Author Archive
Local Business Shows Us How to NOT Use Social Media
Local Business shows us how to NOT use social media
Want to know how to NOT use social media? Check out Amy’s Baking Company’s recent social media meltdown. A Scottsdale-based business, Amy’s Baking Company, showed us this past week a perfect example of what you should never do on social media.
The restaurant was featured on Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, a show that attempts to fix failing restaurants. Amy’s Baking Company asked for help because they had been receiving negative online reviews for years. Just a few minutes into the show and the reason behind the bad reviews became clear.
On top of being extremely rude to their staff, it was discovered that the owners weren’t giving the wait staff the tips they had earned. Instead, the owner would take the tips home every night.
To make things worse, they were out of control when it came to dealing with customers and complaints. They didn’t trust anything customers had to say due to bad reviews on Yelp (which Amy and Samy believed to be all lies). If a customer was unhappy, they would shout profanities and kick them out of the restaurant. In one scene, a customer asks about their food after an hour wait, only to be harassed and kicked out in front of the entire restaurant.
After this episode aired, viewers took to Facebook and other sites like Reddit to voice their disgust of the restaurant owners.
What unfolded from this was one of the worst displays of social media behavior. On The ABC Facebook page, owners Amy and Samy went on a tirade, using all caps and profanities, calling out customers, and sites like Reddit and Yelp. According to their outbursts, they planned on taking legal action against these bloggers and sites.
Days later, they claimed their sites were “hacked” and now have the FBI involved.
Lessons to Be Learned
- Don’t fight back: The customer is always right and it is your job to make sure they are satisfied. If they aren’t satisfied, as the business owner you are obligated to fix the situation, not lash out against them, especially on social media where there is a chance it can be taken completely out of context.
- Own up to your mistakes: Whether or not their Facebook was hacked, instead of owning up to their actions, they have been playing the blame game throughout this ordeal. It is ok to make mistakes, but your business must be honest and own up to them – customers appreciate that.
- Always maintain respectful customer service: Your business must respond to all comments made on social media, good or bad, and it is your business’ job to do so in a respectful manner. Try to not take complaints personally, you can’t make everyone happy all the time.
- Watch how you say it: Do not use all caps or profanities when communicating with your customers – IT MAKES YOU LOOK CRAZY!
To read more about the Amy’s Baking Company social media fiasco, click here!
To watch the full episode of Kitchen Nightmares, click here.
Did you watch Amy’s Baking Company on Kitchen Nightmares? What did you think?
Small Business Tip of the Week: Twitter Advanced Search
Do you want to increase engagement on Twitter? Are you lacking in Twitter followers? Watch our Tip of the Week video for an easy way to increase engagement by using the Twitter Advanced Search tool!
Transcript:
Hi I’m Leandra with VISION Marketing & Consulting and welcome to the Tip of the Week.
This week I’ll be talking about an easy way that your business can increase Twitter engagement.
Every day, many people use Twitter and ask questions or start conversations, and this presents a great opportunity for your business to get involved by answering these questions and joining in on the conversations.
To get started, you can use the Twitter advanced search tool which allows you to enter in specific search criteria such as industry related keywords or trending topics in your area, and by using the information that this tool pulls, you can then start engaging, joining in on the conversations, and even seeing what people are saying about your business in your area.
This is a great way for your business to be seen by a new Twitter audience and to showcase the knowledge that you have of your industry.
For more tips on how to be seen and heard on social media, please follow our blog or connect with us on Facebook. Thank you!
Did you miss our last Tip of the Week? Check it out here!
Twitter’s Big Data Buy
Twitter’s Big Data Buy
Twitter has just purchased Big Data company Lucky Sort, in hopes that it will help the social site better analyze their Tweets and data, and learn how to advertise towards users more effectively.
According to CEO Noah Pepper the Lucky Sort goal is to “make huge document sets easier to analyze, summarize, and visualize by building elegant and user-friendly tools for text analysis.”
Once the transition is complete, these new tools will be very beneficial for individuals using Twitter for business. Advertisers will be able to use this information from Lucky Sort to monetize their efforts and target consumers more precisely.
Recently, Twitter has been taking extra measures to cater to businesses, and to compete with other more well-rounded social networks, and this is an additional one of those efforts.
For more information on Twitter’s purchase of Lucky Sort, click here!
