Telephone On-hold messages for medical centres are pivotal to maintaining and improving patient services. It doesn’t matter whether your patients are calling for enquiries, appointments, emergencies, or follow-ups, they want to feel special and connected each and every time..
According to Glance, 67% of callers hang up over being redirected on an automated system because of the disappointment of not reaching a live customer representative
An article published by Mediapost points out that two of the root causes of poor service are getting trapped within an automated self-service and that customers have to wait too long on hold without engaging messages to listen to.
Patient Experience – pain points
Frustrated Patients
Patients are calling for health concerns. Do not keep health concerned callers on hold for too long. Waiting on hold with messages may seem forever to them, however with the right recorded content the chance of hang-ups are reduced while engagement is maintained.
Hang-ups
Listening to uninteresting and annoying messages leads to potential hang-ups. Every effort should be made to turn this situation around.
Callbacks
The on-hold messages for medical practitioners should avoid giving a call-back option. This is especially critical for health concerns.
Lost returning patients
A lot of instances of frustrated patients hang-up or callbacks can lead to losing returning patients. One solution to keep your patients engaged on an on-hold is by providing messages that leave interesting facts, information, and value about your services.
Benefits of Engaging Medical On Hold Messages.
- Boost your customer service
Patients can have the basic information they need from an on-hold message. At times they’d have enough satisfaction through on-hold music and the relevant messages. Patients should be able to obtain quick notes from your messages while waiting.
- Health care awareness
Giving out beneficial health information through on-hold messages keep callers attentive and waiting to talk to your staff. It doesn’t only reduce their effort to research online, but can also be used as an opportunity to convey first-hand information on beneficial health facts, such as seasonal check-ups and travel vaccines.
- Highlight your expertise
An opportunity to highlight your health company’s services through well written and enticing messages on-hold. Patients on hold then become aware of your services, achievements, and stories. A summary of your service highlights and milestones can leave your patients with a sense of credibility.
- Maintain and increase returning patients
Existing patients want a sense of security. When you craft an engaging on-hold script paired with calm background music, they tend not to hang-up at the same rate or wait for another time to call back. It makes them feel important even when they have to wait for their turn.
Now that you know the benefits of on-hold messages for patients, you should know what types of scripted messages you should put on them.
Do’s
- Entice them with a heart-warming greeting.
- Inform your patients that they may have to wait for a while in busy times.
- Engage them with interesting facts like your services, company trivia’s, health care trivia’s, and stories. You can even include a bit of humour without compromising your professional value.
- Provide basic solutions for common concerns (answers to FAQs), perks of availing your services, relevant news, and facts, medical insurance, reminders for important events, or updates.
- Entice them with calming and engaging background music.
- Create a conversational message.
- Make your message tone relatable, on point, in character, and more human.
- Introduce your website, appointment booking App and other ways to contact through social media accounts.
- Ask for patient feedback.
- Give out a simple thank you message.
- Immediately advise who to call if the matter is an emergency for every new caller to a medical practice.
Dont’s
- Remind them that they are on hold.
- Apologise that they are on hold.
- Tell that you can’t attend to their call for the meantime or say that you’re busy.
- Frequently repeat messages you that already to that caller.
- Craft a message that sounds like a pitch.
- Tell the caller how long they have been on hold.
Here are some messages that patients don’t want to listen to:
“As our valued client…”
“Thank you for calling…”
“Please wait on the line…”
“Quality service…”
“Our customer representative is…”
There are lots of messages that patients get used to listening to on a hotline. Make their on-hold experience feel different. Leave them with a sense of satisfaction and real connection with every call.
A Quick Recap
Leaving callers on hold to no professional on hold messages can increase the number of phone call hang-ups, lost patients, missed healthcare concerns, cancellations, and appointments. Make your patients on hold call experience worthwhile. Give your medical service company a boost in customer care and grow your communication opportunities.
You’ll never know the unlimited opportunities you have with every single on-hold call. Nurture a sense of trust, reliability, and satisfaction with exceptional medical on-hold messages.
