Virtual Receptionist vs. In-Person Receptionist: Deciding Between the Two

Last Update: Dec 16, 2022

Receptionists are an essential part of the medical clinic’s staff. Without them, catering to patients as soon as they enter the front door would be difficult. However, nowadays, clinics are facing a certain dilemma and that is deciding between virtual medical receptionist vs. in-person medical receptionist. Understandably, it’s a dilemma that can slow down the clinic’s day-to-day process.

If your clinic is struggling with this choice, you can always look at the factors for each and make your decision from there. Read this insightful blog to help you choose between a virtual receptionist or an in-person receptionist for your clinic.

Factors to Consider With In-Person Medical Receptionists

Costs

Expenses can’t be avoided when running a clinic. After all, you must pay for the practice’s space, procure equipment, and utilities to keep the place running. When you hire in-person medical receptionists, the associated costs are another factor that you need to consider. Naturally, as they’re employees who work on-site, they must be paid the appropriate costs for the work they put in daily.

Additionally, apart from the receptionist’s basic pay, some clinics also need to consider their other expenses such as travel costs. In fact, in 2022, Americans paid around 37% in commute costs because of the increase in gas prices. Most likely, that number has only increased as of 2024. Regardless, when hiring an in-person medical receptionist, clinics will also have to consider their travel costs to retain them as part of the clinical staff.

Flexibility

Flexibility is another factor to look at when trying to pick between a virtual receptionist service and an in-person medical receptionist. Remember; a receptionist also needs to handle a bevy of administrative tasks daily. These include answering patient inquiries and phone calls, facilitating check-in and check-out, and even data entry and responding to patient emails.

With that in mind, if you’re considering opting for in-person medical receptionists for your medical office, you need to ensure that the person applying for the role is flexible enough to handle all these tasks every day. Otherwise, your clinic’s daily operations may slow down to the point that it negatively affects the patient experience.

HIPAA Expertise

Of course, knowledge of HIPAA policies is another factor to consider when you’re trying to choose between a virtual medical receptionist vs. in-person medical receptionist. Since they’re conducting front-desk duties, it can be expected that receptionists will be handling sensitive patient information. Therefore, when hiring an in-person receptionist, clinics first need to see if the potential employee is HIPAA-certified.

Remember, data privacy is essential in the healthcare industry. Otherwise, a medical practice could not only face damage to their reputation but also legal issues. As such, it’s important that your in-person receptionist is already HIPAA certified so it’s guaranteed that they know proper data privacy and security guidelines.

Alternatively, clinics can also provide the necessary training to their in-person receptionist. However, this could consume some precious time and resources that could be used to improve the clinic and its services instead.

Customer Experience Skill

In-person medical receptionists are patient-facing personnel and therefore, one factor clinics have to look at before hiring one is their skill in customer service. Clinical receptionists cater to all sorts of patients daily, and there are certain situations when patients are irate. If your receptionist’s customer service skill isn’t up to par, it could result in the patient seeking treatment elsewhere. This in turn not only lowers your clinic’s patient retention but also damages its reputation.

Culture Fit

Like any workplace, clinical staff need to work together to ensure the clinic’s daily operations run smoothly. Receptionists are no exception, so if you’re considering hiring an in-person receptionist over a virtual front desk receptionist, you need to look for someone who can fit in with the clinic’s work culture.

Clinical staff must get along well with one another so they can work together without any personal or professional conflicts. This is essential for receptionists as they’ll have to work with the clinical team to be able to properly schedule them to cater to patient appointments. By having a receptionist who can mesh well with the rest of the team, everyone can assist patients better, allowing the practice to flourish.

Factors to Consider With Virtual Medical Receptionists

Ease of Integration

When looking to implement a virtual front desk reception for your practice, you first need to consider how easy it is to integrate into your clinic’s existing systems. These include EHR systems, tools that help in scheduling appointments, and practice management software. Remember; not every service is a “one practice fits all” and as such, some services may not fit well with your clinic’s current systems.

Thankfully, there are many virtual medical receptionist systems that can easily be integrated into a clinic’s daily operations. By having a virtual medical receptionist that’s integrated into your clinical systems, data entry errors can be minimized and efficiency is enhanced. As a result, your clinic’s operations will be smoother, improving patient experience in the process.

Cost

Whenever the topic of virtual medical receptionist vs. in-person medical receptionist is brought up, it’s possible that some may automatically assume that the former is the costlier option of the two. After all, virtual receptionists require technology to work so it can be expected that clinics will have to pay the associated costs to set them up and get them working. However, a virtual medical receptionist can actually be a cost-effective solution.

By having a virtual receptionist for your clinic, you can save a significant amount on office space costs, benefits, and even salary. Therefore, you’ll have more financial resources that you can invest in other areas of the practice. These include better equipment, additional training for your staff, and even improvements for the clinic itself.

Availability

As expected, in-person receptionists can only work during specific hours of the day. After all, receptionists are only human and as such, they still need to go home, rest, and spend time with their loved ones. Naturally, this can prevent patients from being catered to immediately, especially if they have to set up a sudden appointment late at night for the next day. As a result, it could negatively impact the patient experience.

