Healthcare organizations can’t afford to overlook their underperforming call navigation systems. With inefficiencies like excessive transfers and confusing phone trees, health systems lose revenue due to the following reasons:
- Extended call durations and repeat calls – Complex navigation lengthens hold times and forces callbacks. This causes bloated queues which require more contact center staff, raising labor expenses. Call abandonment means lost revenue and delays patient care.
- Appointment no-shows – Difficult scheduling leads to revenue leakage when callers decide to miss appointments rather than reschedule.
- Patient dissatisfaction and churn – Challenging access to care frustrates and deters patients, leading to lost revenue. A study by Gartner showed that 96% of customers became more disloyal when they experienced high-effort service compared to only 9% who had a low-effort interaction.
- Contact center agent burnout and turnover– Underperforming call navigation overwhelms agents with workload and irritated healthcare consumers. This causes staff to quit and increases recruiting, hiring, and training costs. NICE WEM Global Survey reported agent attrition rates of up to 42% as of 2022.
Accenture predicts that by 2026, AI in the U.S. healthcare economy can save $150 billion annually. Enhanced call navigation via modern interactive voice response (IVRs) and intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) reduces costs by:
- Automating routine inquiries – IVRs and IVAs handle caller verifications, take on appointment management tasks, and answer common frequently asked questions at any volume. When fewer agents are required to maintain the contact center, labor costs decrease. Revenue increases when patients and caregivers can self-serve for easier access to care.
- Efficiently routing calls – Conversational AI technologies quickly address caller needs to minimize hold times and unnecessary transfers. This optimizes staffing resources and reduces operational costs. SQM Group found that each 1% increase in first call resolution (FCR) leads to a 1% increase in customer satisfaction scores. When patient satisfaction and retention go up, revenue increases.
- Providing data for effective management – Health systems utilize call metrics to make decisions that promote efficient navigation and cost-effectiveness.
About Parlance
The Parlance managed service solution provides more than industry-leading technology. It’s a partnership, with a team of tenured experts who make your system work, take ownership of day-to-day performance, and guarantee ROI.
Over a thousand hospitals and clinics rely on Parlance every day to modernize call handling and call routing, minimize caller effort, and reduce operational costs. People with routine requests navigate to the person, department, or resource they need without waiting on hold. People who need complex support get it quickly, because live agents, no longer burdened with routine transfers, are more available to help callers who need it.
Implementing ‘low-customer-effort’ approaches to service and empowering support staff with more time to own patient and family member issues from start to finish, drives loyalty, and prevents unnecessary revenue leakage.
by Chris DeRizzo