Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Article

Customers waiting on hold for a competent agent who can give them a correct answer or resolve an issue have never been a very patient group of people, and for good reason: waiting on hold, multiple transfers, incorrect answers or having to repeat themselves takes time out of their day and adds frustration to their daily lives. If retail customers are impatient and frustrated, healthcare customers or patients are even more so: after all, their health is on the line…quite literally, if they’re repeatedly put on hold.

It’s not entirely the fault of the contact center. In the United States, healthcare regulations such as HIPAA govern the information organizations must collect from customers. (If you’ve been to the doctor in recent years, you’ll note that the office staff needs to copy your insurance card, even if you were in only the week before. It’s annoying, but it’s not the fault of the office staff.) To patients on the phone, if feels onerous and like a deliberate barrier to good care.

“When they are finally greeted by an agent, patients complain about how cumbersome it is to validate their identity, repeat the submission of their insurance information, and answer questions about the status of their condition,” wrote Bob Trine in a recent blog post for Aspect.  “Although this information is needed for HIPPA compliance, billing, triage and scheduling even though it may seem very inconvenient and redundant to the patient.”

Despite the rules, there are ways for companies to use an omnichannel contact center solution to minimize the inconvenience to healthcare customers, however. Workforce management can ensure there are enough agents present and able to answer inbound calls during peak call times so long hold times are avoided. Automation and self-service are also good ways to reduce the time it takes for a patient to connect with an agent, and it can also eliminate the need for patents to repeat themselves, according to Trine.

“Patients can be instructed to enter or speak their identifiers through the IVR,” he explained. “Medical record numbers, date of birth, phone number, and/or first and last name can be all be entered into the telephony system and can in turn populate on the agent’s screen when he receives the call. If the organization is sophisticated and has already married its electronic medical record to its telephony system, this information can be directly populated into the electronic medical record.”

Analytics, often an element of omnichannel contact center solutions, can help keep an eye on existing processes and identify inefficiencies, roadblocks or trouble spots before they become big problems for patients and the contact center. When analytics are combined with good reporting tools, they can help contact centers drill down to determine where the problems are: with a specific agent or agent group, or in a skill.

“Quality auditors can pull a sample of calls to identify the root cause for the elongated call times and wrap times,” wrote Trine. “Upon isolating these bottlenecks, points of frustration and agent confusion, call center managers must collaborate and invest time into redesigning the current technology or current workflows.”

Most contact center platforms and solutions today allow agents to engage in a variety of tasks with customers. The truly omnichannel solutions, however, will enable customers (or patients) to engage with the company on their own terms to find their own answers (if they wish), to reach the right agent faster if a personal and customized interaction is required, and to immediately identify any barriers to customer support excellence.