A group of busy doctors’ offices wanted details on how associates sounded on the phone when setting appointments. Did they make the new patient feel welcome, or was the call discouraging to the caller due to the long wait for an appointment? And, how many days or weeks was it for the first available appointment? The team suspected that the associates were not meeting organization standards in these areas and others.
Confero’s telephone mystery shops solved this information need. We worked with the group to devise a survey that was customized for each type of practice. Each type of office also had its own guidelines with information on questions shoppers would be asked (For example, “What insurance do you have?”) and answers to provide, so that mystery shoppers sounded like typical patients. The calls were recorded, allowing managers to hear for themselves the associates’ tones and information offered. In some cases, the shops revealed that an employee’s tone was not welcoming and the wait times were long for an appointment. The doctors’ offices used the mystery shop information to compliment staff on phone calls that were well done and retrain associates when the call was not satisfactory. Over time, the recorded phone shops showed improved associate behaviors, resulting in more offices offering consistent service.
