In today’s business world, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a responsibility. Companies are continuously seeking ways to lower their environmental impact while maintaining excellent customer service. One of the most effective yet often overlooked ways to achieve this is by utilising a telephone answering service like Phoneta.
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As we all know, care homes and providers throughout the UK have been under massive pressure for some time. In the decade before the pandemic, 56 percent of councils saw cuts to social care funding, leading to staff shortages. As bad as those stats are, throughout the period of Covid nursing homes lost approximately 210,000 staff. And yet, despite all of these issues, the care sector still needs to operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
Why 24/7 support is needed
Simply put, accidents can be quite common with elderly and vulnerable patients – these incidents are sometimes serious and require immediate emergency healthcare. Aside from regular care, there are also people with mental health conditions or cognitive impairments that may require emotional support and supervision throughout the day and night. Response time is crucial, which is why having a 24-hour answering service can make all the difference.
Challenges at hand
When round-the-clock-support is not in place, this has a hugely negative impact on both sides of the sector. For carers, the immediate effect is irregular working hours and that quickly leads to an unbalanced work-personal life; higher stress levels and physical and mental exhaustion. If these problems aren’t addressed, then there is a higher probability of said carer getting sick and having to take time off – or worse – quitting the job completely. With patients, they may experience delays in receiving timely treatment and care. Conditions that require immediate attention may worsen during the waiting period, leading to increased pain, discomfort, or complications.
There is a solution
A 24/7 telephone answering service can provide care homes and providers with immediate support and bring about positive results very quickly. Here’s how…
• An out-of-hours answering service ensures that someone is always available to answer calls, regardless of the time of day or night. This is particularly important when emergencies and urgent situations can occur at any time. Patients, residents, or their families can reach out for assistance, advice, or information whenever they need it.
• With trained call handlers available to address patient concerns, regular staff can start to relax, knowing everything is in hand when they’re off duty. For example, these call handlers can offer reassurance during emergencies; making the patient feel more comfortable and secure immediately knowing someone is going to help with their concerns.
• When there is someone available to offer support, unnecessary visits to emergency rooms will start to reduce – making everyone’s lives less stressful.
• Employing a full-time in-house receptionist to handle calls around the clock can be expensive. By utilising a 24/7 telephone answering service, care facilities can reduce staffing costs while still ensuring that all calls are promptly answered and dealt with professionally.
Why a telephone answering service supports on-call scheduling
As anyone in the care sector knows, on-call scheduling, sometimes referred to as on-call shifts is essential as it ensures the right person is always available, day or night, to quickly respond to incidents. Having a telephone answering service in place means this system can be fully operational and runs with optimum efficiency. Having a centralised system can provide many benefits, they are as follows.
• A centralised system ensures that communication channels are organised and accessible to all parties involved. It can provide a single point of contact for patients to reach on-call providers and vice-versa. This helps prevent delays, confusion, or missed messages, leading to more efficient and timely responses.
• Patients can quickly connect with on-call providers when they have urgent medical needs.
• Organisation is so important within the care sector so having a centralised system can be a great way to help with coordination and collaboration among the on-call team members. It can help resource allocation by managing on-call schedules and assigning the right providers based on their availability, expertise, and workload. It ensures fair distribution of on-call responsibilities, reduces burnout, and maximises the efficient use of healthcare resources.
All-round better customer service
When care facilities have an answering service on their team, the quality of customer service will improve massively. Not only will the patients see the benefits, but their families too will also notice a big difference too. The following will explain.
• A dedicated telephone answering service can provide a high level of customer service by professionally handling enquiries, addressing concerns, and providing relevant information. Trained operators can offer empathetic support to patients, residents, and their families; ensuring their needs are met and questions are answered.
Hear from a current customer
Conclusion
As much as change can be a scary – particularly when you’ve had systems in place for years and you’re worried that something new will cause a negative effect for your organisation – however, hopefully you can see that a 24/7 telephone answering service can significantly benefit the care industry by providing constant availability, enhanced customer service, improved operational efficiency, and big financial savings. It helps ensure that individuals in need of care and their families can easily access the information and support they require, contributing to a positive care experience.
