March is Contact Center ROI month!
At Singola Consulting, a big part of our contact center work comes from helping clients realize their investment. While ROI is a great tool to figure out if the contact center is financially successful, we also know that ROI, done right, can be an indispensable tool to support their patient satisfaction and engagement strategies. And at Singola, it’s all about the patient.
For too long, the thinking behind contact centers revolved around cutting inefficiencies to keep costs down, which meant eventually meant that bad service can be acceptable so long as it’s not terrible. This should not be the standard in any industry, but in healthcare this line of thinking can actually be dangerous. Phone calls, emails, and chats all provide some level of service to patients, and patients deserve the best quality care from a health system every step of the way. Luckily, there are ways to check for patient satisfaction.
So how can you use ROI to measure patient satisfaction?
Using key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure quality of service also helps contact centers work more efficiently at the same time. When a contact center keeps the average call handling time down, it benefits the contact center and its patients because they receive answers quicker. Effective staff forecasting helps ensure that patients receive timely responses and makes sure there isn’t an excess of agents twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do. Using KPIs helps contact centers work more efficiently and effectively and results in satisfied patients. Proper forecasting, accurate scheduling, and smaller amounts of agent idle time all contribute to an organization’s ability to provide great service to their customers and patients. That’s the goal, isn’t it?
Additionally, using KPIs to measure employees on an individual level helps to make sure that service levels climb and remain high. First call resolution, average talk time, and quality monitoring help keep patients satisfied and ensure agents provide great customer service. Be sure to look deeper at the data: an agent might have a low average talk time, but maybe that’s because customers and patients don’t find that agent helpful. It’s important to check in every now and then.
An effective contact center can also be used for outbound contact to create and drive patient engagement. Appointment reminders, medication follow-up, and bill payment are all ways to help patients feel cared for while also bringing in revenue.
There are many nuances and facets to a contact center’s ROI. The “return” can mean financial gains, yes, but utilizing a contact center effectively also means higher levels of patient satisfaction and engagement, and those are returns worth investing in.