Flexibility

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A hearing clinic’s flexibility is a key to success

Provide the highest quality care for customers and make the treatment process as easy and convenient as possible. Offer extended hours, keep the schedules running smoothly to prevent long wait times, and offer same day emergency appointments. By doing so, you’ll attract new prospects, elevate your customer service, and boost client loyalty and satisfaction.

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. 

Portrait Rikke Rytter

"I have hearing loss and I’m considering getting hearing aids, but the hearing clinics near me are only open during the workday and are closed during the lunch break. With my job, it’s too much of a hassle to try to take time off to get my hearing tested and get fitted for hearing aids. I’d be much more likely to go to the hearing clinic if they offered some evening or weekend appointments - as my optical and dental shops do - to make it more convenient for working professionals."

Rikke Rytter

54-year-old working woman who lives in Denmark. 

The Need for Night and Weekend Appointments 

A person’s healthcare needs – including hearing care – is not limited to Monday through Friday, 9-5. Therefore, customers often seek out health care providers that offer appointments that are outside of the traditional Monday through Friday work week. Consider optical shops, which are often open late during weekdays and on weekends. 

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. 

 

Have a maximum of 3 days waiting time. 

Also, be sure your clinics can accommodate same-day emergency appointments. Build time into your daily schedule for emergencies and/or consider staying late, as needed, to see customers with urgent, last-minute needs. 

Schedule Smarter

In addition to needing flexible hours, customers also want to visit hearing care offices that run smoothly, where they won’t have to endure long wait times to see their audiologist. 

Day View Appointment Overview

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. 

Ready to start scheduling smarter? 

Learn how to use the Appointment Scheduler to book and manage appointments in Auditdata Manage.

How do you please everyone? Start by improving your scheduling 

Auditdata’s Practice Management Software automates the scheduling process to make it work better for your staff. Our solutions are stored securely in the cloud, so anyone from any of your clinic locations can easily and accurately schedule appointments for any of the clinicians throughout your organization.

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. 

 

We have 6 questions for you!

Take our free quiz and find out if our guide could help you book more and better appointments.

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Do you want more customer facing time for your staff? 

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Do you have long waiting time for new customers?

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Do you want to boost your in-shop revenue using only your existing staff and resources?

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Do you want to have more customers? 

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Offer Same-day Emergency Care 

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. 

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