Want to know more?
Now that you’ve seen just how much having a telephone answering service can improve your day-to-day working life and you’d like to discuss things at greater length, why not contact Phoneta on: 01209 311 311.
Alternatively, go to our Contact page on the website where you can leave an email message and one of our team will get back to you shortly.
Imagine the scenario: It’s the peak holiday season, and your full-time receptionist has just called in sick with the flu.
What do you do?
You can only manage bookings for part of the day as you have loads of other duties that need sorting, and even with a voicemail, you’ll still have to get back to your potential guests at some point in the next 24 hours. Luckily for you, this is the absolute worst-case scenario. But it can happen, and even a few days’ inconvenience will make for huge amounts of stress and an even bigger loss of income. However, a telephone answering service can give you immediate cover for this type of issue – plus a whole lot more!
Improved customer service
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to improve your business income. And the only way you can do that is by giving excellent customer service, so by having a dedicated and trained team, you can guarantee a high level of customer satisfaction every time. Not only can you arrange for a standard call answering service, but you can also set up a more bespoke option which means the answering service can answer specific questions about the park, take payments and handle bookings.
Happier workplace
A telephone answering service can help take the pressure off your reception staff by dealing with calls and taking messages on your behalf. This can free up your staff to deal with other tasks and help improve your holiday park’s overall efficiency, boosting morale and making for a much happier working environment.
24/7 cover
That’s right, gone are the days of getting to work in the morning and facing a dozen phone messages from the night before. By providing a 24/7 service, a telephone answering service can help to ensure that your holiday park is always contactable, even outside of normal office hours. This can be vital in dealing with emergencies or enquiries from potential guests.
Boost your brand image.
As good as your full-time team are, there will always be times when they’re rushed off their feet, and something will get missed. However, a telephone answering service can ensure a professional and friendly first point of contact for your guests, which can help to create a positive impression of your holiday park at all times.
Save you money
A telephone answering service can help to save you money by providing a cost-effective alternative to employing additional staff. Instead of having to go through all the stress and time-consuming process of hiring and training another in-house team member – and then paying them – you can instead quickly arrange some remote cover and only have to pay for the calls that are answered, a great option in the holiday industry where you have different levels of calls throughout the year.
Hear from another holiday Park
Helen from Cofton Holidays said,
“We joined Phoneta whilst we were busy at the start of 2021. Their team quickly adapted to the way we work, and they picked up all the calls we would have missed. They became integral to our operations, and we are so glad we have them helping us at the start of this season. We would recommend them to any holiday companies looking to improve their customer service. It’s great to have the team there and available during the peaks of calling times so every customer call is answered and we’re not missing any potential bookings.”
See for yourself
Now that you’ve read about how a telephone answering service can be a great asset to a business, why don’t you check out Phoneta on our website here to see how, by providing a 24/7 service, taking pressure off your staff – and creating a positive first impression for guests – we can help your holiday park to run more smoothly and efficiently.
Together, we have faced a truly extraordinary situation, the global Covid-19 pandemic has affected all of our lives, personally and professionally. At Phoneta, we consider ourselves as one team with your business and take our role in supporting you very seriously. We have endeavored to be your one constant in this crazy period. To achieve this Phoneta has been focused on three key areas:
To hit these targets we have had to adjust our key operating procedures, and we thank you all for your continued support and understanding whilst these adjustments were made:
This crisis has affected us all in unexpected ways, however, we cannot deny that some of the effects have created positive outcomes. Our new system has streamlined and improved our service, and our home working option gives us greater cover and flexibility for the times you need us most. Whilst the future may be much different than we expected, Phoneta hopes to keep improving and innovating to bring you the best possible service. We are here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whenever you need us.
Thank you for your support and loyalty at this time.
Anthony Caddy & The Phoneta Team.
