The first point of contact to your Practice
The Telephone is one of the most used but least
understood business Tool
“You never get a second chance to make a first
impression”
Linda Demetriou
Demco Communications Ltd
Established in 1992
Co Founder of Careline 4 Vets
Support in excess of 1500 Clients
Home Working
SME
Medical Practices and Surgeries
National Enterprises
Local Government and Schools
Siemens Main Partner in London
LG Nortel Main Reseller for London
Industry Awards:
Siemens Customer Care Award
Siemens Solutions Partner Award
Siemens Services Award
Siemens Sales of the Year 2007
BSI-ISO 9001:2008
Access to your Practice
• 89.6% of all Appointments are made by the
Telephone
• 91.8% of Emergency Cases, first use the
Telephone
• 92.3% of follow ups from the Practice are
made by the Telephone
• Probably this make the Telephone the
doorway to your turnover and Profit??
Cost to the Practice
• Each appt is £50 Average
(calculation on a life of
an animal and on 2 missed calls a year)
Average life of a Dog is 10 Years
• £50 per Visit at 2 visits per year x 10 years
£1000.00
Average life of a Cat is 13 Years
• £50 per Visit at 2 visits per year x 13 Years
£1300.00
Recent Survey Quotes!!!
Do you believe you are loosing
business? YES
• “Because clients do not have to wait for you to be
efficient, they can go elsewhere”
• “Customer Service”
• “Not enough Staff to answer more lines”
• “Lack of reception call to action”
• “Habits of people”
• “We only have 2 receptionists and they can only
manage 2 lines”
What you need to
know
• How many lines do you have?
• How many total calls do you receive?
• How often are your lines engaged and calls go unanswered?
• How quickly do your staff answer and handle a call?
• Process of answering and handling a call? This can involve different
aspects.
• Do you know how efficient your staff are? Do they offer appointments
to each prospective Caller? How much time do they waste?
• Do you have empty consultation slots? What is the actual cost of an
empty dairy?
How do you
measure your lines
• Exchange reports: These are available by BT:
Indirect Networks
• Within our own billing platform we offer
full Network Reports.
• These are important, as they measure the number of engaged calls
and unanswered Calls
• Additional information such as
» Peak Times of the Day » Out of Hours Calls
» Busy Days of the Week and Month » Average duration of calls
6 Lines – 2 Receptionists
How does this work?
• Pro Active, know who is calling before you answer the call, this can safe 30 seconds per incoming call, with easy access to your Practice Management Software (PMS)
• Ensure your Back up staff are available to answer calls during your busy periods. Effective telephone system programming can easily manage this for you.
• Auto Attendant must be simple and effective with only a limited number of options, but use the technology to filter calls away from your Reception.
• Correctly train your receptionists on how to place a call on hold whilst talking to another caller. A professional receptionist should be able to handle the correct use of the technology available to her. In every other industry one receptionist is expected to handle more than one call at a time, so why not yours!!!!
• Dedicated numbers (DDIs) for easy access to various departments, such as Accounts, Referrals, Prescriptions, Pet Insurance and Claims
• If you are a multi practice surgery, then have your overflow calls answered by one of the other branches. Technology makes this extremely simple, and allows you to use all your resources effectively.
• Invest in a Call Recording facility, and use the information to enhance training with your staff. You can do this yourselves or use the services of a professional firm.
Seconds make
money
• Lets take an average practice with 5 Vets, 2 Receptionists and
3500 calls per month. (average of 140 calls per day) on 3 lines
• Average call duration is 3 minutes, which equates to 420 minutes
per day = 7 hours
• Auto Attendant/DDIs re routes 18% of calls away from reception = 25 calls per day
• PMS and CTI enhances by 17% (30 secs off a 180 sec call) = 24 calls per day
• Re Training on Call Handling will safe a further 12% = 17 calls per day
• This provides sufficient time that equates to
