Transparency & Truthfulness Matters!
Especially if you are trying to procure new clients for a high-priced system.
I approached Athenahealth EHR for a Demo, following which I received a call from a company intake person that took all the info re: our practice, our requirements etc. over almost 30 min on the phone. I was led to believe that the next email I would get would be to schedule the demo.
Following the initial detailed intake phone call, I received an email asking me to schedule another meeting with "senior sales analyst" to "Discuss your practice – what’s going well, where there are challenges, what goals you have for the practice/Review athena’s unique partnership model/Discuss and establish next steps"
I courteously declined the meeting in reply to email courteously and very clearly explaining the reason for my refusal and my expectation: I had already discussed my needs and my practice specifics and so it would simply be a waste of my time providing the same information all over again not to mention duplication of information and requested a live demo instead where I could actually see the functionality of the system. This is the industry standard for most EHR companies I have contacted------an initial intake phone followed by a demo setup.
2 days after I declined the follow-up phone call I get a call in the morning, in the middle of a patient session from their company representative assuring me that they could schedule a demo meeting that afternoon along with the pricing modules made available at the same time if I was agreeable. I scheduled the meeting based on this reassurance.
Come the time for the meeting, first off, the salesperson tells me that he's "not able to hear me!!!", in spite of the system and browser showing repeatedly that the microphone was working just fine." Let's just a few things discuss over the phone and then I can show you the practical side of it on the desktop. We probably won't need the voice function so much for the demo!!!", he says. And guess what? The guy just had me elaborate and repeat all the intake info over the next 45 minutes. THERE WAS NO DEMO. THERE WAS NO DISCUSSION/EXPLANATION OF ANY PRICE MODULES. And when I asked re: moving on to the demo, here is his answer: "Oh, looks like we have already used up almost an hour, so there's really no time left for the demo!! And any way this was a meeting more to know about your practice. I'm going to email you some demo videos so you can review them at your convenience!!"
Really? You wasted an hour of my time, lying to me and leading me on to attend this "DEMO" meeting, just to tell me that you were chatting with me and that I could review your emailed "demo videos?" (half of which I probably wouldn't even understand without an in-person explanation of the different functionalities). No wonder, you couldn't "hear me."
And then to top it off, he tells me that I would need to share my practice financials in order for them to give me "the most accurate, practice specific quote", and "we can definitely schedule another meeting to go over that". Seriously???!!!
So, NO DEMO & NO PRICING MODULES!!!! Just lies and waste of time.
So, AthenaHealth, let me tell you how to impress and procure new clients: You impress and procure new clients by NOT LYING TO THEM, by respecting their time constraints, by honoring your word and by NOT LEADING THEM ON. You do not get new clients by the shabby and deplorable behavior your employees demonstrated. This is the worst customer service that I've had the misfortune to come across. Lying and tricking your prospective clients may work in the short run to get them in to your "meetings" but that is no way to create a good impression. Your company may be "the most used EHR company" but it is the worst in customer service.
I would neither recommend you nor your services to any of my colleagues.
Extremely, extremely angry and never-to-be-a-client,
Rita U. Goradia, MD.
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