Articles

Defining and Benchmarking World-class Customer Service

Feb 19, 2024

Ron Jones, Director of Operations, Revenue Enterprises

As Seen In Healthcare IT Today

Benchmarks are a hallmark of quality in both clinical and nonclinical healthcare processes. However, customer service as part of patient satisfaction is one area where there is no agreed-upon benchmark. The COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center), a global leader in contact center management, auditing, and training, recommends 84% or higher as the world-class patient satisfaction standard to strive for.

The Importance of the patient financial experience

Patient loyalty is vital to an organization’s bottom line and brand reputation, but it is increasingly more challenging to come by. Today’s patients are more savvy about how to spend their healthcare dollars and they have more options than ever regarding where to get their care. Retail clinics, walk-in urgent care centers, telehealth companies, and pharmacy clinics are readily available, significantly more convenient, and often less expensive.

Ninety percent of patients surveyed said that provider loyalty depends on the patient financial experience. However, nearly one in seven U.S. adults with unpaid medical bills say they’ve had a provider deny them care due to that medical debt, leading many to put off care.

What patients want

Provider organizations must understand that the customer determines service quality, not the organization providing the service. In any industry, but especially healthcare, patients are looking for two things: Accuracy and speed. This applies to both clinical and financial encounters. With clinical encounters, speed and accuracy can mean the difference between life and death. The speed and accuracy of a financial encounter can mean the difference between being able to afford the care they need or not. Both can impact outcomes, costs, and the patient experience.

Recent research by COPC indicates that 98% of customers say they’ve had to use multiple methods to resolve a single inquiry, and 72% have had to contact the organization to get help with a customer service or technical issue. The same research found that the majority of customers prefer human-assisted, real-time interactions.

When it comes to customer service channels, webchat and phone are most preferred. The self-service technologies most used are the mobile app, websites, and chatbots in that order. It is interesting to note that the resolution rate for self-service technologies is just 41%, but it’s an important option to offer that patients want.

Elements of optimal patient financial customer service

Healthcare is notoriously complex, making it challenging for many patients to navigate, especially the financial aspects. Hospitals and health systems that approach patient financial customer service as simply a collection opportunity are missing a key chance to enhance patient satisfaction and develop loyal customers. A better approach is to focus on education using patient pay responsibility estimations as a critical component. Customer service staff can use these estimations to help patients better understand their health plan’s requirements, including co-pays, deductibles, medical necessity, prior authorizations, and explanation of benefits (EOBs).

When organizations take an educational approach to customer service, they position themselves as advocates for the patient, not adversaries just trying to collect.

Other elements of world-class patient financial customer service include the following:

  • Comprehensive, single-touch complaint resolution
  • Self-service patient payment options, including patient portal, online chat, IVR, and SMS
  • Inbound and outbound patient calls
  • Call recording and transcripts for transparency and quality monitoring
  • Identifying insurance coverage not captured at discharge
  • Assisting patients with setting up payment plans
  • Helping patients find and apply for financial assistance

Keys to measuring customer service success

According to TechTarget, there are ten key metrics that can be used to successfully measure and monitor customer satisfaction and the customer experience. These include the following:

  • Net promoter score (NPS). The NPS is derived by asking a single question about how likely a customer is to recommend the organization to a friend. The answers fall into three categories: promoters, passives, and detractors. The NPS is determined by subtracting the portion of detractors from the portion of promoters.
  • Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score. The CSAT score is based on customer survey feedback and measures how satisfied customers are with the service or product they received from the organization.
  • Customer effort score (CES). The CES measures how easy or difficult it is for the customer to use the organization’s service or product. Because of the complexity of healthcare, CES is especially important.
  • First-time response (FRT). The FRT measures how long it takes the customer to get a response to their initial inquiry. This is a vital metric to track as it can indicate systemic customer service operational issues. Poor response times can cause patient frustration and damage the organization’s brand.
  • Average resolution time. This is the average time it takes from the first customer inquiry to the final resolution and includes all interactions. Ideally, the faster the resolution time, the more satisfied the customer.
  • Churn rate. Simply put, the churn rate is the rate at which organizations lose customers. When the rate of customers leaving an organization is higher than the rate of acquiring new customers, organizations should take note.
  • Retention rate. The retention rate reflects the number of customers who use the organization’s products or services over a period of time and is a good indicator of patient loyalty.
  • Customer lifetime value (CLV). The CLV measures the total revenue the organization receives from a single customer over a long period of time. In general, keeping customers costs less than acquiring new ones.
  • Visitor intent. This metric is especially helpful for measuring the digital customer experience. For example, if a patient visits a hospital’s patient portal, they may be looking to schedule an appointment, find a test result, determine a service’s cost, make a payment, or something else. Understanding the visitor’s intent can help an organization better identify a customer’s needs and opportunities to better meet those needs, which can ultimately impact customer satisfaction.
  • Customer referral rate (CRR). Healthcare organizations are typically seen as a vital part of a local community. As such, they depend a lot on word-of-mouth referrals. This metric helps measure not just customer satisfaction but also brand reputation.

