Does Your Practice Need a Call Center?
When a patient calls your office to speak with a representative, this is often the first interaction they will have with your team. If they are on hold for an extended period or feel overlooked, they will likely associate this with your brand. Therefore, ensuring that your practice has dedicated team members to take calls and adequately represent your brand is important.
Many healthcare professionals juggle with the idea of when to start outsourcing calls. Unfortunately, there is a common misconception that you should begin outsourcing when your current staff can no longer handle the magnitude. However, this can be highly damaging to your practice and tag your brand with a negative connotation. With this in mind, inquiring about different call centers is very important to see which will give your patients the best experience.
However, in certain instances, even practices with a designated call center notice inconsistencies and issues with patient relations. This is why it is essential to ensure the call center you choose is a good fit for your practice and its needs.
At NewGen Marketing, we are a modern marketing agency specializing in optimizing the patient experience. This includes attention to patient relations, CRM, website marketing, social media marketing, and call center operations. NewGen’s call center team is formed with a highly attentive group of industry professionals experienced in patient communications. But more importantly, a team dedicated to making patients feel heard, understood, and valued.
Are you noticing any issues within your call center? Check out NewGen’s tips on how to improve operations at your call center here.
10 Ways to Improve Healthcare Call Center Operations
1. Provide comprehensive training.
Providing extensive training in healthcare call centers is essential when assembling a call center team. For your call center agents to be ready for any questions, they must be familiar with services, staff, systems, and general medical terminology.
2. Hire dedicated patient coordinators.
Having dedicated patient coordinators is essential to running a thriving healthcare call center. You want to ensure your agents are passionate about helping your patients find help and get the attention they deserve.
3. Use a CRM system for your healthcare call center.
Customer relationship management programs can increase efficiency and productivity throughout your organization. Not only does it connect different departments, but it can also allow patient coordinators to store call history, records, and patient information.
4. Show empathy towards patients.
If your patients call and express concern, doubt, or stress regarding their condition, it is important that your patient coordinators can connect with them in a personal way. Patients want to feel heard and understood, so encouraging healthcare call center agents to acknowledge patients’ feelings is essential.
5. Update technology periodically.
Using outdated technology can be frustrating and difficult for your patient coordinators. It is important to provide them with modern resources so they can focus on acquiring more patients.
6. Encourage teamwork.
Successful healthcare all centers encourage their agents to communicate with each other to ensure operational efficiency is maintained. Periodic meetings to update staff and build morale can go a long way.
7. Offer omnichannel support.
Depending on the patient, they likely have different preferences when it comes to communication. Text, email, call, and website messaging support is vital to ensure you reach all patients.
8. Create call scripts.
If your call center consists of a newer team, it may be helpful to offer call scripts. Not only will this support your patient coordinators, but it can also help strengthen your company’s branding. It should be noted that call scripts should be used loosely and not define the agent’s conversation with a patient.
9. Ensure your healthcare call center agents are HIPAA compliant.
HIPAA regulates how your practice stores patient information and data. Employing agents familiar with HIPAA regulations is indispensable to ensure your practice protects patients’ rights.
10. Ask for patient feedback.
The easiest thing you can do to improve your healthcare practice is to ask for patient feedback. The overall goal of a call center is to be more accessible to your patients, so your call center should be designed around them.
Did You Know NewGen Marketing Offers Healthcare Call Center Services?
NewGen Marketing is a medical marketing agency offering digital marketing help to all healthcare organizations. We believe that effective marketing comes from a 360-degree approach and that all platforms must be utilized to see significant results.
NewGen’s call center team is dedicated to optimizing the patient experience. If your healthcare practice is struggling to maintain and acquire patients, we can help. Contact NewGen today to learn more about our services.