Medical Call Centers handle high amounts of phone traffic to alleviate stress and over capacitated phone lines at the front desk. The idea is to handle more volume, patient requests, and to make room for additional appointment bookings, which translates into revenue. Now that secure messaging in healthcare is available, communication is simple.
Medical Call Centers are often overwhelmed themselves with phone traffic and anything to help free up additional time while reducing staff, is valuable not only for call center employees, but your medical practice overall. Today we explore four key metrics as to why you need secure messaging for your medical call center, and how Klara will help in these areas:
Average Abandonment Rate
Abandonment Rates are calculated by the following formula: The number of calls that are terminated between the IVR and the moment a call agent answers divided by the total number of inbound calls the call center receives. Sometimes there are exceptions to this formula (callers inquiring for business hours even though those hours are listed in the IVR) where it would not be categorized as abandoned.
With healthcare being increasingly optimized for the digital world of 2018 and beyond, it is crucial that your practice is successfully connecting with as many customers as possible, even outside of inbound calls. Shortening your abandonment rate is key to that success. The average abandonment rate in 2017 was 9.07%. Measuring abandonment rate is only one part of the struggle for your practiceโs performance indicators.
To assist with lowering your abandonment rate, you need a secure messaging system like Klara that will facilitate faster responses, engage with your customers, and dramatically reduce the amount of inbound calls due to the convenience factor of securely messaging between patient and call center/practice. The less inbound traffic you have, the more time you can spend focusing on the calls without feeling rushed or stressed.
Average Time In Queue
The average time in queue in 2017 as 17.28 seconds. Average time in queue is the average amount of time an individual who calls is placed on hold and waits in queue before they are connected to an agent. The longer the wait time, the higher the chance for unhappy, frustrated customers who will likely abandon the call and never return. This means that they will be unwilling to connect with you again (lost revenue, lost opportunities to upset, etc.) and will sometimes even harm your practice by leaving a negative review online.
Having a secure messaging platform like Klara will open additional phone lines for your call center. Your call center staff will handle increased volume simultaneously with faster replies, and cut down on the average time in queue rate.
Average Speed To Answer
In 2017, the average speed to answer was 8.97 seconds. The average speed to answer is defined as the average time a call center agent takes to answer an inbound call. This also includes the time the phone of the agent rings, but does not include the time the caller spent waiting in queue (separate stat). Call Center agents should be able to access this stat within the Agent and Scheduled tab under Agents and Call reports within their system. Average speed to answer directly contributes to patient satisfaction and care. The key performance indicator is to answer as quick as possible in all cases.
Service Level
The Service Level is defined as the accessibility of a practice/call center to their patients. The Service Level is the percentage of calls answered within a set period of time. The following formula should be used: Service Level =calls answered within threshold + calls abandoned within threshold divided by total calls answered + total calls abandoned x 100
The Service Level is perhaps the most iconic metric of a Call Center. The Service Level can be measured over any set period of time and even broken down by each agent, team, division, or facility as a whole. It it directly related to customer service quality for patients, and inbound call performance. The Service Level clocks starts ticking as soon as the call begins to ring or an agent enters the waiting queue post welcome greeting. Calls answered within the predetermined level of time you set, will be considered as successfully meeting the Service Level. Service Levels are only tracked for inbound calls during business hours and can help with monitoring performance over time.
Having a secure messaging app like Klara can assist in Service Level metrics by being more accessible to an excess number of callers. The major advantage of being on a secure messaging platform like Klara, is the introduction of a ChatBot. ChatBots are posted on your company website and are available 7 days a week 365 days a year (it never sleeps and can answer simple patient requests after hours). For more advanced patient requests, it is documented and available to view via the Klara app both during and after business hours, however you choose.
