worked hard to build a patient-centric medical practice, where the individuals who choose to entrust their health and wellness to you can feel heard and cared for. But increasingly, it feels like many of the people who walk through your door come in annoyed, you’re getting frustrated voicemail messages, and the number of new patients isn’t increasing the way you’d hoped.
The problem is that despite the money and time you’ve sunk into establishing etiquette and protocols for inbound calls, your practice is dropping the ball on making that critical good first impression, especially when new patients call in. Any medical practice faces challenges in ensuring prompt and efficient call handling, staff training, and optimizing phone systems for improved efficiency. But issues in these areas are a serious impediment to growth, as they can lead to missed opportunities and patient dissatisfaction when they are not addressed effectively.
Figuring out where your practice can improve on managing incoming calls starts with frankly examining what problems your patients are experiencing when they try to reach out.
A medical office faces a daily balancing act: Providing care for the patients who have appointments booked while also managing the flow of questions, appointment requests from existing patients, and new patient inquiries. It can often feel like there aren’t enough hands or hours in the day to get it all done, let alone the time or resources to change your systems to take some of the load off your staff. This can end up negatively affecting the experience of patients who call in through:
| Challenge | Effect |
| Missed calls | Staff shortages, lunch breaks, or heavy in-person workloads can lead to a significant portion of incoming calls being missed. |
| Long hold times | Similar factors can contribute to long waits on hold, leading to frustration or causing patients to abandon their call. |
| Inadequate staff training | Front office staff may not be adequately trained to handle new patient inquiries, potentially creating a negative first impression and leading to missed opportunities. |
| Outdated phone systems | Older phone systems may not be able to efficiently manage call volume or route calls to the appropriate staff member. |
| Communication barriers | Patients may have trouble understanding the automated phone system or getting their calls through to the right person. |
How can you address these problems so that patients get prompt attention and great service every time they contact your office?
| Solutions | Suggestions for implementation |
| Increase phone availability | Consider staggering staff lunch breaks to avoid phone “dead times,” adding extra staff to cover peak call times, or using referral specialists to answer calls during nonpeak hours. |
| Prioritize prompt response | Aim to answer calls quickly and address patient needs efficiently to avoid long hold times or missed calls. |
| Improve call handling skills | Provide comprehensive training to front desk staff on how to answer calls promptly, gather necessary information efficiently, and schedule appointments. |
| Utilize up-to-date technology | Implement a call center or Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to manage incoming calls efficiently, route them to the appropriate staff, and provide self-service options for patients. |
| Monitor and evaluate call performance | Track metrics such as answer speed, hold times, and call abandonment rates to identify the most urgent areas for improvement. |
If the thought of asking more of your already busy staff has you feeling discouraged, the solution is to implement an AI Call Center. At Iffel International, we have developed Emma, our own AI-powered call system, which can be programmed to handle the specific requirements of your medical practice. Unlike traditional, impersonal “press one to…” phone systems, it offers patients a more intuitive, natural-language experience to assess their needs and efficiently connect them with the right staff members. It also saves valuable staff time by automating the basic steps of initial contact, reserving their effort for the tasks only they can do. Your practice will be able to offer new patients who call in a reliably consistent, positive experience while reducing costs, lightening HR management requirements, and effortlessly supporting growth.
As a marketing agency experienced in the unique needs of the healthcare industry, Iffel International can align your marketing strategy with your ideal sales strategy through our proprietary SEO2Sales process and equip you with the technological tools you need to seamlessly manage growth with a high level of patient service. To find out more about how we can help your practice thrive, contact us here today.
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