The contact center plays a vital role within a healthcare organization. Its efficient operation is crucial for delivering exceptional customer-centric services and meeting patient needs.
A poorly performing contact center can result in patient dissatisfaction and potential loss to competitor healthcare facilities.
Therefore, understanding and implementing healthcare contact center best practices is crucial. Fortunately, we have compiled a comprehensive list of the top practices that can help your organization stand out from the rest.
Contact center performance can get better by making simple policy changes. Let's have a look at them.
The purpose of a contact center is to communicate with customers or patients. Most people will feel frustrated if there is only one channel or way to contact a representative/agent. Furthermore, the average response time is also longer in single-channel support.
Many reputable healthcare organizations, such as Mayo Clinic, recognize the importance of omnichannel support. They prioritize patient satisfaction by offering diverse communication channels that reflect industry standards and best practices.
By providing various communication channels such as emails, live chat, WhatsApp, and social media apps, healthcare organizations can cater to patients' preferences and convenience.
If your competitors offer omnichannel support while you do not, you will likely lose patients.
As a company offering multilingual customer support services, we firmly believe this is an important aspect, particularly in the healthcare industry.
People from all kinds of backgrounds need healthcare facilities. Chances are people of different cultures don't know English, so you should also offer multilingual support.
Most healthcare facilities prefer Spanish to English. To stand out, you should also have French, German, Mandarin, and Arabic-speaking representatives/agents.
Furthermore, if your healthcare facility has a website or app, add the "Change language" option. This will make non-English speakers comfortable and allow them to contact you without hesitation.
The modern world has provided us with efficient software solutions that greatly assist in managing our tasks. One such solution is CRM, which businesses and organizations use to offer customer-centric services.
Some of the best CRM benefits for healthcare organizations are:
With CRM, staff members can automate tasks. With a few clicks, they can make appointments, reschedule visits, and give reminders about specific events/days.
If the system is integrated with a high-quality CRM, you do not need to open every folder, write a note, set the alarm on your mobile, etc.
With CRM, an agent can also store a patient's important data, such as medical history, previous appointment dates, missed appointments, prescriptions, preferences, etc., which will help doctors and staff make informed decisions and offer better treatment services.
Moreover, CRM can also be integrated with billings, which will help members know how much a patient has been charged and whether there are any remaining dues.
CRM does extra work, such as saving data, setting reminders, etc. This lightens your staff's workload, keeping them fresh and stress-free.
They can then spend more time communicating in person.
CRM tools also comply with the health industry's protocols. They have a strong privacy system that prevents hackers or unauthorized individuals from accessing patients' personal data.
They also encrypt the data, which means nobody can read the sensitive information unless they enter the correct password.
That is why experts even encourage health organizations to incorporate CRMs to improve the security system.
CRM can help organizations with campaigns about healthcare facilities. It can provide critical data that they can use to manage the advertisements, which will win the trust of new patients.
So, install a CRM of any company and improve the efficiency of the whole setup.
Contact center staff should demonstrate compassion towards patients and exhibit patience when listening to their problems, confusion, and queries without displaying rudeness.
The choice of words and tone used by the staff is equally important.
For example, if no appointment is available, and a patient calls to make one, an agent should reply with, “The next available date is next Monday,” instead of saying, “Doctor's appointment is full.” The caller will most likely accept next Monday's offer.
In addition, representatives should always try to go one step ahead and make the patient feel more optimistic. A few kind words at the end of the call should be enough.
Remember - A patient will most likely go to competitor healthcare if your staff does not behave well.
Therefore, it is the manager's/assigned person's responsibility to ensure that the staff treats everyone with respect and professionalism.
The composition of your team plays a crucial role in delivering exceptional patient experiences. Hiring experienced professionals who possess excellent soft skills is essential. However, if you decide to hire newcomers or interns, it becomes imperative to prioritize their training.
The training program should encompass a range of essential skills, including proper pronunciation of names, handling challenging callers, delivering difficult news, and more. Additionally, cultural sensitivity training should be incorporated to ensure staff members are well-versed in avoiding potentially offensive conversation topics.
In addition, healthcare staff should be aware of the industry's protocols and what will happen if they breach them.
The training program will help the staff provide better services, ultimately improving the health organization's image.
It is better to divide the staff based on their expertise. Create sections like cardiology, radiology, etc., and assign each department to the person who knows all about the respective field.
