AUTOMATED ANSWERING SERVICES ARE LOOSING YOU GOOD PATIENTS

It’s time to get rid of automated answering services during working hours.

The truth is that if you are using an automated answering service during working hours, you are loosing potential new and returning patients.

By survey, most patients feel that it is very impersonal to be received by an automated answering service and they get the idea that you are too busy to see them, so they rapidly hang up and move on! It reminds them too much of a big corporate operation – very impersonal and uncaring. They feel that once they get the automated answering service they are a number being handled by a machine and no longer a patient being cared for.

I can understand using an automated service when the practice is closed at the end of the day, but outside of that, there is no reason you should. Patient communication is one of the most important aspects of patient care. It will make or break a practice.

It can occur that your front desk gets flooded with incoming calls or has to work with a particularly talkative person, preventing them from answering incoming calls or patients coming into the office as quickly as they’d like. I find that the automated answering service is still not the way to go. I’ve had success in addressing this by working out alternative staff that are assigned to answer incoming calls when the front desk coordinator is unable to or by training the front desk coordinator to politely place a call on hold, so they can handle incoming calls or patients. This prevents the need to have patients talk with a robot to schedule their next appointment.

Good communication skills are valued as much or more by patients as clinical skills. Personal contact with you and your team, whether positive or negative, is the most memorable aspect of the medical care they are looking for. Patients assess the quality of their care not only on clinical excellence, but also on the quality of communication with the practice staff.

Getting rid of the automated answering service, establishing the personal touch with your patients and implemented the following guidelines will improve patient contact and thus build patient satisfaction. 

 

Telephone Communication

• Answer before the third ring.
• Smile as you speak to the caller.
• Begin with an appropriate greeting (per the policy of your office).
• Find out the reason for the call without being abrupt. 
• Offer to help the caller.
• Speak pleasantly despite pressures.
• Speak professionally.  Avoid jargon or slang.
•  Refer to the caller by name. 
•  Gather the necessary information (name, phone number, reason for the call) when taking calls for other staff members.
• Record phone messages accurately to avoid confusions. 
• Ask permission before placing callers on hold.
• Thank the patient for calling.  End without sounding abrupt.
• Check the off hours answering machine for messages at the beginning, middle and end of each day.
• Get back to people as soon as possible.
• Revise the off hours answering machine message once per month.
•  Revise the outgoing message to reflect closure for meetings, training, vacation, etc.

Reception Communication

• Smile and greet patients by name as soon as they enter the practice.
• Use the patients’ surnames until invited to use first names.
• Know the reason for the patient’s appointment.
• Sit or stand erectly and make good eye contact.
• Listen to the patient’s point of view and show that you understand.
• Answer questions in a concise yet complete manner.
• Explain the reason for appointment delays and offer the patient the choice of refreshment or a rescheduled appointment.
• Speak pleasantly despite pressure.
• Avoid jargon and slang.
• Explain clearly the financial policies of the practice.
• Use short sentences and simple language when giving instructions.
• Let patients know they are welcome in the practice.

In summary, if you get rid of the automated answering service and establish the best possible personal relationship with your patients, you will see your patient satisfaction improve and you practice will benefit in improved patient numbers and better practice viability.

It’s all about service!

CREATING A PRODUCTIVE REFERRAL SYSTEM FOR YOUR PRACTICE

Happy clients and word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective methods to fill your practice with new patients. An internal referral campaign to get your existing patients excited about telling their friends and families about your  the way to actively create new patients and is very important and very inexpensive.

This is one of the first things I start when working with a practice:


1. Encouraging referrals – when a new patient calls in, find out who referred them.  This of course is done by the receptionist over the phone.  Make a point to acknowledge the person whom referred the new patient.  For example, if Sally Smith referred the patient, the receptionist would say something such as “My, Sally Smith’s such a nice lady, isn’t she?  It was so kind of her to recommend our services to you!”  This if the first time the new patient hears about referrals.

 

The new patient then comes into the office and fills out a New Patient form on which it has a question, “Who may we thank for referring you?”  This is the second time the new patient’s attention has been directed to the idea of “referrals”.

 

Finally, the Doctor introduces himself to the new patient, looks at the forms, and notes who the patient has been referred by and says, “I see Sally Smith referred you.  We all really enjoy her.”  This is the third time the patient has thought about referrals.  This impresses upon the new patient the fact that referring new people to the practice is very much encouraged and is appreciated.

2. Put a tastefully bold sign you waiting area - "We would like to help as many people as possible with their health needs. Please feel free to tell your family and friends that we are accepting new patients!" or a similar wording.

3. Survey your employees and patients for an award or discount you can give them for getting new patients into the practice (obviously can't violate any local laws on referring patients). This can be a Starbucks card, gas card, or something similar for each new patient gotten from referrals and can increase with the number of referrals a patient or staff member gets.

4. Create simple referral cards with the practice's contact information and stating that your practice is accepting new patients. Offer a special for new patients. Something significant, but not at a loss for the practice.

5. Hand out two (2) referral cards to all patients as they leave. Tell them how many people don't take care of their dental needs and that you want to help provide needed dental care and that you would like them to tell as many of their friends and family as possible about your practice. Let them know what special the new patient will get and what award they get when someone comes in with a referral card.

6. The staff should initial the cards they hand out so they can be awarded too.

7. Also recommend drilling your staff on this so they are comfortable doing it.

I have had real success implementing the above steps in many practices, though I have found that for each practice they have different response times before they start seeing an improvement in new patient numbers, but it does work.