Doctors are some of the busiest people on the planet, and keeping track of their patients’ needs all throughout the day and night is almost impossible. If you’re a medical professional as well, then you know you need to serve your patients as best as possible. In that case, you may need to consider outsourcing your after hours calls to a doctors answering service, which can provide your patients with vital information when you’re out of the office.

Outsourcing your patients’ important after hours calls can be worrisome unless you find an experienced company that values your patients as much as you do. The best doctors answering services have been serving health care professionals for years and understand how urgent these phone calls can be. You should never settle for less when it comes to outsourcing after hours calls, and your patients depend on you to provide them with crucial support at all hours of the day. Here are three crucial qualities that you need to be looking for when seeking a doctors answering service:

• Informative

  Phone answering services exist for the sole purpose of relaying important information to callers when the original source is unavailable. This is especially pertinent in doctors answering services, in which patients rely on their doctors to provide clear and concise health-related advice and information when necessary. The best answering services will answer calls as if they are a part of your practice, obtaining as much information from you as possible to ensure that they have an answer for all of your patients’ after hour questions.

• Dependable

  Being able to provide your patients with a real person to answer their questions will go a long way in further strengthening their trust in your practice. About 80% of people will immediately hang up upon hearing a voicemail, and that number is even higher for patients in need of urgent medical advice. Also, the number one thing customers look for when they contact call centers is to have their problems resolved quickly. A great doctors answering service will answer every call within a couple of rings, and your patients will never have to wait around for your response to a voicemail.

• Friendly

  One of the most underrated aspects of call answering services is friendly customer service, which can truly be a deciding factor in a patient’s decision to return to your practice. Health care is extremely sensitive for patients, and they expect a pleasant interaction when they call your office. About two-thirds of consumers say they’d be willing to spend more — 13% to be exact — following an excellent customer service experience. If you build your practice through excellent customer service, your patients will spread the word to everyone they know.

Find a great doctors answering service that boasts these three important characteristics to ensure that your after hours call service outperforms your competition. Your patients depend on quality information no matter what time it is, and a professional answering service will enable you to provide them with just that.