Look for these ten qualities
Savvy hospitals recognize that the “customer experience” may determine where patients choose to receive care. A consumers first experience with the hospital may come through a physician referral line, community event, health screening, workshop or class. Whatever the touch point, hospitals want to ensure that consumers have a consistent and pleasant experience.
Since the telephone and the Internet are the primary ways consumers interact with their hospital of choice, most hospitals have established some sort of customer interaction center. Hospital executives, however, constantly struggle with whether to maintain an in-house call center or outsource to a well-qualified partner. If you are thinking about outsourcing your hospitals call center, here are ten qualities to look for:
1. Availability. An outsourced call center should be able to expand your hours of operation. We live in a society that operates around the clock, and your consumers should be able to reach a live person 24 hours a day.
2. Optimum Service Levels. An outsourced call center should answer 80 percent of calls within 30 seconds and provide the highest level of customer service standards. Do some “secret shopping” of your own to test the customer service standards of any partner youre considering.
3. State-of-the-Art Technology. While you focus on healthcare technology, a call center partner should provide state-of-the-art communications technology that is not readily affordable by most hospitals.
4. Multi-Lingual. Look for a call center partner who supports the languages in your market.
5. Best Practices Sharing. A call center partner should have a formal venue through which you can learn about what hospitals like yours are doing whats working and whats not.
6. Benchmarking. The data collected by an outsourced call center should be available so you can see how your hospitals practices stack up against others in the industry.
7. Cross-Selling Opportunities. Through sophisticated technology, an outsource partner should be able to direct customers to other appropriate services or activities.
8. ROI reports. A desirable call center partner can create revenue reconciliation reports that show a direct correlation between callers and patient visits and downstream revenue.
9. Flexibility to Grow. As your needs change, so should the capabilities of a call center partner. Make sure that the one you choose has the ability to expand.
10. Seamless Interaction. Where the call is being answered should be invisible to the consumer. Look for call advisors with neutral accents.
Selecting a partner who comes into contact with your consumers must be done with careful diligence. The partner should be chosen based on how closely aligned they are with your own corporate culture and customer service philosophy. Using these ten traits will help you find the partner that best fits your hospitals unique needs.
