We’ve all been there — listening to elevator music while we’re trying to make a doctor’s appointment or get help, on the phone… Sometimes we get irritated and hit zero or shout “operator!!” until we connect. Sometimes we get so frustrated that we just hang up!
Luckily, speech-enabled call routing in healthcare enables patients who know what they want to get to that person or department quickly.
- Want to make an appointment? No more elevator music! Do it quickly.
- Need medical records? No waiting on hold! Get to that department fast.
- Need to talk to someone about your upcoming surgery? No more getting transferred! Speak directly to the specific pre-operative scheduling person who is TRAINED to answer all those questions.
- When routine callers can easily self-serve, operators aren’t overwhelmed by large call volumes, and they’re more available for people who need complex support.
It’s 2021. Speech-enabled call routing means you can get to where you need to be quickly and easily, without waiting on hold. Rising consumerism in healthcare means health systems must pay attention to the patient experience. Patients demand the same high level of service as retail customers… and hospitals are looking for innovative technologies to satisfy those needs. 75% of consumers state they want the same experience in healthcare that they get from other industries.
Positive patient experiences are so important to hospitals. Patient feedback drives HCAHPS scores, and those are consistently measured to inform healthcare consumers about the relative standard of care at each facility. Health systems aim to score positive reviews, negative reviews have a direct financial impact. As it relates to social media, 94% of people say that an online review has convinced them to choose another service provider.
- 22% of potential new patients are lost for 1 negative online review
- People are 21% more likely to leave a review after a negative experience than a positive one
Thanks to social media, we can gather information and begin to understand the process from the patient’s perspective, gaining insight as to exactly where we can improve their experience. Very few criticisms are about physicians, the most prevalent complaints have to do with patient experience at the reception desk, the billing department, and especially on the telephone.
To further quantify the role that phone experience plays in overall patient experience, the following statistics tell the story:
Vanguard Communications, a leading healthcare marketing and research organization, has found that 53% of online healthcare complaints were about poor communications, particularly phone communications. (https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/wiredpractice/71438)
People want great service, it’s that simple. Speech enabled call-routing, when tuned and managed properly, will deliver just that.
By Annmarie Block