The call center business has been considered a mature industry for some time now, but its sustainability has not been questioned until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Suddenly, an increase in support requests pushed industries to a breaking point, leaving more customers on hold and dissatisfied.
This is why the best organizations in the business have been seeking ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors. One of these ways is to steal a page from the subscription-based business model and institute Customer Success as one of its pillars of building long-lasting relationships with customers.
Customer Success is a fairly new professional field. It was born out of the necessity to educate and guide customers to use a product or service and to help them achieve their objectives. It’s relationship-focused client management that aligns your patients with your company’s goals—igniting beneficial outcomes for everyone involved.
At CCD Health, we have adopted many of the best Customer Success practices to build great relationships with our clients and deliver outstanding customer satisfaction results never seen before in the patient scheduling arena. This helps everyone involved navigate the outsourced transition with ease. How have we achieved these results? Here’s a snapshot.
1. Use metrics to drive actions in the client’s favor
Nothing is more concrete than numbers. In every industry, numbers—or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—rule productivity and drive decisions related to improvements and even employee compensation. Also, if structured correctly, your KPIs can result in maximizing client satisfaction, which creates better long-term relationships with business partners.
In terms of numbers, we have found that the most robust metric is the “Customer Success Score.” This metric ranks client sentiment based on the main categories that are most valued by our partners. After determining what they are, these key areas represent the pillars that can yield high or low client satisfaction.
By staying within the boundaries of a good Customer Success Score, CCD Health has been able to determine which area of performance the company should focus on, and what actions are needed to improve that performance.
Keep in mind: numbers are not everything. Feedback from the client is essential for a good standing client relationship. At CCD Health, we take that feedback into account in the composition of the Customer Success Score. We call this quality assurance. Quality assurance is one of the pillars valued most by our partners.
As the Customer Success Score moves between acceptable and unacceptable, leadership can use the results to make decisions related to the organization’s priorities. They also gain an understanding of what risks are associated with the different programs CCD Health services. In essence, the Customer Success Score is one of the main objectives, dictating overall company performance at CCD Health.
2. Set clear expectations from day one—and exceed those expectations
Based on our experience with patient scheduling, we’ve seen that many practices made the decision to outsource their scheduling function as a reaction to what the market is doing. Some contributing factors to the decision to give BPOs access to their scheduling queues include a crunching labor market, increasing costs, and inflation.
Often, there’s an urgency behind the outsourcing decision, which creates a lot of uncertainty. The sudden decision means that a lot of practices haven’t had the time to do proper due diligence into what it means to outsource. At the end of the day, they don’t have a clear idea of what they are buying and how effective those services will be.
In our 10+ years of experience, we’ve seen the scenario above happen many, many times, usually walking clients through the evolution of the services that we provide for new partners. It’s because we’ve seen this over and over again that we’ve adopted Customer Success as an important metric.
Customer Success becomes a guide for new outsources as we accompany them through the learning curve. This metric assures that all stakeholders are well informed in areas such as productivity, staffing levels, and quality assurance. Our task as a partner is to eliminate the burden of having to continue to follow up on assigned tasks and instead provide transparency for the flow of information between our team and your offices.
For example, we show you the expected evolution of call handling time during the first 90 days. We also give you a first look at how our newly hired specialists will improve their productivity by collaborating with stakeholders on both sides. Most importantly, we present that evolution via clear and precise reporting that has earned accolades from other partners in the past.
All of this eliminates friction and keeps all involved stakeholders up-to-date during the transition. It also allows our team to work towards our mutually decided-upon KPIs while keeping the customer top of mind.
3. Be proactive in your communication
Any seasoned Customer Success professional understands well that it is a client-facing role. Because of this, it is essential to engage in proactive client communication. There are many benefits that can result from proactive communication for both parties, which may end up saving a lot of time in the long run.
Proactive communication with clients is an obvious part of the job for the CCD Health Customer Success team—and a very important one, at that. By engaging proactively and effectively educating and sharing new ideas with our clients, we help our partners achieve their objectives. This also helps clear up any uncertainty that may have resulted in a hasty decision to outsource.
Benefits of proactive communication
Proactively communicating with your clients result in the following:
- Gives Insight into Your Work — helping the client keep up with the account activity and status, as well as demonstrating that you are actively working to accomplish set goals.
- Shows We Care — and dedicate additional time to provide unsolicited insights and creative ideas for the account.
- Builds Trust — and appreciation that we are invested in your work, closely monitoring the account, and knowledgeable about all moving pieces.
- Establishes Loyalty — helping to solidify a relationship and setting your company apart from your competitors.
- Provides Value — as the client may not have time to generate the information or creative strategies themselves.
- Uncovers Client Needs and Feelings — providing further insight into what is most valuable to the client, as well as concerns they may have.
- Prevents Future Issues — because there shouldn’t be any surprises!
Our Customer Success team is here to guide you through a successful outsourcing experience. We prioritize your needs while presenting you with transparent communication and outstanding results from day one.
Our Customer Success Score tells us that we have optimized the client experience. Therefore this may be the best opportunity for you to improve the profitability of your business by joining forces with the best outsourcer in appointment scheduling in the region.
Guaranteeing a smooth outsourcing transition
CCD Health is the leading medical contact center for outpatient healthcare providers, offering exceptional patient and customer experience. Our customer care specialists have been trained by some of the best professionals in the field, helping them transform into experts.
To learn more about how our team of experts can help you understand and improve your Customer Experience, reach out to our team today.