Today’s plan is to handle each patient interaction in a positive, professional and resolution-oriented manner. Tomorrow’s plan is to handle each patient interaction in a positive, professional and resolution-oriented manner, and do all of that just a bit better than we did the day before.

Continuous improvement can now happen through the use of technology to guide a customer service agent’s behavior. The technology becomes a feedback mechanism, which assists the agent through each unique call. At State Collection Service, speech analytics started with a plan to automate our agent scorecards and provide a quality assurance score on more than just a handful of calls each month. Four years later, after the installation of CallMiner’s post-call analytics program, State Collection Service has achieved agent scorecards on 100% of calls; in fact, we were even recognized by Speech Technology Magazine for our implementation efforts. Without a doubt, having an automated way to score all calls has led to improved customer service as measured through scorecard Key Performance Indicators.

But post-call analytics was yesterday’s plan. While that’s still a good plan, today’s plan includes CallMiner’s EurekaLIVE! real-time speech analytics program. Imagine having all calls translated into text in 3-5 second intervals as the call is actually taking place and then being able to pull key words and phrases out of those conversations in real-time and provide feedback via an Agent Desktop Assistant to offer help to each agent! Our game plan for improvement is to continue maximizing the technology we have and it is a strategic goal to fully utilize the technology we purchase.

Within our Extended Business Office, when comparing the results for the 90 days prior to introducing real-time speech analytics to the 90 days after implementation, the results have been beyond what was expected! We have seen a 22.84% increase in financial/negotiation language, an 11.22% decrease in the customer asking for a call back, a 48.9% increase in our scripted TCPA required language (telephone/cell phone consent language), and a 17.5% reduction in risk language! I could go on and on about the positive results, but the point here is that seeking to utilize the technology you may already have to its fullest is just like creating your game plan for tomorrow! Looking ahead to the future can be inspiring to the team and lead to amazing results!

About State Collection Service, Inc.

Since 1949, State Collection Service has provided quality collection service to countless healthcare organizations.

Through experience and innovation, State Collection Service has grown to become a tremendously credible and nationally-recognized collection agency offering services from pre-registration to bad debt. It is upon the basis of ethical behavior and a dedication to integrity that each State Collection Service employee works to uphold the company’s vision – Partnerships for a Lifetime.

*This article first appeared in “A State Collection Service, Inc. Newsletter Volume 23, Issue 2, Second Quarter 2017”