Want to know what else Twitter has been up to? Read Twitter Ads: Now Open For Business
Do you think this latest move by Twitter is a good one?
How Your Healthcare Practice Can Avoid HIPAA Violations
How Your Healthcare Practice Can Avoid HIPAA Violations
In 2011, Dr. Alexandra Thran was fired from the hospital she worked at in Rhode Island due to a HIPAA breach on social media.
On her personal Facebook page, she posted information about a patient, who then realized she was discussing their personal case, and in turn caused Dr. Thran to be fired. Although she did not include any specifics about the patient, such as their name, she shared enough details for the public to identify who the patient was.
Some argue this wasn’t a HIPAA case since she didn’t share specific information, but it was still treated as one by her employers and the public. To learn more about this case, click here.
Are you worried about being caught up in a similar situation with your healthcare practice? Below we have listed ways to ensure your business is HIPAA-compliant and avoids violations on social media.
- Develop a social media policy: Developing a solid social media policy for your healthcare practice is one of the most important steps you can take in avoiding HIPAA violations.
- Educate staff on policy: Once a policy is in place, make sure everyone involved with your practice is familiar with the policy and agrees to follow the guidelines, regardless of whether your practice has its own social media profile or not. These rules should apply to employee’s personal social media profiles as well.
- Educate staff on HIPAA: In addition to your practice’s social media policy, make sure all employees are familiar with the HIPAA guidelines so they can make educated decisions on their own.
- Avoid sharing too much information: Like the case we mentioned above with Dr. Thran, even if you do not share specifics on patient information, sharing enough for others to recognize a patient’s identity is enough to cross boundaries and potentially violate HIPAA.
- Get written consent: Before sharing patient stories, photos, or video on your website or social media, get written consent to share this information from patients to avoid any complications.
For more information on HIPAA and social media, please contact us today! To read our interview with Zach Giammaro on recent HIPAA changes and the HITECH Act, click here.
Follow us on Facebook for helpful tips and information!
Small Business Tip of the Week: Google Alerts
Did you know that you can keep an eye on what people are saying about your business and trending topics in your industry by using Google Alerts? Watch our Tip of the Week video to learn how to set up Google Alerts!
Transcript:
Hi I’m Karen Cummings with VISION Marketing & Consulting and welcome to the Tip of the Week.
As a business owner, you want to know what your competitors are doing, what trending topics are being discussed in your industry, and most importantly what people are saying about you and your business. There’s a really quick way to monitor all of those things online and it’s called Google Alerts.
Today we are going to tell you how to quickly go through the steps of setting up an alert.
You first go to Google.com/alert and from there you have a couple of options to set up your search query. First you want to identify what that search query is going to be, so for example if you want to search VISION Marketing & Consulting, you type in VISION Marketing & Consulting and put it in quotation marks so it pulls only results that are exactly VISION Marketing & Consulting.
From there you can determine the type of information you want, so you can get all information or you can narrow it down to blog information, news, video, etc. Also you want to determine how often you want this information. You can have it sent to as it happens, once a day, or once a week. And lastly, how much information do you want? Do you want all of the results or only the best results? We would suggest getting all of the results because Google is going to determine that for you and you would rather see that information for yourself and make the determination of whether or not it’s important.
From there you put in your email address and create the alert and you are ready to go!
For more information, follow us on our blog, or connect with us on Facebook.
Did you miss our last Tip of the Week video? Click here!
Zach Giammarco HIPAA Interview Q 1-5
VISION Marketing & Consulting had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Giammarco, partner of Giammarco Law Office. Some of the main points he discussed were HIPAA changes, the HITECH Act, and legal issues that healthcare practices can avoid. He also gave advice to healthcare providers who are thinking about starting social marketing! We want to thank Zach for giving us the opportunity to ask him these questions!
ANSWER: Due to the increase of healthcare providers utilizing social media as a form of marketing, the American Medical Association (“AMA”) issued a press release in November 2010 addressing this very issue. While some of the AMA’s recommendations are blatantly obvious (such as do not post identifiable patient information on Facebook), others are not so clear, including the following:
- When using the Internet for social marketing, providers should use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the extent possible. However, providers must realize that privacy settings are not absolute and, once information is on the Internet, it will most likely remain there permanently.
