A patient calls to make an appointment. Ring. Ring. Ring. By the fourth ring, they’re searching Google for the next practice on their list. By the fifth, they’ve hung up…and are calling someone else. This happens day after day, minute after minute. Unfortunately, most practices don’t realize how much business they’re missing. They’re confident (or not, but in denial) that people will wait if it’s for their medical care. But that’s how the world used to work. Patients have options. If they can’t get an answer quickly, they’ll try the next place. Whomever answers first wins – and it doesn’t matter if it’s on the same street or miles away; people just want their needs met.
The Answering Window is Smaller Than You Think
Patients generally give a practice about 30 seconds before hanging up. That’s six rings on many electronic systems (one, two, three, four – time to try the next one!). Established patients may wait a little longer, but new patients have no patience. Unfortunately, that’s not all. The average person gives a practice 30 seconds to respond before abandoning a call, but they’re also judging a practice during those thirty seconds and beyond. They’re not just waiting. They’re standing in judgment as the phone rings and rings and rings, assuming the practice is disorganized, too busy to take on new patients, or understaffed. Even if someone finally does pick up, it’s too late – they’ve gone down a negative rabbit hole.
And these aren’t casual inquiries. Most people calling a practice need something – test results, medication refills, billing questions, appointments. They’re motivated.
When Everyone’s Helping Someone Else
Front desk roles inevitably create drama for calls. There’s someone at the desk checking in a patient; someone on the phone scheduling, and another verifying insurance information. When another call comes in, who’s going to pick it up? Unfortunately, nobody has the time. The one at the window can’t exit the patient conversation; and the person already on hold is locked in.
So the phone rings.
And rings.
And rings.
Yet no one is there to pick it up because no one has free hands to answer – or cares to abandon the situation.
Many practices try workarounds that fail. Voicemail leaves everyone confused – patients don’t leave messages; they hang up and try the next place. Some try more front-desk hires, but it’s challenging to pay for payroll increases without consistent need, let alone find people with sufficient experience and interpersonal skills at this compensation level. Some implement phone trees or answering machines – but that exasperates patients further and increases hold time.
Some practices have started using virtual receptionist services from My Mountain Mover to ensure calls get answered even when on-site staff are occupied. Remote receptionists handle the overflow, picking up calls that would otherwise go unanswered and managing basic scheduling and information requests.
The Lunch Hour Dilemma
Call volume does not honor office hours. Oftentimes, the greatest call volume occurs when staff are on break or during a shift change; when patients call during their lunch breaks to schedule new appointments, they hit the practice during its least coverage times.
This means that for most of the day, practices have staff there to help – but as soon as they get bombarded with calls at lunchtime or shift change – for whatever random reason – they’re completely unavailable. Phones ring because that one front desk person is trying to check out fifteen patients while others are waiting for their help as they hang up out of frustration. Phones only ring when most patients attempt to call; they don’t know that for 45 minutes; there’s only one person at the office.
What Practices Are Doing Differently
Some companies offer virtual receptionists for practices looking to bridge this gap between overwhelmed staff and patient needs. Remote receptionists can take calls that would ordinarily hang up.
If someone calls when the front desk is busy and unable to help them at that moment in time for whatever reason (on the phone, at lunch), instead of ringing until all hope is lost, someone else trained by the practice can answer. They can schedule (to a point), answer questions (to a point), and transfer calls (if necessary).
If no one ever answers – and they just keep ringing – they’re essentially transferred to my mountains mover so patients can get through, make their appointments and practices can stop losing business by unanswered phones.
Why It’s Important
Because they’re losing business through unanswered phones and Google reviews of people frustrated they couldn’t get through. When patients can’t get through, they let their friends know it’s impossible. They jump ship and get provided treatment elsewhere.
Some practices are shocked after charting their attempted outbound calls and find 20-30% of calls they’re receiving are actually unanswered during peak hours.
That’s not an operational mistake; that’s a transition issue across access points and patient care that negatively affects revenue.
How Practices Are Actually Improving This Situation
People need to acknowledge that not having enough people when there’s a phone call doesn’t work – therefore, it’s better to extend options through a hybrid approach that successfully works every time someone’s calling.
It’s nice to consider more staff but only if practices can pay for it and find people willing to work in such a role with proper experience. Better phone systems might reduce ringing time but only for those who pick up better than anyone else anyway.
Process improvements between staff-located front desks after-hours log entries do improve situations up to a point however those practices seeing real improvement almost always come from practices with supplemental hours specifically dedicated to hybrid remote receptionists.
The additional voices go a long way since there are so many times when everyone has something to do already – and when someone calls the front desk better have solutions for them – instead of losing them immediately.
Considerations for Improving Patient Care
Patients don’t care what’s happening in practice behind the scenes – like not answering phones. They want to get through and receive help; practices that figure this out consistently avoid reputation loss and receive appointments.
They maintain better patient relationships and avoid archaic provision of care. The process isn’t that complicated – but it has to work every time someone calls.
