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Tag Archives: reminders
2009
Get a Customer Retention Boost – and Save Money – with Appointment Reminder Software
Customers can have a variety of reasons for missing an appointment. We’re busy, life happens, we’re disorganized. The impact of no shows can vary from an annoyance to monumental financial losses. For instance, a recent report from the UK revealed that patient no shows for hospital appointments alone cost the National Health Services (NHS) close to a billion dollars annually.
Money lost from no shows isn’t limited to health care. For years, airlines and hotels have charged no-show and change fees, but fees are increasing and the policies are becoming more widespread, at the cost of customer satisfaction. And satisfaction is the foundation of retention.
2009
Personal Appointment Software May Just Save Your Job
In the face of close to 10% U.S. unemployment, employees may be wondering what they can do to increase their value. Online appointment software may just be the answer. It is a tool to manage two resources that often are poorly handled: time and relationships. With more companies watching what employees do, it may be time to seriously consider a change in how you go about your job.
Setting appointments with online appointment software allows you to be organized with your time and communicates to others (including your boss) that both your time and the time of others is something that you value. Aren’t supervisors looking for employees who are focused, organized, efficient, and place a value on the company’s best interest?
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2009
Running a Virtual Business with a Client Base? Don’t Forget Online Scheduling Software
In many cases, operating a virtual business means you’re the sole manager of client appointments. This can be a nightmare if you’re not taking advantage of a simple, affordable tool: online scheduling software.
Many small business owners manage their client base using tools and methods that don’t scale, such as scheduling by phone or appointment books. These are costly in time and convenience, and they limit on how much a virtual business can juggle at once. Online scheduling software solves it.
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2009
Appointment Software Can Help Small Businesses Make It Through the Downturn
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The reality of a tough economy has already come for many small businesses, as indicated by the over 10% quarter-by-quarter increase in the number of business bankruptcy filings over the last few quarters. Downsizing, smaller budgets, and more fickle customers mean that small business owners need ways to get their employees to work better as a unit to improve customer care. One tool that can assist in this effort is appointment software. Appointment software can unify your team’s schedules and provide real time information about employee-customer relations.
2009
Medical journal article shows reminders help patients stick to the plan
A new study released Tuesday in the August American Journal of Preventive Medicine shows that reminders, including inexpensive automated reminders, substantially increased the number of patients who scheduled appointments and came in for a screening exam. In other words, reminders work.
(TimeTrade’s appointment systems can provide automated reminders of appointments that were already scheduled. This study looks at a related subject – a reminder to make an appointment. This journal article establishes, in a large scale study, what our customers have long said: reminders help.)
I was privileged to interview the study’s lead author, Adrianne Feldstein, MD, MS, an investigator at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research, about the design and results of the study, which involved 35,000 patients.
Patients were.sent a series of reminders. Each one yielded progressively more response:
- First a postcard was mailed, yielding 9.9% response
- 30 days later an automated phone call brought the total up to 24%
- Another 30 days later, a second automated call brought the total up to 36%
Finally, the remaining 64% were given to local teams, who made live phone calls, raising the final response to 46.6%.
The study design didn’t examine cost-effectiveness, but the article cites earlier research in which a mailed reminder with live follow-up call was the most cost-effective. Interestingly (to me), neither study included email reminders – seems like a simple, obvious and inexpensive method to try, so in future research we’d love to see a split test: robocalls vs. emails.
Kaiser Permanente has a well deserved reputation for leadership in its methodologies. Thanks to Dr. Feldstein for her time in the interview.
The press release about the study is here.
Filed under: appointment scheduling
Tagged: appointment scheduling, customer service, reminders
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