The healthcare sector is billed as the next big thing for call center services. In countries like USA, healthcare is one of the most promising industries. The Barack Obama administration has passed the healthcare reform bills that will provide medical aid to about 2 million Americans. That would mean greater emphasis on medical answering services. This is one of the few telemarketing services that look at a future brighter than it is at the present. With more healthcare units coming into its own, there will be a huge demand for BPO companies to get these projects. Ideally the government projects would not be outsourced to offshore call centers. But many third world companies are now tying up with the domestic companies in USA to bag those projects. Then these will be transferred to the cheaper BPO service units in countries like India and Brazil.
Medical answering services need some additional capabilities. While call center services generally deal with consumer products/services, medical answering will have a definite element of emergency. Callers who call the inbound call center team would want the information as fast as possible. It may be that they are looking for the phone numbers of doctors or nurses because someone is seriously ill. Your BPO agents have to provide them with what they are looking in the least time. There will be lots of hysterical calls and distressed callers looking for medical help. The agents on the phone answering desk have to keep their calm and solve the problems that crop up. Sometimes all it takes for the agent is to listen to the problem at hand and do some counseling. That would solve the problem!
Data is an important aspect of medical answering service. Medical terms and jargons must be made available to the call center agents. Conducting training sessions to make them familiar with the terms is an additional help. The BPO agents must be careful about the information that they disseminate. Any wrong information could lead to serious injury or even legal complications. When in doubt, the answering service agents must cross-check with their supervisors. The team leaders and managers, on the other hand, have to be careful about the data that they share with the agents. Medical information is critical for the callers and any leak would reflect badly on the call centers doing the projects. Customers are also paranoid about their medical details. You have to be careful with that aspect.
Medical answering services need professional and prompt customer services. You have to be careful about the kind of processing that you do. The agents on the job have to be particular about being steady and quick in their processing. Callers are always hyperactive when faced with a medical emergency. It is the job of the agent to listen to them patiently and devise a course of action. More often than not, you will find that the BPO agent has to decide the next step on behalf of the callers. Agents have to responsible enough to be up for the task.