Such a staff member can handle the conversations better, making patients happy and satisfied.
Also, social media categorizing is recommended to improve efficiency. For example, assign one person to respond to emails, one person to reply on WhatsApp, etc.
The contact center is mainly all about managing the calls. Therefore, access to smart routing systems is one of the best practices/decisions a health organization can make.
With them, calls can automatically transfer to departments with just a single press.
Moreover, you can also integrate the routing system with CRM. This will help agents access the patient's history when they answer the calls, enabling them to provide the best insights and services.
Automated chatbots developed with Natural Language Processing also help contact centers deliver the best assistance.
A chatbot can respond to the patients' common questions straight away without making them wait. This will save time for the representatives, which they can spend answering emails and other work-related things.
Moreover, NLP chatbots can even record calls and make a transcript of the whole conversation. The advanced ones also give a sentimental analysis report on the tone. This will help the manager assess the calls and monitor the agent's performance.
Most people search for healthcare facilities online. Therefore, it is better to add an FAQ section on the contact center page. It should include the most asked queries and their precise answers. This will reduce the number of calls and messages a contact center receives.
Implementing an FAQ section also demonstrates professionalism, especially since many healthcare organizations do not widely adopt this practice. So, get a head start and add it on the official website/app.
Another best practice is getting feedback. At the end of a call or chat, the representative can ask a few questions about whether the communication was productive.
If the patient chatted online, then a representative can send a feedback link (with all the questions).
A manager can then read the response and monitor the performance of the representative.
The healthcare industry must adhere to HIPAA protocols to maintain patient confidentiality. It is crucial for healthcare contact centers to comply with these regulations to avoid legal penalties and protect their reputation.
Furthermore, allegations of disobeying HIPAA can ruin the image. No patient wants to visit such a health facility that has been accused of malpractices and data theft.
That is why every staff member of a contact center should know about the rules and regulations.
Here are some key points to consider:
By following these practices, healthcare contact centers can uphold patient confidentiality, maintain compliance with HIPAA regulations, and protect their reputation in the industry.
Monitoring performance regularly is the last and perhaps the most important practice. It is because the success of the other 11 points (and eventually your health organization) depends on analyzing different metrics.
Ultimately, this contributes to improving services, resulting in increased patient satisfaction.
Consider these metrics when you assess the performance:
A healthcare facility receives a high volume of calls, which results in some callers being placed on hold. It is important to monitor the amount of time callers spend on hold. If it is more than two to three minutes, it indicates that you need more lines and staff.
Additionally, it is crucial to assess the average response time for emails and live chat. A service is considered best when the potential or current patient does not have to wait for long to get a reply.
The abandonment rate is another significant factor to evaluate. Determine how many patients left the facility and sought services elsewhere before completion. Additionally, track the number of missed appointments. This information provides insight into the quality of services provided.
A staff member can also contact such patients and inquire about their absence. The feedback will also benefit future policies.
Understanding the duration of patient calls contributes to improving services. Longer calls are not appreciated because of new incoming calls. A representative should resolve the patient's query quickly and efficiently.
You can know about the average call time by calculating the total minutes with the number of calls. For example, if agents spend 100 hours on call and the total number of calls is 500, the average time per call is 12 minutes.
Calculate the average call time at the end of every month and discuss the results with the call agents if they are unsatisfactory.
Recordings of contact center calls are invaluable for service enhancement. Assign someone within the healthcare organization to listen to these recordings and evaluate staff professionalism. Larger companies often incorporate this evaluation into monthly or annual reports.
When reviewing recorded calls, pay attention to the following aspects:
So, these are the main metrics to consider when analyzing the services.
That's all about the 12 best care practices health organizations should follow to improve contact center performance. Try to incorporate all of them into the company's future program/policies. You will notice a difference in feedback shortly.
Healthcare organizations should continuously strive to improve the services provided by their contact centers. However, making the wrong decisions can impact a patient's experience.
This article discussed the 12 best healthcare contact center practices in detail. These are omnichannel support, multi-language features, CRM, NLP, feedback, and many more!
For expert assistance in implementing these best practices and providing exceptional healthcare contact center services, turn to Simply Contact. Our team is dedicated to delivering the highest quality support. Contact us today to discover how we can help you elevate your contact center operations to new heights.
At Simply Contact, we specialize in creating personalized customer support solutions that drive business growth and customer satisfaction. Let us help you elevate your customer experience and stand out from the competition.
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