Top Qualities of a Professional Telephone Message

by Kristen White Blogger

‘Live’ call centers are more expensive to use and they rely on individuals answering the phone exactly the same for everyone that calls in whether it is for a routine question or an emergency. The main issue with this approach is that humans can have bad days and there is no way to remain emotion-free for an entire shift which can affect the caller’s impression of the office. Automated services provide a consistent approach for every call and, when set up correctly, will ensure that calls are picked up on the first ring if not answered by the staff.

The top healthcare call centers understand the need for a professional message which is why they can provide clients with a template that can be modified to meet their specific needs. The initial message should include the name of the facility and routing options which will provide additional instructions on what to do. This may be the point where callers can choose the priority of the call or possibly select a specific doctor if the practice has multiple physicians who handle their own patients. The message should be clear and contain special information if there are unique situations to consider.

If the patient selects the non-urgent route then additional options may be provided if the routine message needs to go to someone specific or clients can choose to keep it simple and give the caller a chance to leave their message. These will be delivered electronically through a secure channel to the office at an agreed upon time each day so staff can review, forward to the doctor and call patients back with the necessary information. For emergency calls, the best med answering service will have a quick notification system in place based on the client’s on-call schedule and notification preferences.

The doctor can call the patient back from their phone while protecting their private information based on the system’s setup. One of the advantages of using the automated message system for this is that the patient can leave details in their own words with no chance of misinterpretation or miscommunication with a ‘live’ call person. The physician hears directly from the patient and can call back and ask follow-up questions so they can provide the necessary guidance on next steps.

Automated messages should give callers clear direction on what personal information to leave on the message and their reason for calling so staff members have what they need to pull the patient’s chart and know what the caller is looking for. Patients never have to worry about explaining something more than once because the call-taker didn’t get it the first time or being put off by someone’s mood because automation has the same tone with everyone. By giving callers the ability to control the direction of the call, they are more confident to trust the system and only contact physicians in a true emergency while leaving non-urgent issues to be handled during business hours. Make sure your message system can be customized to fit business needs, is affordable and flexible enough to grow with the practice.