- Providers should routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that the personal and professional information on their own sites and, to the extent possible, content posted about them by others, is accurate and appropriate.
- If providers interact with patients on the Internet, they must maintain appropriate boundaries of their relationship in accordance with their professional ethical guidelines just as they would in any other context.
While these AMA guidelines are written with physicians in mind, they can be universally applied to all healthcare fields. The best advice I have for my clients is to use common sense and do not post anything that they would not want their overseeing Board to see.
VISION Marketing & Consulting - When using social media in a medical practice, it is good to use common sense, however certain safeguards should not be overlooked such as understanding all information on the internet is most likely permanent, monitor your sites and maintain professional and ethical behavior when interacting online.
Did you miss questions 1-4? Check them out below!
QUESTION ONE: What is the most common mistake healthcare providers make when dealing with HIPAA regulations? What can they do to improve this?
ANSWER: Aside from misspelling HIPAA with two “P’s” instead of one, the most common mistake I come across is the failure to have proper safeguards in place when dealing with third party contractors, otherwise referred to as Business Associates by our good friend HIPAA. Some healthcare providers are not aware that each Business Associate that may come into contact with confidential patient information must sign a Business Associate Agreement prior to performing any work for the provider. For example, if an IT person comes in to fix even the most minor problem, it is extremely likely that he or she will come across or, at the very least, have access to confidential patient information. Thus, this individual must execute a proper Business Associate Agreement so that all parties are on the same page when it comes to how that IT person should handle and/or disclose (if absolutely necessary) such patient information. It is a good idea to have such an agreement on hand in the event the provider requires immediate services where a third party might come into contact with confidential patient information. If this third party refuses to sign the Business Associate Agreement, hire someone that will because this is necessary to protect the provider. Otherwise, this could end up in a huge mess down the road. To obtain a current and comprehensive Business Associate Agreement, I recommend contacting a knowledgeable attorney rather than pulling just any form from the Internet. This is especially true when considering the recent changes to HIPAA and HITECH.
VISION Marketing & Consulting – The information Mr. Giammarco has provided regarding HIPAA is very valuable to all our clients. We make certain that all information is protected and we also recommend to our clients to look at their current agreements to ensure the are updated according to laws and changes.
QUESTION TWO: On January 17, 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the new HIPAA Final Omnibus Rule. What is most important to know as a healthcare provider regarding these new regulations?
ANSWER: The Final Omnibus Rule makes significant changes to HIPAA by greatly enhancing patients’ privacy protections, providing individuals new rights to their health information and strengthening the government’s ability to enforce the law. Because some of the largest breaches reported to the Department of Health and Humans Services derive from Business Associates, the Final Omnibus Rule expands many of the privacy safeguards and penalties to apply to covered entities’ Business Associates. For example, penalties for noncompliance have been increased based on the level of negligence with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per violation.
Although the Final Omnibus Rule became effective on March 26, 2013, covered entities and Business Associates will have until September 23, 2013 to comply with these changes, which includes updating their respective Business Associate Agreements. I strongly encourage all healthcare providers to get in contact with their attorney to begin drafting a new Business Associate Agreement that works for that particular provider. It is also important to have current Business Associates execute the updated agreement even if they already signed an old version.
Healthcare providers should also be aware that the Final Omnibus Rule expands individual rights in important ways. Patients can now ask for a copy of their electronic medical record in an electronic form. When individuals pay by cash, they can instruct their provider not to share information about their treatment with their health plan. And, the rule sets new limits on how information is used and disclosed for marketing and fundraising purposes, while prohibiting the sale of individuals’ health information without their permission.
A full copy of the rule can be found at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-01-25/pdf/2013-01073.pdf.
VISION Marketing & Consulting – As electronic health records becomes more prevalent in all medical offices, providers should make sure their policies are in line with these new regulations.
QUESTION THREE: What is HITECH and how does it impact healthcare practices?
ANSWER: HITECH is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which first became effective February 18, 2010 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The objectives of HITECH are to:
- Develop standards for the electronic exchange of healthcare information;
- Establish incentives to encourage doctors and hospitals to digitize their medical records;
- Save the government approximately $10 billion, presumably as the product of the digitization efforts; and
- Strengthen privacy and security to guard protected health information.
