OAKLAND, CA – As a Medicare Advantage health plan, Arcadian Health Plan (AHP) was not meeting its 3 percent abandonment rate on service calls, as mandated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
By migrating to a new, hosted contact center platform in mid-2007, Arcadian’s abandonment rate during its open enrollment season in 2008 was well under 2 percent, with an “excellent” answer rate within 30 seconds between 79 and 82 percent, said Tammy Jurkatis, director of customer service.
The added value of implementing Echopass’ platform was enabling managers to administer skill routing at the desktop, she said. Being able to match agent expertise with the call in real time not only led to staffing efficiency but member satisfaction as well, Jurkatis said.
Skills-based routing is not common as a hosted service or on-premise service, nor cost-efffective for customers with small call centers, said Vincent Deschamps, CEO and chairman of the board of Echopass.
Echopass’ technology, however, has removed the barriers of cost and complexity in functionality and implementation. The “Holy Grail” is to match the reason for the call with the skill level of the agent, Deschamps said. In order to make the call center effective and efficient on the agent side, the objective is to have shorter calls resolved on the first call, he said.
To meet staffing needs during peak times, Arcadian works with VoiceCurve, contact center agent service provider. VoiceCurve’s customized software overlays the Echopass platform, ensuring seamless workflow, and gives Arcadian the ability to pull reports and manage agents in real time, said Shaun Clark, director of strategic planning for VoiceCurve.
In this difficult economic time, companies are trying to do more with less, said Ashwin Iyer, global program director at Frost & Sullivan. As solutions become more robust and with capital expenditure dwindling, more companies are willing to outsource contact center services, he said.
The flexibility and scalability of an on-demand model, which can help companies scale up or down much faster, is proving to be a strong enough driver for adoption, Iyer noted.
Arcadian is exploring adding more services such as chat functionality and delivering more information about the caller at the desktop for better member service, said Jurkatis. By being more efficient, staff is working smarter, she said.
