Patients who receive simple reminder calls are more likely to keep appointments, according to the American Journal of Medicine. Among those surveyed in the study, 23 percent those who didn’t receive reminders were no-shows. But what are the overall costs? Every office and business is different, but Modern Healthcare estimates that a no-show for a surgical consultation could cost $500 per missed appointment. That figure doesn’t account for the hours of manpower spent scheduling appointments, working on administrative duties and lost operations expenses.
While you don’t have control over what your clients do, you can help streamline your overall operations and administration to reduce time wastes and increase revenue. Here’s a roundup of systems and technology to help skyrocket your productivity.
Handle Your Inbound Center in the Cloud
How many hours a day do you spend dealing with inbound call center issues and juggling customer needs? A cloud-based solution like Zipwire offers an upgraded IVR and ability to personalize customer menus so they can find what they need immediately. Set up functionality for online chat and voice recording opportunities for managers. Businesses looking to convert leads can automate their outbound dialing needs with a predictive dialer and quickly set up telemarketing and inside sales centers quickly.
Rent an Office
Not all companies need a robust workspace, while others need a pop-up office on the go to hold interviews and meet with clients. LiquidSpace is noted as the Airbnb for businesses. Companies can sign up to either share space or rent space. On the road? Log in with your smartphone or tablet and set-up whatever you need in minutes. Find everything from conference rooms, small meeting spaces to complete offices ready on short notice in cities across the U.S. and Australia.
Text Customers Reminders
Don’t let constant no-shows drag down your productivity and revenue. Businesses like hair salons, spas and doctor’s offices can use an automatic text appointment reminders. Not only can it be set-up to deploy text reminders and save you hours of calling and leaving messages, but it can also increase your revenue by keeping appointments on the forefront of your clients’ minds.
Manage Projects Online
Manage your projects from start to finish in one place. Cloud-based software like Basecamp allows companies to invite team members to a project and upload files, set goals, debate ideas and flag work for review or follow-up. It also integrates with third-party apps like Weekdone to generate printable weekly reports through your Basecamp project.
Share Passwords Securely
How many passwords are floating around the office for your project management software, Google docs, inventory system, bookkeeping and anything else that needs a login? Set up LastPass to securely share passwords. You can share password access with anyone via email. But their password access goes through an encrypted process in Lastpass. That means no one ever sees your actual password. It’s encrypted with a key that never leaves your laptop, smartphone or other device and then decrypted locally. This means LastPass never stores your actual password and all your data stays with you.