Specifically, Subtitle D of HITECH addresses the privacy and security concerns associated with the electronic transmission of health information. I typically explain it to my healthcare clients as an “offshoot” of HIPAA that addresses the electronic transmission of health information.
It is extremely important for all healthcare providers to be aware of the requirements set forth in HITECH, especially considering the majority of patient information is now electronically transmitted at one point or another. Prior to HITECH, all responsibility for data breaches originating from a Business Associate fell on the covered entity. HITECH changed this to make Business Associates liable for their breaches – provided a proper Business Associate Agreement was in place. Interestingly, a 2009 survey sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that more than thirty percent (30%) of Business Associates surveyed were not aware that HIPAA privacy and security requirements had been extended to cover their organizations pursuant to HITECH. Hopefully, that figure has decreased in the past four years, but it is important to verify that your Business Associates are knowledgeable about HITECH.
In addition, HITECH expanded the scope of HIPAA to (i) mandate public notification of data breaches containing protected health information; (ii) require stricter compliance and accounting for electronic protected health information requests; and (iii) add responsibility for managing protected health information handled by Business Associates, as previously mentioned.
Because it is impossible to explain all the “ins” and “outs” of HITECH, I encourage providers to either contact their attorney or, if they really have a lot of time on their hands, review the full text of HITECH at the following site:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/enforcementrule/hitechenforcementifr.html
VISION Marketing & Consulting – HIPAA was in effect with paper medical records, and now we are finding that the HITECH act pays closer attention to ensuring privacy with electronic transferring of information.
QUESTION FOUR: What would be three legal issues you would caution healthcare practices about to avoid any risk?
ANSWER:
Legal Issue 1. Healthcare providers should be extremely cautious when communicating with patients via mobile devices, including phones or tablets. A 2011 survey performed by QuantiaMD estimates that one in four physicians are “super mobile” users who leverage both smartphones and tablets in their practices. If you are one of these providers, it is important to know that the use of mobile devices to exchange protected health information automatically triggers the HIPAA security rule. This poses a unique risk to providers because mobile devices may not restrict user access to data through the use of encryption software or authentication features. Also, mobile devices store such information either within the computer’s onboard memory or within a SIM card or another memory chip. Because mobile devices are extremely vulnerably to loss or theft, it is important for providers to enact technical safeguards, including the following: installing and regularly updating malware, installing firewalls where appropriate, applying encryption to electronic protected health information and ensuring mobile devices use secure, encrypted Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) similar to that used by banking and financial institutions. If such safeguards are in place, the chances of breaching the HIPAA security rule are greatly reduced in the event the mobile device is lost or stolen.
Legal Issue 2. If there is any doubt whether a third party contractor is considered a Business Associate pursuant to HIPAA or HITECH, contact your attorney. If you cannot get a hold of your attorney, have the individual or entity sign a Business Associate Agreement just to be safe. Generally speaking, a Business Associate is a person or entity that performs certain functions or activities that involve the use or disclosure of personal health information. Business Associates typically work on behalf of, or provide services to, a HIPAA covered entity. Keep in mind that a covered entity’s workforce is not considered a Business Associate. Common Business Associates include accountants, consultants, pharmacies, payers (i.e., health insurance providers), laboratories, e-health record software vendors, RHIOs (Regional Health Information Organizations and HIEs (Health Information Exchanges).
Legal Issue 3. This sounds like a no-brainer, but providers must be informed about and follow all regulations contained in HIPAA, HITECH and the recent Final Omnibus Rule. I say this because enforcement of HIPAA violations has increased in the past couple years and will continue increasing in 2013 according to Leon Rodriguez, the Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Civil Rights, which is the department responsible for enforcing HIPAA and HITECH regulations. Otherwise, breaches could easily result in substantial monetary and criminal penalties.
VISION Marketing & Consulting – The three basic recommendations, although simple, are very important in your medical practice. In summary, be cautious when using mobile devices, error on the side of caution when dealing with Business Associate Agreements, and make sure your HIPAA and HITECH policies are up to date.
The answers provided in this article were provided by:
Zachary D. Giammarco
GIAMMARCO LAW OFFICE PLLC
3910 S. Alma School Road, Suite 5
Chandler, Arizona 85248
http://giammarcolaw.com/
(480) 722-0103 – Phone
(480) 722-0106 – Fax
Legal Disclaimer: All information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and, therefore, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Due to the complexity of HIPAA, HITECH and any amendments thereto, you should consult a competent attorney for individual advice before acting upon any of the information provided in this article.
