Category: Healthcare Call Centers

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D.

Working in a call center is challenging and demanding work. Daily activity all too often consists of reacting to the urgency of the moment. There is little time to plan and few opportunities to look beyond the confines of the call center. Yet, looking beyond is exactly what is needed. Seeking ways to give back to your community may be precisely what you need to do. Some call centers have done so – with profound results.

Why Give? There are many reasons why it is wise and appropriate for a call center to give back to its community. Aside from principled reasons, the practical justification is that it is good for business. Community involvement expands networking opportunities, increases corporate standing, and generates goodwill. From an employee standpoint, it builds team camaraderie as staffers serve together and pursue common non-work related goals, increases employer esteem, and provides a connection outside the workplace. These, then, have an indirect effect of improving employee job satisfaction and thereby decreasing turnover.  Lastly, as employees see a new and different side to their employer, respect can be increased and better understanding nurtured. With all these benefits, what call center wouldn’t want to promote and pursue a philanthropic effort?

What to Give? There are primarily two forms of assistance that can be provided: money and manpower. Most organizations are more in need of volunteer labor than they are of monetary donations. (Although as non-profits find volunteers scarcer, they seek the funds necessary to hire the labor that could otherwise be volunteered.)

Let’s start with the manpower aspect. You can provide opportunities for your staff to volunteer. They can go in groups. It is generally easier to go somewhere new or try something different if it is done with a friend. Plus, there is the bonus of being able to serve together; this has its own rewards.

Generally, these opportunities should occur outside regular working hours. Some businesses have a provision to take time off without pay; a few even offer paid time off to volunteer. These, however, are rare, costly to the company, and generally not needed. Setting up a simple means to allow employees to know about and pursue volunteer opportunities takes little time and incurs minimal cost to the organization.

For many people it is easier to write a check than it is to volunteer. The same is true for businesses. But if a corporate financial donation is not feasible, don’t worry about it. Having you and your staff involved is generally more important anyway. If making a financial contribution is feasible, one consideration is setting up a matching fund. This is when companies budget monies to match the donations of their employees. The employee makes the donation, submits the receipt, and the company makes a matching contribution. This, too, is quite easy to set up. Payroll deductions for charities are also an option, but they are more costly and time-consuming to implement. Of course, there is also the option for the call center to make a direct contribution.

Where to Give? Needs exist all around your community. Find out what is already going on. Consider after-school programs, food pantries, clothes closets, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens. Call your nearest school and ask how you can help. Opportunities might include “adopt-a-classroom,” reading programs, tutoring, providing back-to-school supplies, or helping with GED classes. If you have a college nearby, check with the service organizations on campus and see how you can support them. A side benefit of working with college students is that you will be interacting with potential job candidates. Just make sure that agent prospecting doesn’t become the reason for getting involved.

Who to Give to?  By now, your mind is likely spinning with ideas. There are so many needs, so many opportunities, and so much to do. It can quickly become overwhelming; being overwhelmed leads to discouragement, which leads to inaction. The key to prevent this from occurring is to whittle down the list, identify one organization that is a good fit, and focus on how you can help them.

Start by asking your employees to make recommendations. They will tend to suggest groups they already support with their time or money. Although only a small percentage of your staff will currently be involved with any organization, it is a great place to start. They already have a connection and an affiliation; plus, they can acclimate others as they step forward to volunteer. You will also have some staffers who have a proclivity to help a particular organization but have not yet taken that first step towards involvement. Those recommendations are also worth considering. Again, their predilection towards that organization will help move things forward.

Before you make a final selection, perform “due diligence” just as you would for an important business purchase or partnership. For non-profits, find out how long they have been in your community; check out their annual reports; ask what percentage of donations goes to overhead; see if the Better Business Bureau has a file on them or what the Chamber of Commerce may know. If things look good, meet with the executive director, ask to attend a board meeting, and seek an easy way to test if you are a good fit for each other.

