Any change or improvement to your business isn’t taken lightly. Your patients, employees, and business partners all have a stake in how it turns out. Now, something as critical as your primary method of communication, your phone system, is as essential as it comes. A report from McKinsey shows that one in four small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) expect to reduce technology spending by 25 percent over the next year.
Before making any life-altering decisions, let’s examine the details of evaluating a medical practice phone system.
The Basics of a Modern Phone System
Compared to phone systems from 20 years ago, the modern medical practice phone system will blow you away, but it’s not just about features. Cost is also a significant factor in any upgrade to a medical facility. Tackling a phone system upgrade is a challenging decision to make. Even if it’s obvious, it’s a significant undertaking that needs time and proper discussion before signing a contract. With the streamlined nature of modern technology, you don’t have to sacrifice quality and features due to price constraints. You are living in a time where you can have both.
Why Now Is the Time to Upgrade Your Medical Practice Phone System
Since the pandemic began, communication expectations have risen rapidly. Patients expect fast turnarounds and limited repeating of issues. A recent study from Accenture states that 64 percent of consumers wished companies could respond faster to their needs. If you were to survey your entire patient base and your internal users, what would they say about your current communication setup? The purpose is to get you in the right frame of mind before diving into aspects of a modern medical practice phone system you may have yet to be aware of.
What Can a Modern Phone System Do?
A modern, cloud-based phone system can familiarize your patients and staff. Patients need to feel like they are more than a number, and simplifying their interactions as much as possible is the foundation on which a cloud-based phone system is built.
Features and Functionality
- Auto-Attendant: This system automatically directs patients to the appropriate department or person, reducing wait time and increasing customer service.
- Voicemail to Email: The voicemail-to-email feature converts voicemails into text format and delivers them to staff email inboxes to make returning calls easier.
- Call Recording: Call recording is utilized to maintain compliance, train staff, and ensure service quality.
- Multi-location support: Patients won’t know the difference if you have a single office with remote employees or multiple offices.
- Scalability: This is the ability to add, reduce, and transfer resources based on demand at a moment’s notice.
- HIPAA Compliance: Adherence to HIPPA regulations by ensuring encryption, secure transmission of patient data, and stringent privacy requirements.
How Will Upgrading Our Phone System Affect Our Patients?
The patients may not recognize anything right away, but over time, they will start seeing their interactions become more effortless and issues resolved in a timely fashion. They will notice the updated, professional voice talent used for the prompts when they call. Then, if they need to be transferred and the call is routed to the correct department or employee, they may think, “Well, that was unexpectedly easy.” And so on. The medical practice phone system of your dreams is now a reality. But how else will it affect our patients?
Enhanced Reliability and Performance
Older-style phone systems suffer from reliability concerns, dropped calls, and increasingly fewer companies willing or able to service these antiquated systems. With UCaaS, your managed service provider will be able to do diagnostics remotely, log potential causes, and implement fixes without needing to roll a truck and give you a horrendous arrival time window between 11 am and 6 pm; we’ve all been there.
Competitive Advantage
Your patients, employees, and insurance providers all talk about their experiences, and the experience they receive from the modern phone system you are considering will show that you are the patient-provider they need to tell their friends about. Word of mouth is five times more effective than paid ads, so this will be your new business superpower.
The Time is Now for a Shift to the Medical Practice Phone System of the Future
It’s never just one thing that outshines everything else, and the same can be said for a new medical practice phone system. With the system provided by Rhode Island Telephone, you will cut costs, upgrade patient communication, and reduce internal frustration from a lack of connectedness. Contact us today for your next step toward a better life.
