Are you a functional medicine practitioner that answers their own phone? Or maybe you have limited coverage at your front desk and the answering machine ends up picking up during the day. Either way, when your phone goes unanswered, you are missing out on potential patients.
Here are the top reasons that you should consider an answering service for your functional medicine practice.
1. Catch Overflow Calls
No matter how many people you have in the office that can answer the phone, there are still times when everyone is handling patients. When all of your lines are busy, a call center will answer the overflow. You can set up your daytime scripts for the person answering the phone to take a message for someone in the office to call them right back.
2. More Likely to Result in a Message
Even if you have an answering machine, most non-patients will not leave a message. If they were referred by a friend, they are more likely to do this. But, if you are investing in SEO and relying on organic search traffic, those types of leads usually just go to the next person on the list.
By using an answering service, potential patients can talk to a real person and leave a message. Just make sure you develop scripts that instruct the call center to get a name and number of the caller.
3. Easier to Follow-Up on Potential Patients
It’s much easier to follow-up with potential patients when they have spoken to someone on the phone. The call center will send you an email with the information from the caller, which can be easily organized. Often times, the front desk will delete messages that are left on the answering machine to keep themselves from getting confused. However, you can scroll back through emails from the call center to find potential patients to follow-up on.
Many times, when you call someone back, they may not answer their phone. Your front desk will leave a message, but that doesn’t mean that the person will call back. It’s important to follow-up and make sure that you are calling these patients back. It’s not uncommon for them to call and ask a few questions, but not get back in touch with you.
4. Added Value For Existing Patients
Not only does an answering service help you capture potential patient information, it provides added value for your existing patients. Here are a few reasons this benefits your existing patients:
- If they are waiting outside to come in for their appointment, it’s comforting to know that an actual person took their message.
- When you go on vacation or have holidays, you can have the answering service put emergencies through to your cell phone.
- Even existing patients don’t always leave messages, but rather hang up and try to remember to call later. An answering service will put the ball in your court to get back in touch with them.
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We know that running a functional medicine practice and all of the moving parts takes a lot of time. That’s why our experts come alongside practitioners and take over their SEO. If you’d like for us to look at your site and provide you with feedback, fill out our free strategy form here. We look forward to hearing from you!
