1. T
he call center can be a health system’s first and most
valuable point of contact for building trust and
retaining patients – or not. Three foundational
questions define the difference.
1) Is your contact center aligned with your
organization’s power core?
Decisions are made through the lens of a healthcare
organization’s core purpose, or power core. And the
document that most accurately reveals an organization’s core
values is neither the mission statement nor the strategic
plan; it’s the budget.
In your organization, what is the predominant filter –
your power core – that determines what is budgeted? Be
candid. “Frequently it is the strongest skill set in the company
or the most comfortable to senior executives,” according to
author Jeanne Bliss in Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip
Service to Passionate Action.
Your healthcare organization’s power core could be clinical
quality, with a focus on quality outcome indicators, emerging
technologies, world-class clinicians, and sub-specialty depth.
Clinical expertise is the product. Or perhaps your power core
is information technology, where IT largely influences the
priorities of the organization – far beyond hardware and
software. Possibly your power core is passion for the
customer, and your organization makes decisions based on
the goal of distinguishing the customer experience. Maybe
your organization’s power core is operations, driven by
processes that deliver excellent execution. Perhaps your
power core is finance, with every choice filtered by the
unspoken question: “Will this decision strengthen our
bottom line?”
Make sure to align the contact center with your
organization’s power core. Rather than it being layered on
top of the “real work,” make the contact center a central
component of the work itself.
For example, if the power core is clinical quality,
redeploy your contact center as a care connection hub, which
intentionally facilitates the continuity of care. If the power
core is information technology, then have your contact
center become a trusted source of truth for provider data
that replaces or integrates information from perhaps dozens
of redundant systems.
The key is to understand your organization’s power core
and purposefully align the contact center to support it. This
must be more than messaging and positioning. Refocus both
contact center activities and contact center metrics to
tangibly support the power core.
2) Is your contact center an investment or
an expense?
Remember that expenses are cut, while investments are
funded. Call centers that do not validate outcomes that support
the core purpose are vulnerable expenses. In contrast,
contact centers whose metrics document their contribution
to the power core are valued investments.
For example, contact center metrics for a power core of
clinical quality might include:
• Quality scores of nurse navigators
• Percent of ED visits redirected by nurse triage to
less costly, clinically appropriate care
• Kept appointment rate for post-discharge physician
visits
• Percent of PCPs whose patients schedule follow up
appointments within seven days of discharge
• Decline in rate of avoidable re-admissions
• Documented non-accommodation to identify
roadblocks to appointments for needed services
Metrics for a customer power core might include:
• Scores and trending for awareness, familiarity,
preference, and advocacy
• Caller satisfaction scores
• Satisfaction scores for participating physicians and
their practice managers
• Increased HCAHPS response rates when completion
is encouraged by contact center
• Documented complaints and compliments
• Caller loyalty score identifying how willing callers
are to refer only to your organization
February/March2015
AnswerStat Magazine
10
THREE TO THRIVE:
ANSWER THREE QUESTIONS OR
CLOSE YOUR CONTACT CENTER
By Richard D. Stier
GUEST COLUMN
AnswerStatv13_1_12.2 1/22/15 2:24 PM Page 10

2. Metrics for a finance power core might include:
• Number of new appointments for in-network medical
home and/or ACO primary care physicians
• Number of patients referred to participating
practices
• Non-compensated community benefit provided by
the contact center
• Contribution margin from new patients referred
through the contact center
• ROI: financial return per each dollar invested
3) Does your contact center deliver intentional
experiences?
The healthcare contact center is frequently where a
patient’s first experience with your organization occurs.
That experience is your organization’s early opportunity to
deliver on its brand promise. “The first three seconds must
be intentionally effective,” said Colleen Sweeney at the 2012
Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development
Annual Conference. “That initial interaction is a strong
driver of patient preference.”
Many times that opportunity is squandered. Healthcare
observer Paul Roemer comments: “They hire more call
center agents, and they throw technology at the problem,
technology like scheduling applications – applications that
do nothing for the other 80 percent of calls. Applications
that, without an understanding of the business problems,
without a strategy and a plan, will get in the way of creating
a great caller experience across the enterprise.”
If your goal is to improve transactions by acquiring
more agents, more technology, more training – more
anything – you’ve already lost. You might as well close the
call center. Call center transactions are a commodity.
Transformative experiences differentiate. Make the equivalent
shift from coffee as commodity on the grocery shelf to coffee
as an experience at Starbucks.
To design your organization’s intentional first experience,
imagine a visual image of the ideal caller experience from the
perspective of the caller. Jot down the key thoughts you
would communicate to create that experience with a first-time
caller. Make several pilot calls to internal team members to
role-play the call. Ask for their feedback. Based on their
responses, make a list of key themes to communicate during
that call to create the ideal caller experience. Use those
themes to role-play trust-building caller interactions with
new staff members before they take their first call and again
after particularly challenging calls.
Thriving call centers become conduits of trust. Trust is
nurtured by extreme service behaviors:
• Visualize the outcome of the desired caller experience
before every call.
• Smile into a mirror as you answer the call.
• Actively listen to understand what each individual
caller wants most.
• Acknowledge and validate callers’ feelings;
communicate with empathy.
• Summarize call resolution and any instructions;
check for caller understanding.
• Ask: “Is there anything else I can do now to support
your positive healthcare experience?”
• Deliver on every promise to every caller every time.
A healthcare contact center can be an unsurpassed asset
for building preference and repeat business – or it can be an
anemic expense. Perhaps it’s time to take a hard look at these
three questions – answering them can refocus your contact
center as a thriving secret weapon for your organization. %
Richard D. Stier, MBA, serves as vice president,
marketing for HealthLine Systems, Inc., and provides
consulting partnerships that enable healthcare
contact centers to thrive. HealthLine Systems is a
leading provider of contact center and software
and consulting solutions serving healthcare
organizations across North America. Contact Rick
at rstier@healthlinesystems.com or 800-733-8737 x7265.
February/March2015
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