If you run a healthcare business, you probably have to take a great deal of phone calls. In fact, some days it seems like everyone tries to call at the same time. In addition, many people try to contact you after hours, on holidays, and weekends. To take care of this, you need an effective phone system and medical answering service pricing is an important part of your operating expenses. Here are some helpful tips for getting the lowest prices and the most efficient services.
What Kind of Services Do You Need?
The first thing to consider with medical answering service pricing, is your needs. Here are some questions to think about:
• How many patients are seen in this business each day?
• Are there frequent emergencies to deal with?
• Do you receive a high amount of critical calls (ones which require immediate attention)?
• How much can you afford to pay for these services – in other words, what is your budget for answering and returning calls?
Automated or Live Service?
Would you like to have someone answering the phone 24 hours a day and seven days a week? This will provide your callers with a “live” attendant at all times, or maybe you can use a good automated system. Remember not all automated systems are the same. Some are much better than others, and some services offer both live and automated features.
Live Service
If you want to pay someone to answer your phone 24/7, this is going to affect your medical answering service pricing. In fact, these services can be expensive because someone has to be on duty at all times. Most small practices cannot afford these services.
Automated Service
If you use a simple answering machine or service many of your callers will hang up and not leave a message. This is not good for business. However, a high tech virtual system can provide exceptional service and meet the needs of most medical professionals these days. For example, an efficient service can automatically screen calls and urgent ones will be transferred to the physician on duty within seconds. Taking care of urgent medical needs is the most important feature of an answering service.
Flat Rate or By the Minute?
There are two basic types of medical answering service pricing options. You can pay by the minute, and this can get extremely expensive. Plus, it can be difficult to plan and budget for this type of service. A top rated answering service charging affordable flat rates, will provide you with some of the lowest medical answering service pricing plans.
