Healthcare is an industry where, in many cases, immediate communication is vital. Today’s providers need to offer their customers the right communications platforms. Those platforms should include digital messaging solutions such as SMS texting, messaging apps, conversational AI automation, and much more.
However, not all healthcare digital messaging is created equal. Before you commit to a specific plan or company, assess your own goals, get a free quote, and make sure that the company you select to provide your digital messaging services can fulfill both your short- and long-term needs.
What OutPLEX Can Do for You
At OutPLEX, we are passionate about helping healthcare companies like yours develop digital messaging solutions to fit your needs. We can help you:
- Figure out the best solution: Do not worry if you are new to automation and digital messaging. We can review your goals and capabilities and develop a strategy that fits your needs and budget.
- Recruit and train agents: One of the top benefits of outsourcing is eliminating the overhead of additional staff. We recruit talent experienced in your industry and train them according to your brand standards.
- Program and install what you need: It is essential to have the right tools for the right job. We will ensure that you have the technology you need to deploy effective digital messaging solutions.
- Implement other solutions: In addition to our digital messaging solutions, we offer traditional call center services. Combined, these solutions can provide your patients with a satisfying customer service experience.
Thanks to improved technology, you do not have to have a huge budget to give your customers and patients an excellent digital experience. OutPLEX offers a variety of affordable solutions that can help you grow your business, improve patient satisfaction, and much more. Get in touch with us if you would like to know more about what we offer and how it works.
Digital Messaging Solutions in the Healthcare Industry
Each industry—healthcare, finance, retail, and so on—has different needs and goals. Naturally, this means that each sector will use digital messaging in slightly different ways. Healthcare digital messaging may serve many purposes, including things like:
- Scheduling, rescheduling, or canceling patient appointments
- Sending out appointment reminders
- Answering non-emergency questions in a timely fashion
- Onboarding new patients or customers
- Encouraging potential patients or consumers to make an appointment or purchase
- Persuading existing patients or customers to continue care or upgrade services
The goal of providing such services may include:
- Assessing patients’ current feelings about your company or customer service
- Expanding the patient base
- Increasing patient retention
- Improving patient satisfaction
- Reducing employee workloads so they can focus on other issues
- Promoting particular services or products
While traditional call center services still have their place in the modern business landscape, digital messaging is no longer a nice perk: it has become a necessity. According to The Conversocial State of CX Trends Report 2021, 81% of customers expect companies to give them the option of communicating via messaging systems like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Personalization and Empowerment Are the Keys
Given all of this information, it is easy to see the importance of diversifying how you communicate with patients and customers. The more options you give them, the more you empower them to personalize and improve their customer service experience.
As Forbes reports, when a customer has a problem, they are less likely than ever to call a company right away. Instead, their first step is to visit the company’s website or to engage with some form of digital helper (e.g., a tutorial video or a chatbot). This means it is critical for companies to:
- Provide self-service options: This may include SMS texting, email, an automated chatbot, or messaging through apps like WhatsApp. These solutions allow a patient to resolve their own problems rather than rely on a live agent.
- Make digital options accessible: All customers should be able to find and use your digital messaging options without trouble.
- Make rerouting easy: If a digital channel cannot resolve a customer’s issue, make it easy for the customer to access another channel, like a live agent at a call center that can provide further assistance.
- Use “teachable” technology: Your digital bots should be able to learn from experience. With each new patient interaction, they expand their knowledge base and can help more patients with more concerns.
If done right, your customer service will be more like customer self-service: your patients and customers should be able to solve many of their queries through digital channels with minimal interpersonal interactions. OutPLEX can help you implement such solutions.
Customers Value a Good Experience
Good customer service is an essential part of all businesses, including healthcare businesses. Offering digital messaging options is one way of ensuring that your customers and patients are well cared for and that they stay satisfied with your service. Healthcare digital messaging can:
- Reduce call center wait times: Some customers need or prefer to speak to a live agent, and nothing is more frustrating than being put on hold for an extended period of time. By offering digital messaging solutions in addition to call center support, many engagements are resolved quickly and efficiently via messaging platforms. Fewer customers will need to call, eliminating bottlenecks and reducing abandoned call rates. This improves experiences for both callers and those who engage in digital messaging support.
- Resolve queries on the first contact: If a customer has to contact you multiple times with the same problem, they will get annoyed, and you will spend more resources trying to help them. Efficient digital messaging can increase FCR (first contact resolution), reducing callbacks and avoiding customer frustration.
- Increase patient retention: If customers feel that you listen to and appreciate them, they will be less likely to switch to another company, even if problems arise.
- Evaluate patient satisfaction: We can follow up with patients to survey that their experience went well, monitor social media activity for positive or negative attention, and evaluate call center strategies to see what patients like and do not like.
If done correctly, digital messaging can make your customer service experience:
- Faster
- More efficient
- More empowering
- More satisfying
This, in turn, can increase patient loyalty and retention: happy patients who get what they need are less likely to look elsewhere for their healthcare needs.
Healthcare Digital Messaging is Part of an Efficient Customer Service Strategy
The appetite for digital solutions in the healthcare space has grown in recent years, according to Tata Consultancy Services. Patients are increasingly reliant on things like telehealth, online billing and reminders, and so on. Your company should not be left behind.
With that said, digital messaging has not yet advanced so far as to render human customer service representatives obsolete. Support your digital messaging services with a call center that can:
- Handle more complex queries: Digital solutions work best on simple or common requests. For more complicated questions, it may be more effective for a patient to speak to a live agent.
- Sympathize with the patient: Healthcare problems can be especially emotional and personal. A live agent should understand this and make patients feel cared for.
- Be retrained as necessary: If a particular approach is not working, live agents should be flexible enough to adapt to new strategies without confusing or inconveniencing patients.
- Be there when your patients need them: OutPLEX’s call centers are located nearshore in countries that share time zones with the United States, making them more convenient for your patients and customers.
- Help in multiple languages: Many of our agents are multilingual and able to assist your patients in either English, Spanish, and additional languages as needed.
OutPLEX can provide your healthcare business with both digital and call center solutions.
Get a Free Quote Today
OutPLEX can help you with all of your digital messaging solutions, from chatbots to texted reminders and more. Call today for a free quote and more information about how our healthcare digital messaging can revolutionize your business. We can help you identify and implement digital messaging solutions that fit your budgets, needs, values, and goals.
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