When it comes to missing a telephone call, no-one likes it! Whether you are the caller or the receiver it will always make you feel disappointed. Calls are important and losing calls can lead to patient frustration or worse, leaving them stuck with a potential injury which gets delayed or unanswered.
In this article we will help your practice overcome the challenges of missing telephone calls and help you reduce or even stop lost calls.
CRM integration
With our Clinical System Integration your practice will increase efficiency and reduce lost calls. Integration with your telephone system will help your practice minimise patient frustration whilst improving staff members efficiency.
When a patient calls up, the integration will automatically identify the caller with a ‘pop up’ window displaying the caller’s information – such as name, contact details, doctor and so on.
Clinical System integration also helps your practice minimise lost calls as you’ll be able to divert calls to the right department, GP or doctor quickly. You can set up an alert if the caller is a priority patient, meaning you can answer the call as quickly as possible.
Call reporting and wallboards
Call reporting and wallboards will display the call statistics and patient analytics to the practice staff members. The wallboards will provide valuable information to let call handlers know if patient calls are being missed.
The information displayed by the wallboards provides a clear understanding of how the practice and its telecommunication operates. For instance, you can use the reporting software to identify peak calling times of the day, and with this knowledge you can ensure more call handlers are available at this time to help reduce the number of lost calls.
The statistics will help staff members make better time management decisions to ensure the practice can provide a more positive experience to patients and callers.
Day and night mode
Some medical practices often see some patients calls go unanswered due to the practice was closed. With day and night mode, you can set your telecommunications to automatically switch functionality when the practice is closed. When the practice closes for the day, you can set messages detailing opening hours, followed by the option to leave a voicemail.
Call queuing
Call queuing is a system which allows callers to join a virtual queue according to when they ring into your practice. Using a call queuing system, you can significantly reduce lost calls resulting in less patient frustration and fewer complaints.
The system works by allocating each patient a position in the queue, with professional audio such as music, advertisements, or reminders of which position the caller is in the queue to keep them engaged and reduce the chances of them hanging up the call.
Voicemail to email
Voicemail to email is a useful feature to integrate into any medical practice which is looking to reduce the amount of missed calls it receives. The software works by sending any voicemail messages you receive directly to your email inbox. It works by sending the voicemails you miss as an attachment media file as separate emails each time you receive a new voicemail.
So, for instance, staff may take time away from their fixed handset, meaning calls may at times get missed due to their absence. With voicemail to email your practice has the ability to continue working efficiently by sending patient voicemails directly to their doctors or another healthcare professional.
Using these unique strategies will help any medical practice, GP or doctor’s office minimising missed calls. If you’re finding that a lot of your calls are going unanswered, it may be time to look at an upgrade into your telecommunications setup. Feel free to give our team a call on 0800 977 8775 or email sales@switchmedical.co.uk.