Regardless of the size of your call center, pick just one organization to support – at least initially. It is far better to make a significant and sustained effort with one group than to be thinly spread to many different organizations, resulting in frustration and ineffectiveness. Once you have successfully proven that support can be provided for the long-term to one organization a second one could be considered, but proceed slowly and carefully. Remember that for many call centers, focusing on one group is the ideal.

How to Give? Once you have selected a group to work with and identified an initial area of service, it is time for tangible action. Ideally, call center leadership should be in this first wave of volunteering, setting the example, and inspiring others to follow. As previously mentioned, it is easier to go as a group, especially for the first few times. Hopefully, already one or more employees have practical volunteer experience with the organization. Let them take a lead role, assuredly easing others in and showing how things are done. In no time, everyone will be serving with practiced confidence. Now this group can repeat the process with others.

It is important to remember that, no matter how great the need or how rewarding the work is, only a percentage of employees will opt to take part. Also, their degree of involvement will vary greatly. This is to be expected. Just make sure no one feels obligated to get involved and remind them that volunteering is, in fact, voluntary. After all, you don’t want to serve with someone who is negative or resentful; the goal is to have fun and find fulfillment as you volunteer. Leave the naysayers at the office.

When to Give? Now! Not next month, not next year; now. And not just at the holidays, but year-round, too.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Healthcare Call Center Essentials, available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of AnswerStat and Medical Call Center News covering the healthcare call center industry. Read his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D.

My friend, Dan, was seeking summer work during college and did an Internet job search. The job site allowed him to conduct his query for positions within a specified radius of home. He put in five miles and, although he lived in a relatively rural area, he got a match. What follows is a sad saga of how not to recruit, manage, and treat employees. Within it are lessons to be learned for any business or organization – including the call center:

Hide Information: The verbiage of the help wanted ad was along the lines of exciting and rewarding position, working with other professionals at an established and successful company. In reading this finely crafted prose, it was hard not to get excited and to draw the conclusion that one had stumbled onto the most wonderful career opportunity available. It was easy to be taken in by their impressively worded and enticing marketing copy. However, it was only grandiose hyperbole.

Misrepresent the Facts: Dan responded to the ad, and a preliminary phone interview was conducted. An in-person meeting was the next step. Dan was dismayed to learn that it was to be conducted in another city. Given the high price of gas, this was a discouraging development for a job that was represented to be within five miles of home.

Assuming that only this initial meeting would be at a distant location, he expectantly proceeded. After three hours of a preliminary group interview and subsequent one-on-one conversation, he was offered a job – in sales.

Then he received more disconcerting news. Three days of training would be held – again at that distant location. At the conclusion of the training, he was then informed of twice-a-week mandatory sales meetings. Not surprisingly, they were also held in the faraway city. Twice-a-day long distance phone calls to his manager were also expected. It was adding up to be quite expensive for this “local” job. On top of that, he had to buy his demo set for over $100.

Have Purposeless Meetings: Dan gamely proceeded, making his first sale as soon as training was completed and headed off to the sales meeting. So as not to interfere with selling, it was scheduled at nine in the evening, which was too late to make appointments. The meeting was not what Dan expected. His boss did not have a definite plan for the meeting and meandered through it. There was no apparent objective or purpose – other than to see how many staff would comply with the attendance mandate.

Generally the meetings would start late. Often they had little substance. Other times handouts would not be ready. More than once Dan and his cohorts waited as their boss made copies, talked on the phone, or left the room. Once he got mad at the people not present – and chewed out those who were.

Waste Time: During these meetings, individual queries were postponed for afterwards. If Dan waited around to have his questions answered, he might not get home until after midnight. More often that not, he was frustrated with the lack of response to his inquiries, either being deferred yet again or receiving a cocky, condescending retort.

The twice-a-day phone calls were also an exercise in frustration and futility, with Dan altering his schedule to make these calls at the prescribed time. Although these calls were required, his boss sometimes wasn’t available or might respond with irritation at the interruption. During these calls, sometimes Dan was encouraged, but more often he would be chastised for not doing more or his questions would be summarily dismissed.

