If you own or run a surgery and you’re not currently using a VoIP phone system, there are a whole host of benefits you could be missing out on that can easily improve your communication with patients, reduce costs and increase efficiency. Let’s take a look at four ways a VoIP system could take your communication to the next level.

Understanding and dealing with busy periods

As a surgery it’s certainly not uncommon to receive a large volume of calls in a short period of time. These usually occur when a surgery opens in the morning and is first available to take emergency appointments in the day.

A VoIP system is able to help you handle these periods in two very distinct ways:

1. Reporting – in order to respond effectively and efficiently to calls you need to know and understand the volume you are facing on a daily, hourly and minute by minute basis. From there you can then make decisions on how best to use your resources to ensure patient calls are answered as quickly as possible.Our VoIP phone systems come with an extensive range of easy-to-understand reports that provide you with the information you need to better handle busy periods; statistics on areas such as how many calls you’re receiving, who’s answering them and how long patients are waiting to get through will all be readily available and at your fingertips.
2. Features to tackle busy periods – once you understand when you’re busy and how busy you are our phone system can then begin to work harder for you.  Functionality such as hunt groups, call divert, and virtual receptionists mean that you can handle these periods in your own way and as flexibly as possible.  If you’re unsure of the best route for your surgery, then we’re always happy to provide guidance and offer our experiences of working with others in your industry.

On Call – no matter where you are

If you have a member of staff ‘on call’ in the event of an emergency, there are a number of ways this can be easily and seamlessly tackled with a VoIP telephone system.
VoIP handsets and telephone numbers are able to be taken anywhere; you only need to plug them in and connect to the internet and they’re good to go. This means that whoever is on call can take a handset, plug it in at home or in their office and take or make calls from the office number. Using the work mobile and struggling for reception if you live in certain areas of the South West is therefore a thing of the past.

However, if you do want to use your mobile rather than having a work handset at home, we also have an app that allows you to make and take calls from the office number too!

If you have an external emergency service, then your phone can also be easily set to divert to a specific number at a time of your choosing, 365 days of the year.

The flexibility to suit your needs

We’ve been working with surgeries across the South West for more than 20 years, so we know that whilst you all face certain circumstances such as the ones we’ve mentioned above, there’s never a one-size-fits-all approach to finding you the right solution. Our VoIP phone systems are able to fit around the unique way that you and your surgery want and need to work.

Cut the costs your surgery is facing

If all of that wasn’t enough, VoIP phone systems have been proven to save surgeries money – sometimes as much as 80% on a traditional phone system! For more information on how our VoIP phone systems could work for your surgery give us a call on 01237 420010 and we’ll answer any questions you may have.