Your medical business has the need for patient contact and a good doctors telephone answering service must fulfill all your requirements and not be too expensive. This can make it hard to find a good service, because some of the best ones can cost you plenty each month. Here are some tips for finding the right service without breaking your monthly budget.
Narrowing Down Your Search
Perhaps one of the biggest decisions you have to make is whether to use a live or automated service. Some experts will tell you a live service is essential to medical professionals. However, many of these “so called” experts also have an interest in this method, as they are either referring or selling live doctors telephone answering service packages.
A live service can make patients feel at ease when they call because they are talking to a live person. However, live services are only as good as the people they employ and many of these people are not medical professionals In fact, they could be paid minimum wage for answering a telephone. You might have a hard time understanding some doctors telephone answering service people because they could be in a far off foreign country somewhere.
Do you choose automated services? This also depends on the kind of service you have. If an automated service takes care of all your needs and the company has years of experience in the business, they may be the best option. However, there is another important factor to consider and it concerns cost.
Fee Structures
There are three basic fee structures when it comes to doctors telephone answering service fees. They are as follows:
- By the minute – you have a certain amount of minutes each month and then when you go over that amount you must pay by the minute. Fees can be as much as $1 for each minute.
- By the call – you receive so many calls. After this amount is reached, you must pay a fee for every call.
- Flat rate – you are charged a set amount each month and it does not change from month to month. It doesn’t matter how many calls come in or go out. This is the most cost efficient method because you have no surprise bills to worry about and budgeting fees for your doctors telephone answering service is very simple and straightforward.
For best results, when you shop answering services, choose a company with many years in the business and one offering the most services for your money.
