We know that running a medical practice can be a hectic job! We understand, as we currently work with over 450 medical practice owners. Managing staff, helping patients and making sure your policies and procedures are in place for CQC, it’s a lot. One thing we have noticed often gets neglected is communication, which is one of the most crucial things you need to succeed. If you look at any successful organisation, you’ll notice they’re great communicators in one way or another. To guarantee the long-term success of your medical practice, it’s important you make great communication a priority. You’ll be glad to hear that Yo Telecom medical practice phone systems will help make your communication great and as a result will help you increase the success of your medical practice! Here’s how:
6 Ways 21st Century Phone Systems Help Medical Practices Succeed
01. Save Time When Patients Phone You with EMIS Integration.
You probably use the the software EMIS in your medical practice, which contains a database of all your patients and their records. Yo Telecom offers the only phone systems in the world that will directly integrate into your EMIS software. This means you will be able to WOW your patients by knowing their name and their details before you’ve answered the phone. This will decrease the time your calls take and ensure they are handled more efficiently. Plus it means you can greet your patients by their name which shows them an excellent level of customer service which they will appreciate. You can also dial straight from your EMIS system.
02. Improve the Communication Skills of Your Reception Team
When a patient calls into your medical practice, you need to ensure that the quality of your communication is very high.
“High quality communication implies a high level of service.” – Journal of Services Marketing.
If your communication does not meet or exceed the expectation of the patient, (eg. questions not answered correctly, lots of “umming and erring”, or saying “the person you need to speak to isn’t here, can you call back?”) he/she will form an unhelpful impression of your medical practice and your patients will start to lose trust in your practice. This is where Call Recording becomes extremely valuable. It enables you to review any interactions your staff have had with customers. You can then use the recordings as part of staff training to help see what the strengths and weaknesses of your staff are and how you can improve communication. Call Recording can also be beneficial in helping to sort out any discrepancies that might occur, quickly and easily, as you have a record of every call that has been made or received.
03. Quickly and Easily Put Your Patients Through to the Right Department/Staff Member.
Traditional analogue lines can only make or receive one call at any given time, so your patients are probably very familiar with this tone. Not only is it frustrating for the patient, who is often calling to make an appointment, but it’s also frustrating for you as you don’t want to be letting your patients down. With the Yo Telecom call queuing feature, you can place your patients in a queue while they wait for their call to be answered. This is the perfect opportunity to use our on hold marketing/music feature, which will allow you to play important messages about your practice while they wait for you on the line. This keeps your patients on the line, rather than hanging up and feeling annoyed!
04. Improve Customer Service with a Professional out of Hours Voicemail.
If a patient phones in to your medical practice, the last thing they want it to be passed from person to person to have their questions answered. With Auto Attendant your phone system will put your callers through to the correct department or member of staff before the phone has even been answered. For example;
“Thank you for calling [name of your medical practice]. If you are calling to book an appointment, please press 1. For any other enquiries, please press 2. If you are having a medical emergency, please call 999.”
This will give your patients peace of mind that they are speaking to the right person. This feature is also comes in handy for your staff, as they will not have to spend their time transferring loads of calls.
05. Improve Productivity of Your Staff.
We know that medical practices receive a lot of calls and often this means that your reception staff are tied down to their desks trying to answer them all. It doesn’t have to be like this. Headset connectivity allows your staff to have their hands free while on the phone so they can take down important notes or make changes to patients records while they are on the phone – rather then trying to scribble them down on a notepad and making the changes later. This also gives them the flexibility to walk around the office or take a call from anywhere in the practice.
06. Keep Track of Your Call Statistics.
With the amount of calls you receive on a daily basis, it can be hard to keep track of them. With a statistics wall board you can see important information about your calls, such as how long it takes your staff to answer, how many calls they’ve taken, how many they’ve missed, average call times and who answers the most calls. Knowing this information can help you set targets on where to improve. For example, the time is takes to answer calls may be a lot longer than you would like it to be – so you can set your staff a goal to decrease this. You can also use this information to reward your staff. For example, you could buy lunch each week for those staff members who answer the most calls.
How To Get Started With a New Phone System:
1. Book a Demo
Book in for a FREE demo of our phone systems by calling us on 02381 103195.
2. Sign up for the Option that Suits the Needs of Your Medical Practice
One of our specialist consultants will come to your practice and discuss all of your options until we have come up with the perfect solution that meets your requirements.
3. Let us Take Care of a Hassle Free Installation & Training
Your delivery and installation date will be booked on a day that suits you. We’ll take care of the whole switch over and will train you to make the most of all of the features on your new medical phone system!
