In today’s world, everyone is busy! Your customers – or potential customers – may be working full-time, taking care of children or grandchildren, volunteering, or otherwise occupied during the week. Many hearing care centers are wisely making the decision to offer more flexible hours – including appointments on certain evenings and weekends – to accommodate their customers’ needs and requests. 

In addition to offering extended hours, be sure to always have availability for appointments. Optimize your schedule to accommodate as many customers as possible and avoid “wasted” time between appointments. This will help you maximize the number of customers that you can see in a day while minimizing wait time for your customers – a win-win. 

When looking for an audiology provider, many people will select clinics that offer flexible hours, including evenings and weekends. According to a recent Auditdata poll on social media, more than a third of respondents (36%) said their hearing clinic is closed on weekends. If your clinics aren’t already doing so, consider extending your hours to better accommodate busy customers. Keep in mind that many people work 9-5 jobs and can’t easily come in to see you for a mid-week, mid-day appointment. Offering more flexible hours will attract more clients, especially the younger demographic who may be working full-time. 

Some audiology clinics struggle to optimize their schedules: 

• Customers become frustrated when they have a long wait time in the clinics when coming for an appointment with their audiologist. They also may be upset if they can’t get an appointment when they want one. 
• Audiologists become irritated when their schedule doesn’t run smoothly, and they fall behind or when their schedule isn’t optimized so it has unused “gaps” between appointments. 
• The front desk staff needs a streamlined scheduling system so they’re able to efficiently book appointments of varying lengths in the most productive way possible. 
• The office manager often feels unrelenting pressure to keep schedules optimized so the customers, audiologists, and receptionists are all happy and satisfied. 

Our solution allows you to schedule smarter by: 

💥Segmenting appointments: Segment your bookings so you’re not allotting the same amount of time with each customer. The best way to break up a schedule is by using 15-minute blocks, which is often enough to cover a service call. This should be considered the shortest possible appointment and it’s also an ideal block of time to be bundled together. For instance, book 30 minutes for wax removal, and an hour for an initial consultation. Consider varying the time spent with the clients for their first appointment depending on their age and the results from their initial hearing screening. 

💥Blocking calendars: Ensure that there is always room for longer appointments and that there are no empty spaces in the calendars between appointments. The most efficient way to do this is by blocking the calendars for the longer appointments first and filling in the “empty space” with the shorter ones and then, finally, scheduling admin time. That way, you will reserve enough time for the longer appointments which are usually the most difficult to schedule. Be certain that your receptionists and front office staff understand the various types of appointments, how to qualify customers, and how to block off the calendar. 

There may be times when your customers require emergency care. For instance, customers that rely fully on their hearing aids need to know they will be seen immediately if their hearing aids suddenly stop functioning properly. Consider leaving some time open during the day to handle emergencies on an as-needed basis. Or have your audiologists take turns staying late to handle emergency appointments. 

Your hearing clinic should commit to providing the highest quality care for customers AND make the treatment process as convenient as possible:  

• Don’t allow customers’ busy schedules to prevent them from seeing your hearing care staff. Offer convenient appointment times.
• Keep the schedules running smoothly to prevent long wait times.  
• Offer same day emergency appointments.   

By doing so, you’ll elevate your customer service and boost customer loyalty and satisfaction.