The most effective patient satisfaction surveys

While patient satisfaction surveys have become the foundation for capturing metrics and measuring patient satisfaction, not all surveys are successful. The most insightful, actionable feedback comes from surveys that follow these three simple rules:

  1. The survey is sent immediately. The timeframe between the time of service and the time the survey goes out is vital to ensuring the best feedback. Timeliness will help ensure the most comprehensive, accurate response.
  2. The survey is short and easy. Longer surveys are more likely to get abandoned. Four questions should be enough to capture the essence of the patient’s experience.
  3. Create a patient-centric tone. Surveys that come across as cold and methodical can be seen as insincere and off-putting. Instead, focus on compassionate communication and sensitivity. After all, the survey is a continuation of the entire patient encounter and should be treated as carefully as the initial encounter.

Organizations should leverage feedback loops that aggregate by both solution and reputation, as each is vital to creating a world-class customer experience.

The bottom line

There are two things providers should consider when thinking about patient financial customer service. First, a poor financial experience can completely negate a positive clinical experience, damaging patient satisfaction ratings and the hospital’s brand reputation. Second, the most satisfied customers are those who don’t need to contact customer service in the first place. That being said, building a world-class customer service experience for those who do need an issue resolved can save a patient relationship and create a loyal customer for life.

Karie Bostwick

VP of People and Compliance

As VP of People and Compliance at Revenue Enterprises, Karie Bostwick oversees People functions including recruiting, training, onboarding, engagement and satisfaction. Additionally, she is responsible for compliance training, oversight and monitoring.

Karie has a long history of working in the revenue cycle support industry. Her skills span leadership, operations start up, policies and procedures development, operations workflow, budgeting and client management.

She is passionate about the experience of our people, patients and the Healthcare clients we serve and believes that a team of diverse, talented and motivated individuals working together toward a common goal can make a difference.

Robert Sterett

VP of Information Technology

As a transformational leader Robert Sterrett has leveraged his 20 years of experience to build effective service lines and exceptional teams. In his role as VP of Information Technology at Revenue Enterprises, Robert excels at taking a unique, balanced, and strategic approach to technology leadership with people first for the best possible outcome. Using his experience from engineering, project management and service line management he takes a multi-faceted approach to ensure the right people are in the correct position coupled with the best technology to meet or exceed all expectations from security to compliance and business continuity.

Robert’s leadership style lends itself to building long term relationships and has consistently been a relied upon strength in many organizations. Over Robert’s time as an IT operational and project leader, he has spent significant time in both hands-on technology facing roles and client centric management roles to bring the best solutions that strive to meet the business and client needs.

Focusing heavily on his personal development skills and opportunities, Robert continues to foster coaching and mentorship relationships everywhere in his life, and the lives around him.

Douglas Dunbar

VP of Sales & Marketing

As VP of Sales and Marketing for Revenue Enterprises, Douglas Dunbar leads with a passion for building strategic partnerships, nurturing relationships, and upholding customer service excellence. In his role, Doug focuses on marketing and brand strategy, sales team leadership, and working closely with members of the management team to best serve company goals.

Doug has over 28 years of National sales and marketing call/contact center leadership, with 10 years of service specifically at Revenue Enterprises. Currently, Doug serves as part of Wyoming HFMA Chapter leadership and has held various roles in Colorado HFMA Chapter leadership for over 9 years.

In his spare time, Doug is very family oriented. Additionally, he loves traveling, cycling, golfing, fishing, hunting, and boating.

Kris Brumley, MBA

SVP/COO

As SVP/COO of Revenue Enterprises, Kris Brumley is a collaborative partner within the executive team and a leader for operational functions across the organization. Kris productively shares vision, drives innovation, and supports those around her in a way that elevates them and fosters continuous improvement and results. She has helped create a supportive environment for clients resulting in 98% client retention and a 65% NPS score for all clients and 75% for top clients by revenue.

Kris possesses an MBA in data analytics and has twenty-five years of experience in the healthcare industry, with 19 specifically in revenue cycle. She brings a wealth of customer service experience to her role and has worn many hats at Revenue Enterprises including Director of Business Development, EBO Division Director, and VP of Client Experience Management.

In her personal life, Kris is as busy outside of work as inside. She values spending time with her family, and enjoys fishing, hiking, traveling and interior decorating and design.

Timothy (Tim) Brainerd

CEO

As CEO of Revenue Enterprises for almost 20 years, Tim Brainerd leads by example. He promotes a shared vision and stewards a culture of Integrity, Passion, and Respect. He has assembled and empowered high-performing talent and teams to support customers, facilitate strategic planning and manage the capital of the company. Under his leadership, Revenue Enterprises has doubled in size three times over the past fifteen years while maintaining a culture of caring and gratefulness.

Tim has close to four decades of revenue cycle experience, including nineteen years with RSI
Enterprises. He has been a past president of Colorado Chapter of the HFMA and a presenting speaker on the topic of Leadership. He is a fifteen-year member of Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO coaching and peer advisory organization for small and midsize business leaders.

Raised in the Midwest, Tim values humble principles like being respectful, caring, passionate, self-reliant, and most importantly grateful. His most important lesson and the lesson he hopes to pass on in all relationships is living the Golden Rule–do unto others as you would have them do unto you. He is intentional in his choices and believes in making decisions, taking action, being accountable, and loving your neighbors.

Whenever possible, Tim spends his time with his wife of nearly forty years, his adult children, and his grandchildren. His hobbies include fishing, golfing, traveling as well as game nights and sharing great food with his family.