Telephone Skills are in my DNA
telephone rapport
e-book
If you’ve been wondering what you can do quickly to better meet patient expectations, Telephone Rapport is the resource for you.
at the risk of sounding 300 years old..
My part time job during high school and college was Switchboard Operator at Quincy City Hospital in Massachusetts.
When I became a hospital vice president, my responsibilities included Communications. I selected and coordinated implementation of a new telephone system for our 260 bed hospital.
A few years later, I was speaking for the Case Management Society of America’s Wisconsin Chapter. Marilyn Smith, an Educator from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, attended the conference and then recommended me to be the only external speaker for the Mayo Clinic Service Collaborative.
During our first planning call, I outlined the two hour presentation I planned to give. Telephone skills were mentioned as a minuscule part of the curriculum and almost dismissed as unnecessary. However, everyone at the Mayo Clinic is open to learning from others. We agreed it would be a part of my presentation. One of the Collaborative teams decided to use my techniques for more effective telephone calls as their service improvement initiative. When the Collaborative teams met six months later, the group that worked on telephone communications demonstrated remarkable results in staff and patient satisfaction. In the planning calls for the following years, I was advised to “include those telephone skills everyone liked so much.”
In 2015, Yale New Haven Health established a centralized call center for providing information on employee benefits. I was hired to work with their newly formed call center team before the center opened.
When researching my book, Higher HCAHPS Scores: The Willing to Recommend Approach, I reviewed thousands of social media posts and was disappointed to see how few of the positive comments and how many of the negative comments were about telephone care experiences.
All of my work experience is in health care. I understand how busy your work life is and I specialize in techniques that take little or no time.
A few minutes a day for two weeks will change the way your team feels about telephone calls.
What's Included:
A daily lesson you can send via email to each of your staff members. You have the flexibility to choose the start date and schedule. There are ten lessons and three additional bonus lessons included.
what's not included
Rather than tell your team everything they need to know and then give them a test so they can prove they’ve learned it, Telephone Rapport provides bite-sized, easily digestible techniques they will apply immediately. This program is for you if you are more interested in what your team is applying rather than whether they can answer test questions correctly.
The techniques in this ebook are designed to help callers feel respected and important. The lessons in the book do not focus on the angry or difficult caller. However, consistent use of Telephone Rapport techniques will reduce the number of “difficult” callers.
Is Telephone rapport for you?
You know your team could be doing better on the phone, but you’re unsure how to to make it happen.
You want shorter calls and shorter wait times while still making caring connections with callers.
You'd like your team members to feel more positive about answering the phone.
You don’t have time to pull people away from their work to have a class on telephone skills.
It is if...
You need a patient experience initiative and have run out of ideas.
Your time is tight and you’re looking for the most effective and efficient telephone skills training.
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“Telephone Rapport has helped me to slow down and listen to the caller more. I did not realize how much I was rushing the caller until these suggestions. I even use Telephone Rapport with some of my co-workers when they come and ask questions. Thanks for the tips each morning – they help me be a better scheduler every day.”
Chahazara J. Bender, AU Medical Center, Augusta, GA
Your patients want to feel cared for every time they call.
In choosing this ebook of telephone skills lessons, you will support your team in changing what they do, not just what they know.
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"The lessons are quick and easily implemented in to any workflow. The Leader Guide is helpful to keep things rolling with the team.
angela Gagne, practice manager, st. mary's health system, main
