Send the Right Message to Your Patients: 6 Tips for Proper Front Desk Phone Protocol
November 13, 2009 · Filed Under Customer Service · Comments Off
We’ve all heard the adage “bad first impressions are hard to overcome.” That is definitely true when it comes to your medical practice. How you answer the phone and how you handle patient inquiries says a lot about your practice. Does your front-desk phone etiquette send the message “We’d be honored to have you as a patient” or “We couldn’t be bothered”? You might be surprised. Please find below 6 tips for evaluating and improving how your practice handles patient phone calls.
- Get Personal – Make sure that patients (especially potential new ones who might be calling for the first time) speak to a “live” person. While an automatic attendant system may not bother some patients, others may be very frustrated by it. Why risk alienating 50 percent of potential patients when a live person answering the phone will satisfy all of them? Many practices choose automatic attendant systems due to their perceived efficiency. While we are certainly big fans of efficiency – efficiency must serve the greater goal of customer (patient) service and satisfaction. An efficient use of an automatic attendant system that also serves the best interests of your patients might be a prescription refill line or a lab-results dial-in system. Read more