Home Care Phone Etiquette

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Home Care Agency Phone Etiquette

Anybody There?
When you are unable to get to calls during business hours, it sends the message
to clients you don’t care about their calls. Losing a potential client – or worse, an
existing client – to another home care business because they are quicker to
answer the phones can be costly. If adequate staffing to maintain availability on
the phones is a challenge, using a third-party service to handle the overflow of
calls is recommended.

Ring, Ring…
You should view your phone ringing as if someone was walking in and standing in
your lobby. It is a customer service best practice to answer the phones within the
first two rings. Not only can a ringing phone start to deflate expectations to the
client who is calling, it can be distracting to others in the office. If there’s
hesitation between your office staff in who is responsible to answer, establish an
answering chain. The first person on the list is generally the receptionist. If they
are busy on the phone, the next in line needs to answer the phone – and so on.
This way there is no question as to who should be answering the phones.

Undivided Attention
The moment the phone rings and you decide to answer, all other things become
distractions. If you are in your email, minimize the browser. If you are reading
client files, set them aside. The best way to meet the caller’s needs is to give them
all your focus and attention.
Smile
The expressions you have on your face literally translate in tone over the phone.
By smiling, it becomes easier to come across positive and speak in a pleasant
tone.

Answer Professionally
“Hello?” is not an answer; it is a question. The basic structure in a greeting has the
following elements:

 Actual greeting: “Good Morning!”, “Good Afternoon”, “It’s a great day at…”
 Company name
 Name of person answering (possibly with title/role mentioned)
 “How may I help you?”

Example: “Good morning! ABC Home Care, this is Kevin (in Scheduling). How may
I help you?”
You only get one chance to make a first impression and how you answer can set
the tone for the entire call.

Speak Clearly & Be an Effective Listener


Be clear and understandable to those you talk with on the phone. Background
noise, hearing difficulties, or where they are calling from might make it difficult
for a caller to understand you.

Acknowledge their concerns or questions as you talk with them and take the time
to ask follow-up questions to ensure you understand what it is, they hope you can
do for them. As you are listening, be empathetic. Potential home care clients in
need of your services might be frustrated simply from losing some independence
and requiring your services. Current customers who call with concerns also need
to be heard and need to feel their concerns are being heard. Nothing can escalate
dissatisfaction in the care they receive than feeling as though you aren’t listening,
don’t care, or both.

Be Responsive
Whether you use an answering service to capture inbound calls, you cannot
answer yourselves, or voicemail, be prompt in returning calls. Not returning calls
can be the difference between a potential new client selecting your agency or
another agency that is more responsive. Poor response times can lead to current
clients growing dissatisfied, and possibly canceling services.

As you consider new office staff and existing office staff that would be sharing the
responsibilities of answering calls, it’s important to discover how natural and
comfortable they are at talking on the phone. Having at least one of your
interviews during the hiring process conducted over the phone will give you the
opportunity to hear how they sound. You’ll be looking for how engaging they are
during the interview, how they handle difficult questions, and whether they are
understandable. Chances are, if they can’t do a good job representing themselves
on the phone, they will struggle in being a good reflection of your company on the
phones.

As you train these office staff, be sure those answering calls know your company’s
policies and procedures, so each is able to better provide a customer experience
that is satisfactory and consistent across the board. Negative experiences
communicating with your company on the phone could be costing you lost
revenue, but the good news is that implementing these suggestions is not difficult
to do.

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