Call center software for hospitals, clinics and pharmacies
Patients call when the doors open, hang up when the wait is long and call again after hours. Halo is call center software for hospitals, clinics and pharmacies that keeps callers informed and turns missed calls into callback tasks.
Hospitals, clinics and pharmacies
Three call problems hospitals and clinics know
Appointment lines at opening time
Many patients call in the first hour to book an appointment. The line is busy just when your team is starting the day.
Callers who hang up while waiting
A patient who gives up waiting may not call again. Nobody knows who they were or what they needed.
After-hours calls
People call in the evening and on holidays, when the desk is closed. Those calls still need an answer the next working day.
Call center software for hospitals
How Halo answers them
Queues that tell patients where they stand
Callers hear their place in line, every 60 seconds by default, with hold music in between. After the maximum wait they move to an overflow, which is voicemail by default.
Call queues
Callers who hang up become callback tasks
Callers who hang up while waiting and voicemails become tasks on a shared list, with optional auto-assign and SLA tracking. A task closes itself when the caller is reached.
Missed call callbacks
After-hours calls handled
A time check in the voice menu plays your after-hours message. If you switch it on, after-hours calls become callback tasks for the morning team.
Ethiopian holidays in the calendar
Halo has an Ethiopian holiday calendar with holiday greetings. Dates that move each year are confirmed by your admin, and a one-switch emergency message is ready when you need it. Voice menus
A sample day
Opening time at a clinic
At 07:50 Liya Mekonnen, the supervisor, checks the wallboard. Three agents are logged in and ready on the “Support” queue.
At 08:00 the clinic opens and the queue fills with appointment calls. Each caller hears their place in line while Hana Tesfaye and Abel Tadesse answer.
At 08:10 Selam Haile hangs up after a long wait. Her call becomes a callback task. At 08:40 Abel calls her back to book the appointment, and the task closes on its own.
At 08:30 two agents are on long calls, and fewer than 2 agents have been ready for 5 minutes. Liya gets a Telegram alert and joins the phones herself.
At 10:00 the pharmacy’s “Orders” queue takes calls about refills. Dawit Bekele asks for a callback from the queue instead of waiting, and the request lands on the shared callback list.
At 13:00 Samuel Kebede looks at the callback list. Every task from the morning is closed, and SLA tracking shows which ones took longest.
After 18:00 the voice menu plays the after-hours message. Two callers choose to be called back, and their tasks are waiting for Meron Alemu when she starts the next morning.
What to look for in call center software for hospitals and clinics
Look for software that tells patients where they stand, never loses a caller who hangs up, and handles evenings and holidays without extra staff. Questions worth asking any supplier:
- What do callers hear while they wait, and can you record it yourself, in Amharic?
- What happens to a caller who hangs up? A task with an owner is easier to act on than a number in a report.
- How are after-hours calls handled, and do they come back to your team the next morning?
- Does the system know Ethiopian holidays, including those whose dates move each year?
- Are supervisors told when too few people are on the phones?
- Can you change the voice menu yourself, and undo a mistake at once?
- Who installs the system in Ethiopia and trains your staff?
The sections above show how Halo answers each of these.
Skynet VISP
How Halo is set up for hospitals and clinics
Skynet VISP installs Halo for you and supports it after go-live. Setup covers four things.
- A server for your organisation.Your own server or one from Skynet. It starts at 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM and a 500 GB SSD on Debian 13, and Skynet sizes larger teams.
- Your Ethio Telecom SIP line.Connected and tested over a private link from Ethio Telecom during setup.
- Your first menu, queues and hours.The first voice menu, your queues and users, and the opening hours that decide when the after-hours message plays.
- Training and support.Hands-on training in Addis Ababa. The yearly licence includes updates and support Mon-Sat 08:00-18:00 by phone, Telegram and email.
Facts
- Position announcement
- Every 60 seconds by default
- Default overflow
- Voicemail, after the maximum wait
- Callers who hang up while waiting
- Become callback tasks
- After-hours calls
- Become callback tasks if you switch it on
- Callback tasks
- Close themselves when the caller is reached
- Holiday calendar
- Ethiopian holidays with holiday greetings
- Voice menu changes
- Draft, publish and one-click rollback
Questions from hospitals, clinics and pharmacies
What happens to calls that come in after we close?
A time check in the voice menu plays your after-hours message, and callers can leave a voicemail. If you switch it on, after-hours calls become callback tasks on the shared list, together with the voicemails. Your morning team starts the day with a list of people to call back.
Can the voice menu change on Ethiopian holidays?
Yes. Halo has an Ethiopian holiday calendar with holiday greetings, so callers on Genna or Timket hear the message you set for that day. Dates that move each year are confirmed by your admin. A one-switch emergency message is also ready for days when every caller must hear the same news first.
Can we record our own messages in Amharic?
Yes. Voice prompts are your own recordings, in Amharic or any language. Your admin uploads MP3, WAV, OGG or M4A files of up to 20 MB and 10 minutes each. The built-in queue sounds can be replaced too, so position and wait messages can also be in Amharic.
How do we know callbacks are made on time?
Callback tasks sit on one shared list with optional auto-assign and SLA tracking, so you can see which tasks are running late. A task closes itself when the caller is reached. Halo’s reports cover callbacks too, and you can export them to Excel or CSV with your logo.