In today’s competitive business climate home health care companies need to take every advantage available to them in order to stay on top. As a business manager or owner you need to be looking at workforce trends, hiring tactics, marketing through social media, as well as the systems, tools and technologies that you use to run your day to day.
With all of these things to think about, many home health care companies overlook the importance of using a quality answering service and the impact it can have on your bottom line.
Matching your business to the right answering service; It takes research.
Simply calling the first answering service you see on-line and signing up with them because they claim to be a home health care answering service is like hiring an employee without looking at their resume; it’s probably not going to work out.
Doing your research is critical. There are many things that you should consider before hiring an answering service to work with, location, outsourcing, HIPAA compliancy, experience and years in business, just to name a few.
Make sure to take advantage of a free trial if offered to get a feel for their quality and make sure that they are a good fit for your business. And before doing anything it is always a good idea to ask for references, there is no better way to get an honest opinion about a service than by talking to their clients.
How does a quality answering service actually boost profits?
Your answering service works for you, and just like any other employee, they should add value to your business. As an extension of your business taking calls after hours, on weekends or any other time that you and your staff are unavailable to do so, the answering service is assurance to you that your calls are answered. A few things that set a high quality answering service apart are staffing, training and customer service of the operators. A quality answering service will be staffed properly so that calls can be answered promptly, excessive and extensive holds often turn callers away and new patient inquiries will go to your competition.
Training of staff is critical in that the operators must know how to handle a variety of different types of calls, be knowledgeable of the home health care business and be fast and efficient in taking calls and sending messages to your staff. And last but certainly not least, the answering service and its operators must provide good customer service. The operator is often the first person that a caller speaks with as a representative of your business, they should be professional, kind and respectful at all times, just as you would expect from other members of your staff.
All of these things help your business capture new business and reflect well on your company which in turn makes your home care business desirable for those looking for care. Ratings from clients and rankings from industry organizations and peers can grow and along with that so will your client base. All of which adds up to increased profits and a healthier bottom line.