Undervalue Staff: Another problem was that recruitment was given a priority, with secondary attention being given to existing staff. From Dan’s original group, the attrition rate was at 90 percent after two weeks; staffing was seemingly viewed as a numbers game. It was quantity over quality; people were expendable, and you needed to hire many in order for a few to stick around.

Make Unreasonable Demands: The twice-a-week sales meetings and twice-a-day phone calls seemed unreasonable and demanding, especially since there was no apparent reason for them. Perhaps most telling was the insistence that they work seven days a week – for a job that was advertised as part-time. Even more infuriating was that his boss often bragged that when he was in the field, he would only sell a few days a week.

Give Bad and Inappropriate Advice: When the sales staff would complain about the cost of driving to the sales meetings and the long distance calls, they were told that it was all tax deductible. The boss claimed to be aggressive in filling out his tax forms and boasted that he generally paid no taxes!  He implied that his staff would be foolish not to do the same.

Don’t Pay What You Promise: Dan was promised a minimum guaranteed amount on every appointment, even if no sales were made. Never once did this happen. The reasoning was not explained. Perhaps there were too many loopholes and exceptions in the policy. Maybe his boss had too much discretion over this and abused that power, or perhaps it was merely an outright lie.

Arbitrarily Refuse Training: Dan’s initial training covered product knowledge and how to do a demonstration. He was instructed to ask for referrals after every presentation, regardless if a sale was made. Dan was accumulating leads, but had not been trained on how to follow through on them.

He asked what to do and was told it would be covered at the sales meetings. Except that it wasn’t. Dan had pretty much given up on the unproductive sales meetings. Asking directly for assistance, the unexpected response was, “Since you’re not coming to the meetings, I’m not going to tell you!”

Despite all of this, Dan did well selling. He enjoyed making sales presentations. This resulted in a high closing ratio, and he quickly earned a boost in his commission rate. Soon after this, another job opportunity availed itself. It was also part-time – mowing lawns and doing landscaping. As Dan balanced both jobs, he quickly realized that not all bosses were the same. His landscaping boss was easygoing and flexible. They quickly established a rapport and worked well together.

Dan’s recollection of the summer contrasted one disappointing job with a lousy boss with one fun job with a great boss. Which kind of boss are you? How would your staff answer that question?

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Healthcare Call Center Essentials, available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of AnswerStat and Medical Call Center News covering the healthcare call center industry. Read his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D.

My daughter is a teacher. Her work – and the stories that she shares – cause me to reflect on some of my teachers. Though I don’t recall much about my own first grade teacher, I do know that I really liked her. My parents said, on numerous occasions, that Mrs. Frank had given me a great start in school, a strong foundation on which future teachers could effectively build.

Another stellar educator who was highly influential was Miss Robinson, my fourth grade teacher. Our class was a challenge to her – a good challenge. Many of us had been in a “split” room the year before, half third grade and half fourth grade. Once our third grade assignments were complete, we were allowed to do fourth grade work. The result was that Miss Robinson inherited a batch of students who had already mastered much of the fourth grade curriculum. She worked hard to provide us with additional lessons and opportunities that would keep us motivated and challenged, without similarly handicapping our fifth grade teacher. One such instance was a science module on electricity. I was mesmerized. Little did I know that this would serve as the impetus for continuing interest and a subsequent vocation, leading me down a varied and unpredictable, but most fulfilling, career path.

We moved that summer and I started at a new school. I quickly realized three things. I was far ahead in math, hopelessly behind in grammar, and had been placed in the wrong class by the school secretary. It is said that teachers often give more attention to students on the edges, both those with great promise, as well as those who struggle. My knowledge and understanding of things unfamiliar to my peers catapulted me to a position of prominence. The result was that my teacher gave me special attention and esteem, while my classmates viewed me with academic awe and respect. Although I didn’t learn much academically that year, I did undergo a metamorphous of self-perception. Put succinctly, I began fifth grade as an above average student who felt average and ended the year as an above average student who was convinced he was exceptional. That single attitudinal change altered the trajectory of my educational path – and ultimately my life. Yes, Mrs. Wedel influenced me immensely.

