The Highest Quality Telephone Answering Service in the United States

Centratel

Telephone Answering Service

Woman helping a home healthcare client while Home Health Answering Service is taking calls

Dramatically Multiply Positive Client Reviews for Your Home Health Care Business by Using an Elite Answering Service

September 30, 2021
Home Healthcare & Hospice
By Sam Carpenter

There is no question about it: positive online client reviews lead to more new business for any home health care operation. Here’s why the strategic partnership between an elite-quality HIPAA compliant answering services and your business will lead to solid growth.

The Importance of Positive Reviews

You know this already: beyond direct word-of-mouth referrals, the single best way to promote your business is to produce an array of positive online client reviews. Nothing gives a potential client more peace of mind and confirmation that your business is going to meet and exceed their expectations, than other customers who have come before and provided reviews stating their satisfaction.

There are many customer review platforms: Google My Business, Yelp, Reddit, along with pay-for organizations like TrustPilot and FourSquare. There are others, too. Private blogs and public social media accounts also make up a large portion of the review landscape where your customers are likely to come across your company information. Your home healthcare clients now have more ways than ever to share their experiences.

If you think these reviews and casual commentaries don’t impact your business, it’s time to consider the research. Look at the stats: there is a direct correlation between the number of positive reviews and growth.

As research shows, the reach of one client is far wider today than it was ten years ago. Consider these powerful statistics from professionals who took the time to ask consumers about their decision-making steps when considering on whether or not to do business with an organization.

  • 90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. 90%!
  • 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations
  • 72% say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more.
  • 72% say they are unlikely to act before reading a positive review
  • 86% say they are hesitant to engage with a business that has online negative reviews

It’s conclusive: potential clients who seek out your home health care business, have almost certainly first vetted your organization through online client reviews. This means first impressions about your business happen quietly, online, while you’re not even present. Because they read favorable reviews somewhere online, a huge majority of the phone inquiries and personal visits you receive are from people who have already determined that you’re reliable and trustworthy.

A home health care HIPAA compliant answering service operator helping a client

Using an Elite Answering Service will lead to more positive client reviews

So, how exactly can employing an elite-quality answering service lead to more positive reviews for your home health care business? And equally important, how can this affiliation reduce negative reviews? It’s very simple:

  • Partnering with an elite-quality answering service will ensure family members and patients reach a real person every single time they call, 24/7/365. No more client/patient frustration with voicemail and the inevitable delayed responses
  • Nurses can attend to patients with little disruption as non-urgent calls can easily be screened by the service for later follow up. No question, this leads to improved patient care, allowing staff to stay focused and positive
  • After-hours coverage guarantees that no calls are missed even in the middle of the night, as urgent calls are identified and then routed immediately to on-call nursing staff. The best services are skilled at deciphering the non-urgent from the urgent
  • Utilizing an elite answering service will streamline, organize and deliver non-urgent calls for optimum efficiency allowing staff to focus on high priority patient care. There will be no more middle-of-the-night non-urgent calls to your on-call staff. Those issues will be electronically delivered to your administration office the next day
  • A HIPAA compliant answering service assures customers that their communications are always rigorously protected and secure, leading to complete peace of mind

It really is a simple thing. Your home health care business is a 24/7/365 operation, and your staff has to be available to take calls. Across the United States, elite-quality answering services provide invaluable assistance to home healthcare businesses so they can perform at their best.

Give Centratel a call for more information, or check our online information here.

A Telephone Answering Service Representative taking calls at Centratel

Centratel, based in Bend, Oregon, is a leading national telephone answering service with a specialized focus on the Home Health and Hospice sector. This service offers unmatched support to a wide range of healthcare businesses throughout the United States, ensuring effective and seamless communication solutions around the clock. Renowned for its exceptional quality and reliability, Centratel is recognized as the top answering service in the Home Health and Hospice industry, consistently outperforming competitors in both performance and client satisfaction.

Taking the Next Step

For more specifics on cost, to start the onboarding process, or to just talk to us, fill out this form with your basic information and if it’s during regular working hours (M-F 8am to 8pm EST or 5am to 5pm PST), we’ll get back to you within minutes. Or, during the above hours, you can simply call us at 800-664-7159 or send us an email to inquiry@centratel.com.

(And note: for a quick orientation on how we operate, take a moment to review one or more of the key points listed below.)

For more specifics on cost, to start the onboarding process, or to just talk to us, fill out this form with your basic information and if it’s during regular working hours (M-F 8am to 8pm EST or 5am to 5pm PST), we’ll get back to you within minutes. Or, during the above hours, you can simply call us at 800-664-7159 or send us an email to inquiry@centratel.com.

(And note: for a quick orientation on how we operate, take a moment to review one or more of the key points listed on the right.)

Terms of Service

Why Choose Centratel

BY SAM CARPENTER
September 1, 2024

1.CENTRATEL’S UNIQUE 30-DAY FREE TRIAL

Why is this important? Because it will provide you a truly accurate estimate of cost (we bill monthly), it will demonstrate our quality, and it gives both sides of this equation—you and Centratel—the necessary time to refine and perfect operational details.

