An answering service is the lifeline for your office after normal business hours, handling everything from taking consult information to dispatching patient emergencies. Finding a qualified answering service can be a challenging, but easy task if you follow these steps:

1.  Take to heart the old adage “You get what you pay for.”   
Many physician offices think that the answering service should be a low budget item. Think about this, for a typical 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. office, your front office staff answers calls 45 hours a week.  Your answering service answers your calls almost 3 times as much at 123 hours per week!  That’s a lot!  Also remember that staying on the cutting edge of technology may add to the cost, too. A good answering service should offer many different message delivery options such as e-mailing, 2-way paging, sending text messages to cell phones, faxing and alpha & digital paging.

 2. Ask about the operator training specific to your office. 
Feel good about an office that wants to train operators on your physician’s protocol for 4-7 days, especially if you have many different physicians with many different sets of instructions.  Remember that all shifts of operators cannot be trained at the same time.  Also, ask what type of post-training testing is done.  Ask too, about operator training in general.  Do the operators understand medical terminology?  Can they spell medical words correctly? Do they understand the importance of a consult?  Request that your office start with the service on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday night.  This allows for any “bugs” to be worked out before the busy weekend starts.

3. Ask about employee turn-over. 
What is the average tenure of full-time employees?  How many part-time employees does the service have?  While you would expect some turn-over with part-time operators, does the service allow for your calls  to be answered only by “seasoned” employees while new operators are becoming more experienced?

4. Ask about extra features
like statistical reports available showing ring times, hold times, talk times and how each call was handled.  What kind of message storage is available, say, if you need to research a message that came to the service 3 months ago?  Does the service offer an automated personal greeting that can screen out non-emergency callers after business hours?

5. Ask about the service’s emergency back-up plan. 
What would happen during a power outage on the weekend or at 3:00 a.m.?  What about spare parts for the particular equipment the service uses?

6. Ask your colleagues which service they use. 
Are they satisfied overall?  If there are concerns about the service, how are they resolved?  A good service should admit to human errors, but also provide resolution in preventing the same kind of errors repeatedly.  Always ask for references.

Finally, once you have chosen a service, there are many things your office can do to make the service work its best for you.

1. Provide on-call information prior to forwarding the phone lines at the end of the day. 
90% of customers are forwarding their phone lines to the service at 5 p.m.  Make it a quick and simple process for your office staff by providing on-call schedules and changes in phone numbers prior to the “rush hour.”

2. Designate someone in your office to review your office’s information with the service at least once a month. 
Are all telephone numbers up-to-date?  Have the protocol instructions changed?

3. Share the on-call instructions with all physicians in your office. 

At Answering Advantage LLC the operators are instructed to never say “we’re just the answering service,” and to be customer-service oriented at all times. An answering service is truly an extension of your business.   Choose one that will represent your office well.

Susan is the Director of Business Development at Answering Advantage LLC, an answering service owned with her husband, David.  Susan & David have over 20 years combined healthcare experience and have been serving healthcare professionals all of the United States since 1997.  Susan is a Board Member for the Startel National User’s Group and a member of the Southern Telemessaging Association and the Association of Tele-Services International, Inc.  Please feel free to contact Susan @ 901/454-1111 or via e-mail, susan@answeringadvantage.com