Call centers can make or break a medical practice. Patients on hold forever are likely to hang up and call a competitor. Poor customer service can also lead to negative patient reviews. Both have negative impacts on patient access, patient volume, and practice profitability.
Too many managers are overwhelmed trying to “fix” broken call centers in medical practices. Here are some of the reasons why many turn to professional medical practice call center outsourcing partners to solve their problems:
1. High call volume
Many practices struggle with phones ringing off the hook. Associates may be unable to answer all the calls while still helping patients and providing excellent customer service.
Outsourced call centers can add highly trained employees who can field calls and direct them where they need to go.
2. Long hold times
A high call volume often leads to long hold times. Ideally, patients are on hold for no more than a couple of minutes but hold times that exceed 10 minutes begin to frustrate patients.
You can reduce hold times significantly when you work with an outsourced call center, improving patient satisfaction.
3. Frequent missed calls
The additional help that an outsourced call center provides means your practice won’t lose out on new patients and valuable appointments due to missed calls.
People tend to hang up when hold times are too long. Missed calls mean patients aren’t scheduled, questions aren’t answered, and new patients are lost to other practices.
4. Patient complaints
In a world where reviews make or break a business, limiting negative reviews matters. But when the call center isn’t working well, you’ll notice more 1-star reviews complaining about their ability to schedule an appointment or how long they had to hold. They will also assume the entire practice is sub-par when they have concerns with the call center.
Outsourced call center services are a great way to ensure high patient satisfaction.
5. Overwhelmed staff
Employees want to do their best, especially those in healthcare who enjoy helping people. But when they feel overwhelmed, they may stop performing well or even quit, putting more work on the remaining associates.
You can quickly solve your team’s overwhelm by adding additional associates through outsourced call center services.
6. Struggles with finding candidates
Hiring great call center employees can be challenging. You and your HR team wind up spending weeks or months looking for the right person. If you need to find more than one qualified candidate, it can take even longer.
A great outsourcing company will manage the entire hiring process, including recruiting, screening, and interviewing.
7. Challenges in hiring and training
Once you’ve found the right person, the next step is to complete the hiring process. Hopefully, they will pass their background check and can get started. You’ll then have to spend time and money investing in their training. It can be another few weeks before they are up to speed and able to help your current employees manage the incoming calls.
Outsourcing your call center means you won’t have to worry about going through the hiring process and training each new employee. That’s all done for you.
8. Difficulties managing staff
Managing a team to maintain the highest quality service while minimizing interpersonal drama and other HR problems is often more than a full-time job.
By partnering with an outsourcing company, call center management issues become a thing of the past.
9. Lack of performance analytics
Knowing where to focus your attention when improving your call center is a guess when you don’t have access to detailed analytics. Coaching employees to higher performance can be difficult without knowing their baseline and tracking improvements. Underperforming employees can simply go unnoticed.
A great outsourcing company provides detailed performance analytics, which helps them quickly identify poor-performing employees, allowing them to correct problems immediately. It also lets you know exactly what’s happening with your patient calls.
10. Need to improve patient satisfaction
Mandated patient surveys are a part of healthcare, and call center challenges can lead to low patient satisfaction scores. When your scores are low enough, it can jeopardize your practice’s Medicare funding.
Outsourced call center employees are highly trained in customer service and can help you quickly improve your patient satisfaction scores.
Medical Call Center Outsourcing Services
If you identify with any of these ten signs, you need call center outsourcing services. Whether you want to outsource one person or an entire team, Oclinicals has the resources and expertise to help you. We handle all hiring, training, and management, freeing up both time and money to invest in other areas. We also provide detailed analytics so you know exactly how well your outsourced employees are performing.
Don’t continue to struggle with your call center – contact us about a customized plan for your practice today!