For most people, a trip to the dentist is usually synonymous with fear; a big drill going towards your mouth, days of pain to follow, and unless you are going through the NHS, an empty bank account to boot. Doctors surgeries are a similar example in terms of what patients experience when they go there. Some of the frustration for patients is the difficulty in getting an appointment in the first place, and this is where a good phone system can really help. Quite a few of our customers are surgeries, both doctors and dental, and what is even more interesting is that they all seem to use our product in the same way. They have all elected to choose a local geographical phone number, and not too surprisingly they are configuring their cloud based phone systems in the same way, using almost identical features.
Now, we all know how difficult it can be to call your doctors surgery to try and arrange a visit, especially first thing in the morning. You either get the ringing tone for what seems like an eternity, or even worse than that, the dreaded engaged tone which results in hanging up and hitting redial button furiously until you hear actual ringing. The interactive voice response system (IVR) allows patients to be greeted into a virtual waiting room, and are given a number of options, one of them usually being appointments. Pressing this will then activate the call queuing feature, which allows you to tell your patients where they are in the queue, expected waiting time, as well apologies for the delay in answering. You can even play some music instead of the ringing tone, and all of this can be uploaded from a PC or laptop. You get to choose how to welcome your patients and customise their experience, and it is no surprise to see this trend flourish in this segment of our customer base.