Will New Interface for Google Maps App New Impact Your Business?
Trending Topic of the Week
Will Google Map’s New Interface Impact your Business?
Google is planning on releasing a new interface in the near future for its Google Maps App, making it more user friendly.
Instead of displaying information about a business location in the sidebar, the information will be shown in a popup above the actual location on a full map. The full map is designed to allow for easier map reading and navigation, providing users a better view of the map and where businesses are located relative to one another.
Users will also be able to filter search results to view the businesses with the highest reviews or ones recommended by people in their Google+ Circles. Making customer reviews and social connections carry even more weight than ever before.
In order to get your business on Google Maps, you must first claim your business on Google Places for Business. Having your small business on Google Places and Google Maps is an important opportunity for you to be seen by the high number of people that use this app on a daily basis.
To learn more about Google Map’s new interface, click here.
Do you want to claim more online listings in addition to Google Places? Click here to watch our Tip of the Week video on claiming business listings!
For more information on the latest trending topics, follow us on Facebook!
Have you claimed your business on Google Places?
Caution for Healthcare Practices: Zach Giammarco Interview Q4
VISION Marketing & Consulting had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Giammarco, partner of Giammarco Law Office, regarding recent changes in HIPAA regulations and the HITECH Act.
1. Healthcare providers should be extremely cautious when communicating with patients via mobile devices, including phones or tablets. A 2011 survey performed by QuantiaMD estimates that one in four physicians are “super mobile” users who leverage both smartphones and tablets in their practices. If you are one of these providers, it is important to know that the use of mobile devices to exchange protected health information automatically triggers the HIPAA security rule. This poses a unique risk to providers because mobile devices may not restrict user access to data through the use of encryption software or authentication features. Also, mobile devices store such information either within the computer’s onboard memory or within a SIM card or another memory chip. Because mobile devices are extremely vulnerably to loss or theft, it is important for providers to enact technical safeguards, including the following: installing and regularly updating malware, installing firewalls where appropriate, applying encryption to electronic protected health information and ensuring mobile devices use secure, encrypted Hypertext Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) similar to that used by banking and financial institutions. If such safeguards are in place, the chances of breaching the HIPAA security rule are greatly reduced in the event the mobile device is lost or stolen.
2. If there is any doubt whether a third party contractor is considered a Business Associate pursuant to HIPAA or HITECH, contact your attorney. If you cannot get a hold of your attorney, have the individual or entity sign a Business Associate Agreement just to be safe. Generally speaking, a Business Associate is a person or entity that performs certain functions or activities that involve the use or disclosure of personal health information. Business Associates typically work on behalf of, or provide services to, a HIPAA covered entity. Keep in mind that a covered entity’s workforce is not considered a Business Associate. Common Business Associates include accountants, consultants, pharmacies, payers (i.e., health insurance providers), laboratories, e-health record software vendors, RHIOs (Regional Health Information Organizations and HIEs (Health Information Exchanges).
3. This sounds like a no-brainer, but providers must be informed about and follow all regulations contained in HIPAA, HITECH and the recent Final Omnibus Rule. I say this because enforcement of HIPAA violations has increased in the past couple years and will continue increasing in 2013 according to Leon Rodriguez, the Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Office for Civil Rights, which is the department responsible for enforcing HIPAA and HITECH regulations. Otherwise, breaches could easily result in substantial monetary and criminal penalties.
VISION Marketing & Consulting – The three basic recommendations, although simple, are very important in your medical practice. In summary, be cautious when using mobile devices, error on the side of caution when dealing with Business Associate Agreements, and make sure your HIPAA and HITECH policies are up to date.
This article was written by Zachary D. Giammarco
GIAMMARCO LAW OFFICE PLLC
3910 S. Alma School Road, Suite 5
Chandler, Arizona 85248
(480) 722-0103 – Phone
(480) 722-0106 – Fax
Legal Disclaimer: All information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and, therefore, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Due to the complexity of HIPAA, HITECH and any amendments thereto, you should consult a competent attorney for individual advice before acting upon any of the information provided in this article.
