Case Study: Tap Retired Workers to Make Callbacks

For 12 years, Dr. Steve Bishop and his crew at Animal Care Hospital in Phoenix have been tapping the retired population to make callbacks in the early evening. Doing so frees time for receptionists to work on other jobs, he says. "Plus, the hourly pay is less than for a receptionist, and the workers are more flexible with their time."

"We initially hired a retired client to make past-due reminder calls three times weekly between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.," says Dr. Bishop. "We had better luck connecting with clients between these hours. Over the years, we?ve hired three people to do this job."

Dr. Bishop created a written job description for the position and has a trained receptionist work with the caller for a few weeks to fine-tune his or her delivery. He asks the callback worker to keep a list of several things on a monthly basis:

• the total number of files and past-due reminders reviewed
• the files with no phone number
• the calls that resulted in no answer
• when a message is left on the answering machine
• when a message is left with a person disconnected phone numbers
• any appointments made (if clients want to make an appointment the phone call is transferred to the appointment desk)
• when pet owners will call the practice back
• when a service has already been completed.

• The caller also tracks the number of clients who've left the practice and their reasons. For example, the client or pet died, moved out of state, chose to visit another veterinarian, or used a less-expensive vaccination clinic.

• "From this information we can identify trends in our practice, see how well we're doing with reminders, and update our client database," Dr. Bishop says. He says workers usually call all clients with past-due reminders after the practice sends three written reminders. He has workers call clients once a month, with a maximum of two calls.

• "For our practice, using retired people for this job duty lets us use our receptionists more efficiently," says Dr. Bishop. And, he says, both the practice and its workers benefit from the arrangement.

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