In some choices in life, such as choosing a restaurant, several of the options are equally good. You can employ the age-old “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” technique and probably be just fine. However, important decisions require careful consideration and weighing options before selecting the right one. In your dental practice, for instance, you can’t afford to be lackadaisical about significant business choices. If you want to have a dental answering service, you’ll need to make sure they have these essential features.
Experience in the Dental Field and Customer Service
Although many answering service companies rely on pre-written scripts for phone calls, having at least some knowledge and experience in your field is important. What if the caller asks a simple question? They shouldn’t have to wait until your office can call them back to get a simple answer. Finding an experienced team to handle your practices incoming phone calls ensures that your patients are talking to competent professionals, which will reflect well on you and your practice.
In addition to field experience, the people who answer your phone calls should also be friendly, caring, and positive. After all, they provide the first impression for your practice! Interacting with a kind, helpful person can set the right tone for your patients’ visits and establish a great relationship from the start.
Transparency
These days, there are plenty of ways to track information. In fact, the answering services you’re considering should know nitty-gritty details and be able to share certain data with you, such as average hold rate, abandonment rate (how many callers hang up while on hold), and more.
Also, as you work with a dental answering service, they should be completely transparent about their performance and the calls they take. They should provide you with data, recordings, and other information upon request so that you know your callers are receiving the highest quality of care.
HIPAA Compliance
In the dental and medical fields, you deal with potentially sensitive patient information, and it must be protected. Violating that trust can tarnish your reputation and take years to fix. If your dental answering service is going to schedule appointments and handle this information, they must be HIPAA compliant; otherwise, you could run into trouble and see your business head the wrong direction.
Other Service Options
Perhaps all you require is someone to answer incoming phone calls, but if you explore other services the company offers, you may find that it can meet more than just one need. In fact, you may find one that can help with other dental administrative tasks, such as billing and insurance verification. It’s worth learning more about the other services to see how your practice can worth more smoothly.
Ultimately, your decision in a call answering service can make a difference in how your practice performs. It shouldn’t be taken lightly, so make sure the options have these things before you make this choice.
About Dental Support Specialties
Dental Support Specialties has been helping dental practices function for more than 15 years. Our team members have extensive backgrounds in dentistry and phone customer service. We are fully HIPAA compliant and offer any and all information about phone calls to your practice. We also provide billing support as well as chart auditing and more. If you would like to speak to one of our team members and learn more about our company, contact us online here.