Healthcare industry growth is based on a positive and meaningful patient experience. Customer expectations have increased, and every patient wants to be heard and seen by their healthcare providers. These changes have forced contact centers to reevaluate the tools they use to interact with their patients. Therefore, chief information officers (CIOs) must recognize these opportunities to boost processes and improve employee productivity. In the article at healthsystemCIO.com, Kate Gamble explains how modernizing a healthcare call center can create a better patient experience.
The Need for a Modern Healthcare Call Center
Studies reveal that call centers are not well-equipped for integrating web- and cloud-based solutions. Employees are still telephone-centric, making limited use of other modes of chat. Additionally, reporting systems are limited, making it challenging to identify the proper data to support a business case. Therefore, CIOs must consolidate, automate, and increase employee productivity by modernizing healthcare call centers. Modernized contact centers are integrated with web chat, texting, video, emails, and core telephone functions for marketing and scheduling purposes. The ultimate goal is to engage with new and existing patients via their preferred channels. However, as much as 80% of users choose to speak with an operator, even though it can significantly slow down the process.
Best Practices to Follow
Offer Multichannel, Multilingual Support: Consider hiring multilingual customer support executives to communicate in the language preferred by the patients. Additionally, provide patients with multiple channels to reach you. Ensure you provide a consistent, high-quality experience across each one.
Analyze the Metrics: Metrics offer valuable insight into the overall performance of your contact center. You might drown in the data because there are many key performance indicators to track. Therefore, you must know which ones to follow.
Prepare for the Future: In today’s increasingly digitized world, patients may want to submit inquiries and get support through their preferred channels —SMS messages, online patient portals, or emails. To accommodate these demands, CIOs must digitize the centers.
To read the original article, click on https://healthsystemcio.com/2022/06/02/healthcare-needs-more-of-this-how-automating-call-centers-can-create-a-better-experience/.