HITECH: Zach Giammarco Interview Q3
VISION Marketing & Consulting had the pleasure of interviewing Zach Giammarco, partner of Giammarco Law Office, regarding recent changes in HIPAA regulations and HITECH.
What is HITECH and how does it impact healthcare practices?
HITECH is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which first became effective February 18, 2010 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The objectives of HITECH are to:
- Develop standards for the electronic exchange of healthcare information;
- Establish incentives to encourage doctors and hospitals to digitize their medical records;
- Save the government approximately $10 billion, presumably as the product of the digitization efforts; and
- Strengthen privacy and security to guard protected health information.
Specifically, Subtitle D of HITECH addresses the privacy and security concerns associated with the electronic transmission of health information. I typically explain it to my healthcare clients as an “offshoot” of HIPAA that addresses the electronic transmission of health information.
It is extremely important for all healthcare providers to be aware of the requirements set forth in HITECH, especially considering the majority of patient information is now electronically transmitted at one point or another. Prior to HITECH, all responsibility for data breaches originating from a Business Associate fell on the covered entity. HITECH changed this to make Business Associates liable for their breaches – provided a proper Business Associate Agreement was in place. Interestingly, a 2009 survey sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society found that more than thirty percent (30%) of Business Associates surveyed were not aware that HIPAA privacy and security requirements had been extended to cover their organizations pursuant to HITECH. Hopefully, that figure has decreased in the past four years, but it is important to verify that your Business Associates are knowledgeable about HITECH.
In addition, HITECH expanded the scope of HIPAA to (i) mandate public notification of data breaches containing protected health information; (ii) require stricter compliance and accounting for electronic protected health information requests; and (iii) add responsibility for managing protected health information handled by Business Associates, as previously mentioned.
Because it is impossible to explain all the “ins” and “outs” of HITECH, I encourage providers to either contact their attorney or, if they really have a lot of time on their hands, review the full text of HITECH at the following site:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/enforcementrule/hitechenforcementifr.html
VISION Marketing & Consulting – HIPAA was in effect with paper medical records, and now we are finding that the HITECH act pays closer attention to ensuring privacy with electronic transferring of information.
Did you miss Question 2 of our interview with Zach? Click here!
Stay tuned for our next question!
This article was written by Zachary D. Giammarco
GIAMMARCO LAW OFFICE PLLC
3910 S. Alma School Road, Suite 5
Chandler, Arizona 85248
(480) 722-0103 – Phone
(480) 722-0106 – Fax
Legal Disclaimer: All information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and, therefore, does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Due to the complexity of HIPAA, HITECH and any amendments thereto, you should consult a competent attorney for individual advice before acting upon any of the information provided in this article.
Small Business Tip of the Week: Creating a Positive Caller Experience
VISION Marketing & Consulting Tip of the Week 5/8/2013
Did you know that you could use your healthcare practice’s answering machine as a marketing tool while callers are on hold? Watch our tip of the week video to learn more!
TRANSCRIPT: Hi I’m Veronica with VISION Marketing & Consulting and welcome to the Tip of the Week. Previously we discussed how you could do marketing from within your own medical practice.
We focused on one important thing at your front desk and that’s your receptionist. Your receptionist is pretty busy when she’s sitting up front and she’s answering phone calls, she’s taking co pays, checking people in and out, scheduling patients and of course what happens when they are doing all of these things is they get another phone call. Unfortunately they are going to have to put this caller on hold. If this caller experiences any dead silence while they’re on hold, 60% of those people will just hang up, with another 30% never calling back.
What can you do? If you do have dead silence on your answering machine, or even if you have some music, 88% of callers do not like to listen to dead silence or to music. You can take advantage of some simple marketing solutions which are recording your own message on your answering machine or using an answering service.
A little bit more expensive is using an on hold messaging company, but when you do this you want to include a few important things about your practice. You want to include your practice address, practice phone number, your practice fax, and your practice website. You also want to offer the caller some health facts and health tips and general fun information. If you have any social sites you want to be able to include those on these messages as well.
This can take a potentially negative situation and turn it into a positive situation by offering your caller some important information about your practice. For more information on customer service and small business marketing, follow our blog or follow us on Facebook. Thank you!
For more small business marketing tips, please follow us on Facebook!
Does your healthcare practice use a customized answering machine message while your callers are on hold?
