What happens to a call nobody answers

A missed call is not a number in a report. It is a person who needed an appointment, could not reach anybody, and solved the problem somewhere else. This guide follows that path from end to end and marks the three places it can still be stopped.

The first fifteen seconds

People calling a clinic do not wait long. Most hang up between the third and fifth ring, and almost nobody gets past fifteen seconds. It is not impatience: they already have another number in front of them, because they searched the map and four clinics came up.

Which means reception does not lose the call by being busy for ten minutes. It loses it by being busy for fifteen seconds at the wrong moment.

When the phone rings

The busiest hours on the phone are the busiest hours at the desk. It rings most when there are most people standing in front of the receptionist, which is exactly when she cannot pick up.

• At opening, between eight and ten, when the previous evening piles up
• Over lunch, with the team at half strength
• Late afternoon, when people call on their way out of work
• Mondays, which carry the whole weekend

What happens next

A patient who could not get through rarely tries again. They call the next one on the list. If they book there it is not a lost appointment: it is a lost patient, and every appointment that would have followed.

Missing a call costs one first appointment. Losing the patient costs all the others.

Where it can be stopped

Three places, in order of how much they are worth.

• Always answer, even if only to say somebody will call back within ten minutes
• Call back the same day, while the person has not booked elsewhere yet
• Let them book without speaking to anyone, by message or online, for calls out of hours

All three solve the same problem differently. The first is worth the most and is the hardest to guarantee with a team that is also serving the counter.