We are often asked about return on investment (ROI) when engaging with potential new customers. ROI questions are legitimate. After all, no service is worth paying for if it doesn’t generate some sort of tangible return.
We like to return the ROI question with one of our own: what is the ROI of a live voice to your practice? In other words, how many patients will you gain by ensuring someone always answers the phones? By contrast, how many patients is your practice losing via missed phone calls and voicemail services?
Poor Phone Service Chases Patients Away
We would love to be able to offer hard numbers explaining just how many patients you stand to lose by not guaranteeing callers hear a live voice on the other end of the line. But the data vary widely based on specialty, practice size, geography, and other factors. We can tell you this: poor phone service chases patients away.
One of the first areas of weakness among small practices is handling incoming calls during regular office hours. Smaller practices miss an estimated 30% of those calls, sending them to voicemail instead. Not only do practices end up investing more time and effort in following up on voicemails, but they also risk alienating callers who would otherwise become loyal patients.
Call Abandonment Is Also a Problem
Another small office pain point is the interactive voice response (IVR) system. IVR systems are often marketed as a way to alleviate the pressure on office staff by automating initial phone contacts. Through automation, the system is able to route calls so that office staff only need to answer those that other team members can’t handle.
The problem is that many of those calls are abandoned before callers actually reach their intended staff members. We don’t know the exact abandonment rate, but we have seen studies suggesting it could be as high as 50% in some cases.
If your practice is even losing 10% to abandonment, that still translates into significant new patient losses over the course of a year.
They Don’t Call Back
The biggest concern of all is that callers do not call back when their initial inquiries are missed or they choose to abandon an IVR system. Again, we don’t have hard and fast numbers because the data varies so much. But we have seen estimates ranging from 60%-85%.
More than two-thirds of frustrated callers never calling back translates into a ton of missed opportunities. How many of those callers could have been loyal to your practice had they been taken care of over the phone? Suddenly, the ROI of a live voice carries more weight.
Live Answering Services Are the Ticket
Whether your practice needs full coverage, supplemental coverage, or strictly after-hours service, live medical answering services are the ticket to capturing those new patients who would otherwise be turned away by an IVR system or voicemail.
Your practice needs new patients in order to grow. New patients drive revenue, which is also important. So why take chances? Why risk driving new patients away by not greeting them with a live voice and professional service?
We will not argue that paying for medical answering services adds yet another cost to the balance sheet. But we propose that our services pay for themselves in patient satisfaction and loyalty. Our services also contribute to better operational efficiency, and that further drives revenue.
How many calls does your practice miss every day? How many calls are abandoned? The ROI of a live voice is measured in the results of answering those calls.
