I considered it and then I did it! My experiment just passed the one year mark. I know most people would probably never conceive of the idea. After all, having a phone at the front desk for patients to call and be called is an absolute necessity, right?!
Not so fast… for some clinics it might be the right ‘outside the box’ fit.
First let me explain the benefits of not having a phone and then I will tell you the system that I have found works the best.
Many of these benefits I really didn’t realize until after going without a phone for a few months.
Benefits: (And this also is a good list to see if you have a clinic that could benefit from this sort of system):
– Reduces phone time for you and the staff freeing up your time for other functions or marketing – or even allows you to forgo having front office staff saving you money
– Avoids needing what could be ineffective staff or staff that can sabotage your practice with bad phone etiquette, which can occur with even the best employee having a bad day
– Saves a few hundred dollars (at least) per month
– Gets rid of countless annoying sales calls every day (and yes, I am on the national do not call list and it never seemed to change anything)
Now there are some disadvantages such as patients that want to schedule over the phone or that don’t have internet access. As well, it does limit or at least change how you follow up on missed appointments unless you just have an office or cell phone to make outgoing calls.
Obviously the system I set up needed to take into account and minimize any disadvantages.
Now to be completely honest, I realize this would be harder to do in an established practice. I did this in a new practice which is much easier because you are able to train your patients on how the system works right from the start.
New patients naturally don’t have set expectations because they’ve only scheduled with you this way. Nonetheless, with proper planning and implementation a phoneless clinic can without a doubt be set up in an existing practice.
THE ‘NO PHONE’ WAY
The reality with this method is that you still maintain a phone number but you either have no live phone or a phone line that doesn’t ring (more about that option in a second). If you want to maintain a long-standing phone number you have somewhat built a brand around for years the phone company will let you cancel your phone line yet keep the number. You can then have that number forwarded to any other number or system that you want. In my area the number costs about $50 per month to maintain.
Now, here is one trick that I found to be invaluable for this process, and it’s totally free. Through Google and a free Gmail account (set up one just for scheduling and online appointment notifications) you can also set up a free Google Voice phone number, with your own area code. You pick from available numbers and it is yours AND it has a lot of options regarding how you want to use that number. It is beyond this article but pretty self-explanatory following a little bit of learning curve.
For this specific new clinic I set up the number as “Do Not Disturb;” therefore the phone does not ring. You can forward that number to ring elsewhere, or do so as needed, and you can also forward your other existing number to the Google Voice number. There is a voice mail option that works great AND the other convenient feature is that all your messages are automatically transcribed and emailed to you instantly. Additionally, you also get the phone numbers of callers who don’t leave a message, so you can match them to the next part of the process to see how your system is working.
From there we do use a cell phone, only to call back the few people that require it, but for the vast majority of callers they listen to my message and follow it to a tee. Here is the exact message I have recorded when they call:
“At ___________ Chiropractic we keep our overhead low so we can keep our prices low. We will return phone calls twice daily – but we prefer that you schedule as either a new patient
or an existing patient online at ________________.com. Thank you and see you soon!”
Since I wanted this voice message to be a professional female voice I just went on http://fiverr.com and found someone to record it for literally $5.
Then I do all my scheduling online. We can do it in the office or the patient can do it themselves. I have an app on my phone so I can see my updated schedule anytime. It’s an awesome system and the company I use and recommend is: Appointment-Plus.com. (Free 15 day trial if you use this link.)
The last and very simple part is to leave that Gmail account open at the front desk. You see all missed calls with transcribed messages, so you can call them back immediately if need be and you will see all the calls that didn’t leave messages. This is what I have found interesting. Usually when it’s a patient or a new patient I will see where they called, then a few minutes later I will see where they went online and scheduled their appointment. The calls that don’t leave a message are typically out of town area codes and in my experience those are just sales calls.
As a final recommendation in this office protocol, make sure your website and all advertising explains this system. When patients and prospective patients land on your website first you want them to be educated on what to expect so they don’t hang up immediately when they hear the voice message. On every piece of advertising next to the phone number I just put “(voice mail only)” and above the website address I put “schedule online at…”.
That’s it in a nutshell! For some clinics, this method can save a ton of frustration and a lot of money too. If you think your practice could mold to this model I suggest you give it a try; especially if it is a new clinic. You can always add a phone later if it just isn’t working.
(If you have any questions you can reach Dr. Troy Counselman at info@patientstoprofits.com)
