Overcome the Challenges in Healthcare Call Centre Outsourcing

Efficient communication is vital in the fast-paced world of healthcare. Patients need prompt, empathetic, and accurate responses, while providers need to juggle the endless demands of a high-pressure environment.

Thankfully, healthcare call centre outsourcing is able to offload that pressure, offering an array of customer support options that can act as an extension of your organization.

The value of these services within the healthcare industry can’t be overstated—an efficient and responsive call centre can significantly lighten the load for both patients and providers.

In a constant battle with stress and urgency, the option to outsource your call centre to experienced professionals can help pave the way to more efficient operations, more patients helped, and more lives saved.

In this article, Shane Croghan at Scorebuddy explores the benefits of healthcare call centre outsourcing, what you should look for when picking your outsourcing partner, how to overcome the initial challenges of outsourcing, and what the future may bring.

5 Benefits of Outsourcing Healthcare Call Centre Services

Outsourcing customer service operations, especially in the healthcare sector, is less about delegating tasks to a third party and more about building partnerships to improve your overall service for your patients.

Understanding how outsourcing works and its benefits can help reinforce your decision-making process and pave the way for delivering top-quality service. Let’s dive into just what you can expect from outsourcing healthcare call centre services:

Cost-Efficiency

If you aim to cut costs without impacting the quality of your service, outsourcing is the answer. By utilizing third-party outsourcing vendors, you’re dramatically reducing the expenses relating to recruitment, training, equipment, and other operational costs.

These outsourced call centres already have everything in place in one complete package. More often than not, outsourcing helps reduce overall costs while enabling you to scale up (or down) as needed.

Access to Expertise

Outsourcing doesn’t just give you more staff; it offers specially-trained agents. These experienced call centre agents come with all the industry-specific knowledge and are equipped with advanced customer service tools.

They can go beyond simply taking calls, becoming integral to your customer service strategy. Not only do they already know the best practices for the healthcare industry, but they also know the ins and outs of delivering high-quality customer service.

Focus on Core Competencies

By offloading your customer service to call centres, you can shift that time and effort into improving the core parts of your business.

Your staff can worry less about answering calls and focus on patient care, allowing you to improve both aspects of your business.

Because these call centres are fully self-contained, in-house teams can streamline their internal administrative process, and you can allocate your resources to more critical parts of your business without impacting your service.

Scalability and Flexibility

Nothing is ever consistent in healthcare, which makes flexibility essential in this industry. During peak times, handling heightened call volumes with an in-house team can be incredibly challenging.

With healthcare call centre outsourcing, you can scale up and down as needed to keep up with seasonal demands or surges in activity.

Outsourcers can easily handle peak seasons or unforeseen issues by tapping into their extensive staffing and can even expand existing support to new time zones or 24/7 support.

Reduced Staffing Challenges

Staffing can be a persistent issue for in-house call centres, especially during peak seasons or sudden spikes in call volume.

With outsourcing, you’re free from the headache of recruitment, employee management, retention, or managing workforce shortages..

Your outsourcing vendor takes care of building teams of dedicated, well-trained agents. Instead, you can spend more time monitoring their quality and trust them to deliver results.

What to Consider When Choosing a Healthcare Call Centre Outsourcing Partner

Choosing the perfect partner to outsource your healthcare call centre outsourcing can seem like navigating a labyrinth. There are numerous factors to consider, from their expertise to the technological infrastructure they provide.

However, breaking this down into the key aspects you need from your provider makes it far less daunting.

We’re going to show you what to prioritize when finding the best contact centre outsourcing partner.

Compliance and Security

Healthcare industries deal with incredibly sensitive patient data, and your chosen outsourcing vendor needs to be capable of keeping it safe.

They need to understand and respect regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and other regulations governing your business.

Additionally, they should have data security measures in place to protect data from malicious attackers who may try to prey on any potential weak points in your organization.

A partner that invests resources into keeping your patients safe should be a top priority for you to factor into your outsourcing vendors.

Reputation and Experience

Another thing to look for is how your potential partner is viewed within the industry. An established reputation goes a long way and often translates to reliable, quality service. Look at any case studies or testimonials they offer and see if they align with your expectations.

Vendors with proven track records or several years in the healthcare industry should also be factored into your criteria, as they’ll already be equipped with the info they need to assist your patients (and your business).

Technological Capabilities

The right healthcare call centre outsourcing vendor should be able to provide modern technology and call centre software that can enhance efficiency and the customer experience.

They should be able to offer comprehensive data analytics and reporting tools, plus call recording for quality assurance.

Additionally, you’ll want to be sure that whatever technologies they use can integrate with your existing tech stack so the transition goes as smoothly as possible.

Prioritize vendors who keep their technology up-to-date to stay competitive and offer the most value to you and your patients.

Communication Channels and Multilingual Support

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that the world is globally connected these days. Regardless of your organization’s size, supporting your patients via email, chat, video, and phone is increasingly important.

On top of that, offering support in multiple languages can increase the accessibility and appeal of your services to new areas surrounding your facilities.

