Why Every Care Facility Requires the Best Communication Tools
Running a care home can be challenging. With so much on your plate, updating your technology and equipment can fall on the back burner. But having an up to date phone and WiFi system is not only important for the smooth running of your care home but also the health and safety of your residents.
1. Use Cordless Phones From Anywhere In Your Care Home
Cut outs and crackling noises on the phone are annoying for both you and your callers and they can also be highly dangerous.
Imagine you have a medical emergency in a room on the top floor of your care home and your cordless connection doesn’t reach here.
We’ve heard stories of staff members having to shout down hallways to another staff member who is on the phone and, even worse, carers who haven’t been able to answer the phone to give ambulances directions as they need to stay in room with a resident. It doesn’t have to be like this!
2. Monitor and Improve the Skills of Your Reception Team
If a caller has a bad experience on the phone to you, it can damage the reputation of your care home.
Having a phone system with Call Recording will allow you to listen to your calls whenever you want so you can assess the strengths and weaknesses of your staff and make improvements where necessary.
3. Get Reliable WiFi in Every Room
In this day and age WiFi, or lack of WiFi, can be a real deal breaker so it’s important to make sure you have a strong connection that reaches every room of your care home.
Often your residents will need keep in contact with their family members via Skype or Facetime and, if they can’t move around easily, they will need WiFi in their room in order to do this.
If you can’t provide this it will often leave your residents feeling frustrated and this may lead potential new residents to look elsewhere when they enquire about your home – costing you lots of money in missed revenue.
4. See all Your Missed Calls and Call them Back
With the amount of calls you receive each day it can be hard to keep track of how many calls you are missing and these calls can be important enquiries or family members trying to speak to a resident.
If they can’t get through, or don’t get a call back, this can create a bad impression in their mind.
5. Keep Callers Interested and on the Line When You’re Busy
There’s nothing worse than waiting on hold in silence.
Fill those awkward silences with marketing messages to give your callers a better understanding of the service you provide. This the perfect time to build trust and educate your callers, rather than leaving them wondering if they have been cut off.
You can also use this time to let your callers know about any open days or seasonal information that may be of importance – such as opening times, visiting hours etc.
