5 Healthcare Best Practices for Maximizing Help Scout

We talk to a lot of users in the healthcare space, and see a few different ways those folks get the most use out of Help Scout. With every company working slightly differently we won't go into detailed specifics here, but consider this a guide to spark a few ideas on what might work the best for your team.

Saved Replies

Offering consistent and efficient support to anyone who sends you an email can go a long way to taking the best care of that patient or client. If you find yourself answering the same types of questions, saved replies can help you answer incoming emails without having to type out the same reply over and over. Create the reply once, and answer an email with just 3 clicks.

Examples:

Paperwork needed
Procedure FAQ
Appointment bookings/follow ups
Office hours
Insurance requirements

Further reading: Create and manage saved replies for fast answers

Custom Fields

Custom Fields and Tags are both great email tracking tools, but they have some nuances. Custom Fields are better for tracking things on every single conversation, like if you wanted to track and report on conversations by request type, practitioner seen, or department.

Examples (you would set these on most/every single email you reply to):

Priority
Insurance
Billing date
PHI Handling
Prescription discount code

Further reading: Work with Custom Fields / Report on Custom Fields

Workflows

In Help Scout we call automations workflows, which can help you eliminate a lot of busy work out of your day to day. For automatic workflows, think of them as If/Then statements. If one thing happens in Help Scout, these actions will automatically take place.

Manual workflows are especially helpful to use after reading an individual email, they can take many actions for you (e.g. add a tag, add a note, reply to the customer, change the status) all with one click.

Examples:

Tag/set custom field based on subject line - used for things like specific medical needs/conditions
Follow up with patients/clients if they haven’t responded in X days - IF Last customer reply is not in the last X hours/days, THEN assign to team/add tag/update custom field/copy to folder
Run a manual workflow if paperwork is missing - Add a tag, send a pre-written email
Manage billing - IF subject contains X, THEN move to mailbox
Assign new patient or intake requests to proper team or move to mailbox

Further reading: Get started with workflows / Automate your inbox

Reporting

Using either tags or custom fields, reporting views can be set up that allow you to get an accurate view of the kinds of issues you are seeing weekly, monthly, or any other time frame you need.

We see folks in the healthcare space setting up these kinds of reporting views:

Billing
Specific insurance provider
Location specific
Clinical services
SLA

Further reading: Understanding reports / Use views to filter reports