24/7 availability is one of the factors that you need to look into when opting for a virtual receptionist service for your clinic. Fortunately, plenty of virtual receptionists offer round-the-clock availability to suit your clinic’s needs. By choosing this, patient satisfaction could see a significant increase, minimizing the chances of missed appointments and no-shows. Additionally, it could also enhance your clinic’s reputation, bringing in more business and revenue in the process.

Customer Service Proficiency

Even if you’re looking for virtual receptionists for your clinic, you still need to gauge the service’s customer service proficiency. Remember, while a virtual receptionist may be working behind a screen, they’re still interacting with real people. As such, they need to have high communication skills to be effective and efficient in their work. That way, they can put patients in distress at ease and de-escalate heated situations before they get worse.

HIPAA Compliance and Security

Similar to in-person medical receptionists, virtual receptionists must also be aware of HIPAA compliance and security measures. Otherwise, clinics risk accidentally leaking patient information because their receptionists are unaware of what they can and cannot do with it. Fortunately, many virtual receptionist providers have stringent measures that comply with HIPAA

Which Front Desk Solution Should You Opt For

Now that you know the factors you should consider when deciding between virtual medical receptionists vs. in-person medical receptionists, chances are you’re also wondering which of the two should you pick for your clinic. To decide between the two, you further examine some of the factors for each option and decide from there. For instance, you can look at the following:

• Costs – It can be expected that in-person receptionists can be the costlier of the two. This is because compared to virtual receptionists who mostly work from home, in-person receptionists actually come to the clinic for work. As such, you also need to factor transportation costs into their salary. Additionally, if they have to spend overtime to cater to every patient, you’ll need to pay them for that as well. With virtual medical receptionists, on the other hand, your overall costs could be reduced. Not only do they work from home but they also work in shifts. As a result, there’s no need for one receptionist to do overtime, allowing you to save on its associated costs.
• Flexibility – As stated before, receptionists work limited hours, therefore limiting how much they can cater to the clinic’s patients. By having a virtual receptionist service, you’re essentially placing virtual receptionists who are available 24/7 in your clinic. That way, patients can be assisted in their needs, even if they need to set an appointment for the next day late at night because of an emergency.
• Data Security and Privacy Measures – Finally, you can also compare each option’s data security and privacy compliance measures to gauge which of them you should pick for your clinic. With in-person receptionists, they may be unaware of the HIPAA and GDPR policies that clinics need to comply with. This leaves your clinic vulnerable to patient information leaks, even accidental ones. Additionally, if the receptionist has no training in HIPAA and GDPR compliance, clinics will have to spend some time and financial resources to train them. With virtual medical receptionist providers, meanwhile, this problem is eliminated. Most providers have strict data privacy and security measures to begin, meaning they can comply with the standard HIPAA and GDPR guidelines from the get-go. This makes them the perfect choice for clinics that want to cover all their bases and have a receptionist who is familiar with HIPAA and GDPR.

Examining the factors mentioned above reveals that opting for a virtual medical receptionist is the best choice for clinics today. Their costs, flexibility, and data privacy and security benefits can prove advantageous to your practice in the long run compared to in-person receptionists.

What to Look for in a Virtual Front Desk Solution

When looking for a virtual receptionist service for your clinic, you need to look for the following to ensure that they’re the perfect choice:

• Focus on 24/7 Availability – One of the reasons you should get a virtual receptionist for your clinic is because they can cater to your patients 24/7. However, while there are many virtual receptionist providers who offer round-the-clock availability, there are still some who don’t have the capacity to do this. As such, when looking for a virtual receptionist for your clinic, be sure to thoroughly examine the provider to see if they can indeed provide 24/7 receptionist service for your practice.
• Prioritizes Patient Experience – If you’re looking to implement a virtual front desk reception for your clinic, be sure to find one that improves and prioritizes the patient experience. This means you need to check if your potential virtual receptionist provider has a sufficient amount of trained, professional agents and the ability to produce customizable interaction scripts so each patient has an experience that’s tailored specifically to them.
• Affordability – A remote front desk solution should be able to assist your clinic in becoming more cost-efficient, even if you enlist their services. Therefore, when picking a receptionist service, be sure to see if they have flexible pricing models that can help you keep costs low even after they’re implemented in your clinic.
• Operational Efficiency – A virtual receptionist service is supposed to make your clinic’s workflow easier. With it, your clinic should be able to reduce the time spent on manual workloads. With that in mind, be sure to choose a service that not only has management tools that helps you be more efficient in tasks but also automation tools that help appointment check-ins to be completed faster.
• Demo Availability – Finally, look for a virtual receptionist provider that provides demos upon request. Doing so lets you gauge if the virtual receptionist solution offers all the tools you need and if it is the right choice for your clinic.

Ensure a Satisfactory Patient Experience with Virtual Receptionists

The patient experience starts as soon as they walk into your clinic and approaches the receptionist’s desk. If your receptionists fail to provide a satisfactory experience on the get-go, then a patient may find it challenging to be satisfied with their time in your clinic overall. Therefore, be sure to enhance the patient experience with WelcomeWare.

WelcomeWare is a video receptionist platform that provides your clinic with a virtual front desk reception. Request a demo today and learn how WelcomeWare can streamline your operations and improve patient satisfaction for your clinic.