Why sometimes the message starts after a longer pause and patients do not get response options?

May 31st, 2007

The way the appointment reminder computers work is they are listening for noise and silence. This is the indicator which determines whether we are speaking to a person or an answering machine. Most people will answer their phone and say “hello”. This is short and the computer understands that most likely it is a person. With and answering machine, usually the message is “hello, you have reached…, the computer has to wait longer for the silence and therefore deducts that this is an answering machine.

Our capture rate for answering machines and individuals is very good. However, the computers can be fooled. For example, if someone answers the phone and there is a lot of background noise (kids, TV, etc.) this may sometimes fool the computer into thinking it is talking with an answering machine and it is waiting for silence. If the computer deducts that this is an answering machine it will leave the message twice without leaving response options.

On the other hand, sometimes an answering machine will answer and say hello and pause before the outgoing message starts. This fools the computer into thinking there is a live person on the phone and thus the reminder message will start early. To solve this problem, our computers are programmed to repeat the message on an answering machine or if a response option is not pressed. As a result, you should rarely hear that someone did not hear the whole message even though it may have started early (will repeat itself). Although the computer systems are not fool-proof, the percentage that they incorrectly answer a call is less than 1%.

Entry Filed under: appointment reminders