This can even extend to offering accessibility support for the deaf and hard of hearing or those with communication issues.

An omnichannel and multilingual approach can help you stand out from the competition and keep your patients in the loop when they need help.

How to Overcome the Biggest Challenges in Healthcare Call Centre Outsourcing

Healthcare call centre outsourcing can offer a plethora of benefits to your organization, from cost efficiency to access to specialized agents.

However, it’s not without some challenges, but every problem has a solution. By understanding some of these issues from the start, you’ll be better equipped to create strategies to tackle them effectively.

Language and Cultural Barriers

One potential issue with outsourcing any type of call centre is the chance of language barriers and cultural differences with a diverse customer demographic.

Looking for outsourcing vendors that offer multilingual teams who understand cultural nuances is your best way to be proactive in this issue.

Hosting regular training sessions for your outsourcing team to align communication styles, cultural sensitivity,  and customer handling techniques can also be vital parts of the process.

Data Privacy Concerns

Responsible handling of sensitive data should be a key concern for any health-related organization. Protecting your patient’s data is essential to their safety, so partnering with a vendor that follows stringent data protections is a must.

Ensure they understand and follow HIPPA, GDPR, and other regulations and are willing to have regular audits and compliance checks.

Maintaining Quality of Care

Ensuring the quality of patient care through outsourcing might seem difficult at first, but it’s not impossible. Incorporating expensive training in your contract ensures agents are well-informed about your company’s standards for customer service.

Using industry-standard quality assurance software can help you set goals and maintain your high levels of care with your patients.

Handling Sensitive and Emergency Situations

Your outsourcing vendor needs to be prepared for urgent and sensitive situations. Choosing one with documented experience in the healthcare sector is essential.

You should come to a mutual process for escalating severe issues so that urgent calls don’t go ignored.

Additionally, you should ensure they offer training programs that focus on empathy, patience, and crisis handling for sensitive issues.

Losing Control of Your Operation

Trusting an essential aspect of patient care, like your customer service, can easily make you feel like you’re losing control over a part of your organization.

Maintaining regular communications, utilizing performance metrics and KPIs, and setting clear expectations can help offload those worries.

Time Zone Differences

Serving customers across the globe – or even across multiple time zones – can be challenging.

Look for outsourcing vendors that are experienced with round-the-clock support. That way, no matter where your patients are, they’ll get fast and reliable help when they need it most.

3 Future Trends in Healthcare Call Centre Outsourcing

Healthcare communication has evolved enormously over the past few years, thanks to the advancement of technology. What used to be a phone-dominated industry is now giving way to multichannel solutions.

Not surprisingly, the healthcare call centre landscape reflects these changes, too, with traditional methods making way for modern practices.

As we look towards the future, let’s explore what may be on the horizon:

Integrating AI and Chatbots for Basic Queries

AI has impacted the world, including healthcare call centres. AI-powered chatbots that can offer 24/7 availability and handle multiple queries simultaneously help streamline the process for basic patient needs.

This shift towards automated solutions frees agents to spend time working on more complex issues, enhancing overall productivity and the level of detail provided.

Personalization Through Predictive Analytics

Through data mining and machine learning, predictive analytics is poised to revolutionize how healthcare call centres support their patients.

These technologies allow for more personalized patient communication, predicting needs based on prior interactions and offering tailored responses.

With this level of personalization, you can elevate your patient experience and ensure they always get the help they need.

Telehealth Support and Virtual Health Assistants

The rise of telehealth, especially with virtual health assistants, points to a future where patients can receive high-quality care without ever stepping out of their house.

Outsourced call centres can play a vital role in supporting these technologies, addressing users’ issues, and helping ensure a seamless patient experience.

Wrapping It Up

Navigating the outsourcing landscape can seem overwhelming, given the diversity of factors to remember.

Overcoming challenges like language barriers, privacy concerns, and maintaining quality during emergency scenarios are all critical aspects that your ideal vendor should be able to do.

You and your outsourcing partner can deliver top-notch patient care by staying ahead of the game and keeping up with the latest trends.

However, maintaining service quality, mitigating compliance risks, and supporting agent engagement is critical to delivering that level of quality.

FAQ

What is a Healthcare Call Centre?

Typically, healthcare call centres are services that provide medical consultations and connect patients to physicians. They also aid with appointment management, healthcare resources, illnesses, care plans, and general information.

Healthcare call centres aim to deliver 24/7 care, and help streamline patient outreach by automating appointments, follow-up, and aftercare appointments.

How Much Does it Cost to Outsource a Healthcare Call Centre?

Several factors come into play when trying to determine the price of outsourcing. Factors like location, scope of services offered, multichannel or multilingual support, call volume, and more all can affect the price.

In a study from Syrow, prices show to be anywhere from $20-30/h for the US, while prices in Asia can be anywhere from $8-14/h.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of Scorebuddy – View the Original Article

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Call Centre Helper is not responsible for the content of these guest blog posts. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of Call Centre Helper.