Here’s a testimonial from a new medical client that had just finished their 30-day trial: “Of course, I love the cost as it is close to the amount I was allowed by the president of the company. I told him that if we did not continue with Centratel, I would resign as the Director of Customer Service, and I meant it. It’s a great fit. We have had NOT ONE complaint from a patient or in-house which, as you know, we received daily with our former answering service. I love you, Centratel, and the price. I’m ready to sign whatever documents you require. Thanks for the great service, and the free month! To a great partnership! -KB, Phoenix“

2.STATISTICALLY, THE BEST IN THE U.S.?

Answering service quality is 100% dependent on human action and reaction, and in the course of a single day a multitude of human decisions are made by the people who process the calls: Telephone Service Representatives, or TSRs. (Some answering services refer to them as “agents.” Others, “operators.”)

Like any other answering service, at Centratel we’re dealing with real live human beings and so human errors occur. But within this labor intensive service industry that is historically known for marginal quality, Centratel’s error rate is light years ahead of established standards. Our most recent Customer Reported Error Rate (April through June, 2024) was 1 customer-reported error for every 6,491 message transactions processed. That statistic is unmatched.

There’s no artificial intelligence manipulation, we do not offshore calls, and we were founded and have always operated within the United States. (Note that since early 2020, the COVID six-foot social distancing mandate drove thousands of small-to-medium sized answering services out of business. Large, foreign-owned multi-nationals, often disguised by the name of the local answering services they acquired, now thoroughly dominate the industry. Hence, an even further decline in general service quality. See this analysis.)

3.CUSTOMER SERVICE EXTRAORDINAIRE

Your concerns and requests will be instantly acted upon. It’s a work ethic that stands out in stark contrast from the general quality decline in human-to-human business-customer communications. You’ve seen it yourself, all around. At Centratel you will know the customer service people you’re working with by name, appreciating their special listening abilities as well as their take-action-now comportments i.e. see the testimonial in point #1 above. ‘Nuff said!

4.GETTING STARTED: IT’S SIMPLE AND FAST

Getting your new Centratel answering service 30-day free trial started is accomplished within 24-48 hours. From the start, your “onboarding” customer service representative will be with you every step of the way, listening carefully to your concerns, answering questions, and offering suggestions.

5.NEW TO USING AN ANSWERING SERVICE?

A majority of our current answering service accounts switched to us from another service because of quality problems. However, if you have not used a service before, you are not familiar with the options, benefits, and pitfalls. As noted, our 30-day free trial provides you—and us—plenty of time to precisely refine your desired message-taking and delivery protocols; to get things exactly the way you want them to be without any financial risk, undue pressure, or obligation. 

6.PRICING

Starting at $89 per month, our rates rank in the mid-range of the industry. For call processing, we charge by the “transaction unit” rather than the duration of time spent handling calls. The three “mega-services” in operation in the U.S. prefer time billing because it ensures the company is compensated for lower-paid/high-turnover —and thus slower— agents. In any answering service, it takes a long time for a new agent to become fast, efficient, and stable. At Centratel, we have always sought to retain experienced agents (via higher pay and great benefits) and, therefore, engender low staff turnover. Needless to say, experienced agents make fewer errors than trainees who learn on-the-job.

7.ACCURATELY COMPARING ANSWERING SERVICE PRICING IS COMPLICATED

It’s apples and oranges. There isn’t an industry standard for billing, and each answering service has its own formula. Also, as noted above, some services charge by “time” while others charge by “work units.” Others combine the two. At Centratel, we charge for the work we do, not by the time we spend. The raw truth is that the only reliable way to determine monthly cost for a new service is to use that service for a solid month. Most answering services offer a 7-day free trial or no trial at all.

8.BEWARE: MONTHLY OR 28-DAY BILLING?

Important! At Centratel, we use a “monthly” billing cycle in which invoices are compiled from the first day of a month to the last day of that month. When soliciting quotes from other services, be sure to ask if the base-rate charges are billed monthly or on a “28-day billing cycle.” There is no good reason for a 28-day billing cycle! It’s bait-and-switch: customers billed on a 28-day cycle actually receive thirteen billings per year and therefore the overall cost is higher.

9.NO CONTRACT AND SIMPLE TERMS OF SERVICE

We do not require a yearly contract for service because we believe you should have the opportunity to evaluate us real-time, without restraint. Our terms of service are simple and straight-forward.

10.VALUABLE FREE GIFT FOR CONTACTING US

If you take the time to discuss answering service with us, on the same day we will ship you a hardcover copy of Sam Carpenter’s bestselling book, Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, now in its 4th edition…but soon to be released in a 5th edition (August 2024). We’ll send you a copy of this 5th edition, too, when it’s released. (Sam is the founder and President of Centratel. December 1st 2024 marks his fortieth year of ownership.)