When looking for the best contact center partner, keep in mind that not all call centers are alike, and they definitely do not all have the same experience in every vertical. 

If you are considering outsourcing some or all of your call center work, it is critical to choose a partner that has industry-specific knowledge and experience so they understand the “why” behind your business and your clients/customers. Nowhere is that more evident than in the healthcare field, where HIPAA compliance, compassion, and empathy are essentials when it comes to healthcare call center best practices.

Insurance and pharmaceutical companies, wellness providers, medical assistance organizations, and healthcare exchanges all provide a differing and  wide range of services to customers. Yet every organization is different. You will need a partner that can tailor their solutions to meet your specific needs.

Here are just some of the things that call centers must have, or be able to accomplish for you,, in order to successfully support healthcare clients and their customers:

• New Customer Acquisition. This might include enrollment/eligibility support, policy selection assistance, and health screening questions and assistance, even cross-selling and upselling of products or services.
• Customer Support. This might include membership-specific services as well as billing and payment inquiries, claims status information, drug and pharmaceutical assistance, medical provider referrals, even technical help such as resetting ID and password information.
• Account Management. In addition to serving your customers, your outsource partner must be able to support your business operations and growth. Behind-the-scenes healthcare call center best practices include strict adherence to HIPAA procedures, legal compliance requirements, efficient order processing, and ability to effectively handle adverse events, emergencies, and breaches.

Putting best practices into play

The easiest way to visualize how the right call center can benefit your healthcare business is by reviewing real-life examples.

A Health Care Exchange partnered with The Connection® because of our outstanding track record in achieving performance KPIs and our ability to scale services as clients grow or volume fluctuates. We exceeded their expectations:

• We partnered with them to develop and provide extensive CSR training and ongoing monitoring to handle customer calls, achieving a 95% quality rating.
• We created a special CSR team dedicated to reducing the Client’s  huge application backlog, eliminating more than 30,000 pending applications within a very short period of time..
• We worked with the Client  to develop a dynamic staffing strategy that ensured minimal caller wait times even during peak periods.
• We proactively identified and implemented additional efficiency improvements aimed at improving the overall customer experience.

In the words of the Client CEO, “The Connection team exhibits an understanding and “can-do” attitude that provides insight, feedback, and value that extends above and beyond their excellent call center services.”

For another Healthcare client, The Connection® was able to institute new customer service features including virtual hold (callers can request a return call rather than waiting on hold for an agent), new workforce management improvements, better alignment of staffing and capabilities, and much more.  The net effect has been a quality rating of 97% or higher along with a 17% reduction in labor costs.

Healthcare call center best practices can boost your customer experience and happiness and boost your bottom line as well. As long as you select an appropriate partner. Want to know more? Give us a call at The Connection®.