Communicating with Your Patients in the Digital Age

Communicating with Your Patients in the Digital Age

These days, most eyecare practices have started to incorporate digital communication tools to interact with their patient base. Modern consumers are thrilled with the option to email, text or Facebook message as opposed to having to pick up a phone to call for information or to perform basic functions like scheduling appointments or ordering contact lenses.

Unfortunately, too often what would seem to be the ultimate in convenience and good customer service turns out to be a source of dissatisfaction when the practice staff fails to provide a timely response. Practice owners that use these tools need to establish processes to hold staff accountable for ensuring that digital communications are responded to in a timely manner.


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Here are three procedural tips to ensure that you don’t miss responding to important patient messages in a timely manner.

Make sure the front desk knows the best way to reach your doctors

When patients call to speak to the doctor during exam hours, offering an alternative can be a satisfying solution. However, the alternative needs to be an effective one.

I called a practice the other day to speak to the doctor and the receptionist told me that as a policy he doesn’t accept calls during exam hours and that I should email him my question. A policy like this has the potential to be effective as long as the doctor is diligent about regularly checking his email and responding to the messages in a timely manner (unfortunately, I have yet to hear back from him). 

Another doctor that I emailed responded within a couple of hours and I was highly impressed. His receptionist gave me the option to leave a message but told me he was great about responding to email and she was right!

Whether is it email, SMS, or another form of messaging — such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger — it is best to confirm which tool is easiest for each doctor and to be consistent in the message that is offered to patients. That doctor should set a reminder at various points throughout the day to ensure that regular checks are not forgotten.

Set procedures for checking messages

Any tool that enables patients to leave messages, such as email, patient communication tools such as DemandForce or 4PatientCare, social media, etc. should have scheduled check and reply times at least twice a day by specific staff members. The process must have clarity — whose job is it and when exactly it must be done — and accountability, such as a sign off sheet and set reminders. Oftentimes it is when the job is undefined that important messages get lost in the shuffle.

Schedule daily follow-up time to address outstanding inquiries

Some questions may require input from the doctor, so if it is not the practitioner personally responding, this has the potential to cause delays.  First and foremost, advise the staff members that as a policy, if they don’t know the answers to the questions, they should respond instantly that the inquiry was received and they are working toward getting an answer. If you have a busy practice, schedule five minute intervals once or twice a day to check in with the staff about any outstanding inquiries that need a response.  Set an alarm and make sure that these meetings happen.

These procedures should take priority in the office procedures since a long response time could be the difference between a satisfied and a disgruntled customer. Further, these simple steps can add tremendously to the customer service you can offer your patients. 

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