Develop a multi-skilled workforce that delivers the best patient experience in an omnichannel world.
Experience management (XM) is as critical in healthcare as it is in consumer-based industries. And building positive experiences that drive both patient loyalty and revenue begins with creating the right culture in your healthcare organization or patient financial services (PFS) department.
But how do you translate your cultural mindset – the vision, goals, and purpose that make up your organization – into tangible actions across the patient journey?
By elevating the capabilities and competency of your team.
Here are three important steps toward creating a more competent organization – one that’s ready to provide an extraordinary patient experience.
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Deliver omnichannel service to exceed patient expectations
First, remember that your primary patient experience touchpoint is no longer the “call” center. From phone calls and emails to live chats and social media, patients want and demand more ways to interact with your organization than ever before.
Your healthcare organization or PFS team might already communicate with patients across various channels. If so, good news! You’re ahead of the game since most contact centers STILL only manage a single channel. But what will really elevate and differentiate your department is how seamlessly patients can transition from one channel to another.
When you share patient data across your different channels and train employees to engage with patients on all of those channels, you say goodbye to the silos that prevent you from delivering on patient expectations.
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Make sure your workforce is multi-skilled
We get it. The pressures of managing a PFS department are real. Forecasting call volumes and dialing in just the right staffing levels can seem like impossible feats. That’s where investing in a multi-skilled workforce comes in. By training your employees to communicate and resolve patient issues on various channels, you can alleviate these pressures and help transform your organization’s PFS department or contact center into a true experience headquarters. Plus, you avoid passing patients from one agent to another and instead deliver a smooth, consistent experience they can count on.
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Empower your employees to act on the patient’s behalf
Your employees are the future of your patient experience. They’re at the forefront of interactions that can lead to either patient frustration or satisfaction. According to research by Gartner CEB, agent empowerment is the top predictor of their performance. Similarly, a study by Qualtrics shows that 30 percent of call center agents say the inability to influence service is the thing they dislike most about their role.
To help your PFS employees successfully manage the patient interactions and possibilities they face every day, they need strong training, skills, and autonomy to serve patients and facilitate resolutions. Show your employees how to respond with empathy and deescalate problems quickly.
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See the other components of exceptional XM
A competent team and organization are critical to managing a remarkable patient experience. But it’s just one part of a much larger framework. Learn all of the ways you can implement successful XM to improve patient satisfaction and boost your bottom line. Take a look at our free, on-demand webinar today.
Webinar
HOW TO USE X-DATA AND O-DATA TO INCREASE PATIENT SATISFACTION (& REVENUE)
FREE ON-DEMAND WEBINAR
In this webinar, we’ll talk about why your PFS team or healthcare facility must capture the right combination of operational and experiential data to thrive during this turbulent era – and for years to come.
