3 Ways a Medical Answering Service Pays For Itself
If you’re considering hiring a medical answering service, but aren’t sure if it’s worth the money, here are a few ways it can actually pay for itself!
What happens when someone calls your medical service and nobody answers?
They leave a message, right?
Wrong. There’s an 80% chance they just put the phone down and go on with their day.
The result? Your medical practice misses out on new referrals and leaves current patients feeling frustrated.
With a person or computer manning the phones and directing calls at all times, a medical answering service would solve the problem.
Even better, it pays for itself.
1. Less Need for a Receptionist
Medical receptionists can set you back approximately $30,000 a year. But if you had to have one after hours and weekends, it would set you back upwards of $100k.
That’s a lot of money for smaller practices to cover, especially when multiple receptionists are required for the job. Of course, there’s training, hiring, and general HR costs to cover as well.
All told, having receptionists around leaves something to be desired from a financial perspective.
Answering services save you money by operating for a fraction of the cost. By outsourcing the handling of phone calls you swap that high monthly salary for a minimal monthly fee.
Better still, you can call it quits whenever you want. No longer need someone manning the phones? Cancel the contract in an instant with no hidden costs.
2. No More Missed Opportunities
Missed calls mean missed organizational opportunities.
You may know as well as anybody that growing medical practices need all of the patients they get. Imagine the potential lost income from missing the phone call of a new referral. Lacking an answer, they could decide to register with your closest competitor.
Likewise, imagine missing a call from somebody interested in partnering or investing. Can you afford that sort of eventuality?
These are just two examples of how missing phone calls can hamstring the success of a medical practice.
Employ a medical answering service, though, and you can wave goodbye to downtime. They can operate at all times, 24/7/365 if you so wish. You’ll never miss an income opportunity again.
3. Constant Quality Customer Service
Practices don’t just lose money when they miss out on new referrals.
They also suffer when current patients decide to jump ship. The frustration of being unable to contact your practice can make this an unfortunate possibility.
It’s a double-whammy of trouble. Not only does this equate to a loss of revenue for your practice, but it represents a boost to that of your competitors.
Like any business, the retention of clients is paramount to growth. Any ‘one in one out’ eventuality stifles progress.
An answering service means the needs of your patients are always met.
They know they can get in touch with the practice at any time of day and have their call directed appropriately. This facilitates positive reactions and, ultimately, lends itself to cost-effective patient retention.
Invest In a Medical Answering Service
Missing a phone call can have dire financial and reputation implications for any medical practice.
Thus, having an individual or computerized system on hand at all times can be an enormous support. Hopefully, this article has highlighted how investing in a medical answering service is well worth it!
Ready to reap the rewards? Contact us today to get your free quote!
Author: Michael C
Michael has over 30 years of executive call center and answering service experience. He is a successful business owner and lead generation expert and shares tips to help other entrepreneurs build and grow their business through leads generation and lead capture solutions. His mission is to share carefully guarded marketing tips that will help small-medium business compete on a smaller budget.
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