In seventh grade, I had Mr. Snow for English. It was clear that he loved to teach and equally apparent that he loved seventh graders. He invested extra time and effort in me during lunch and after school, getting me caught up on my grammar and punctuation. Our class read and studied Dickens’ classic story, A Christmas Carol. Mr. Snow helped us dig into this timeless tale and mine its many truths. The conclusion was inescapable for me and equally profound. Like Dickens’ Scrooge, we have a choice on how we live our life; it can be for selfish purposes, or it can be for the joy of living and the benefit of others. I chose the later.

That year I also had Mr. Binder for science. He was a strict and demanding instructor with high expectations, and I feared him – at least in the classroom. However, he also faithfully served as my track coach for five years, where he functioned in a much different role and with significant influence on me. It was on the track team where I learned many of life’s important issues and where I experienced my happiest moments as a teen. Although I was not an athlete, athletic opportunities – via a highly effective teacher/coach – helped to shape me more than anything learned in the classroom.

In high school, it was Mr. Grosser who affected me greatly. With a passion for molding young minds, he was part educator and part entertainer. There was never a dull moment in his classroom, where the unexpected became routine. Sometimes he addressed the course material; other times he digressed. Regardless, he wanted us to think, profoundly and deeply. His influence was significant and helped me mature as an individual and prepare for adulthood.

The standout mentor of my college years was Professor Britten. Intellectual and insightful, he quietly communicated profundity with ease, effectiveness, and aplomb. I found myself hanging on every word. Nothing he said was wasted, and everything had significance. He was the teacher whose class one took, not because of the subject material, but because of the instructor.

These are but some of the teachers who highly influenced me; they are the best of the best. Aside from academia, I have had many notable “teachers” in the business world as well. Although not teachers, per se, they nonetheless educated me, playing a critical role in guiding me to become the person that I am today.

If you are a teacher, be encouraged that you are influencing others, even if you don’t know it. You may never be affirmed by those you teach, but you are making a difference to every student, every year.

If you are not a teacher, know that you influence others. Whether a business owner, a manager, a supervisor, or a front-line call center agent, you influence those around you by what you do, the things you say, and how you treat others.

Although I have been most fortunate with those who have sought to educate me, I did encounter a couple of instructors who were not teachers and a few more who were burnt-out and coasting. In the same way, not everyone in the business world has had a positive influence on me either, even though most have. The lesson here is to be astute and discerning as to whom you allow to influence you.

Whether you are a teacher, a leader, or a follower, you influence others. Like the infamous Scrooge, you can either influence negatively by pursuing a life of self-focused hoarding or influence positively by making a difference in others by sharing, giving, and inspiring them in an encouraging and profound manner. Although they may seldom thank you for the role you play in their lives, know that you are making a significantly lasting and notable impact as you pursue the path of positive influence.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Healthcare Call Center Essentials, available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of AnswerStat and Medical Call Center News covering the healthcare call center industry. Read his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.

By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D.

It seems that lessons can be found all around us – lessons of what to do and lessons of what not to do. I wonder how many of these learning opportunities I miss because I am too busy to spot them. The ones that I do notice, I find instructive and beneficial. A case in point is my printer. I recently looked for a new one. Not the printer that prints this magazine, but rather my local printer used to handle my business stationary and other printing needs.

I had essentially been using the same printer for 17 years. This bridged a time of many changes. On my part, it transcended two places of employment; on their part, it spanned three ownerships, a time of expansion and then contraction, several name changes, and lastly a merger.

Initially I began using this printer because they were close to my office, had competitive pricing, and were accommodating and easy to work with. These are astute business reasons for making a wise and prudent vendor selection: convenience, price, and service.

What struck me, however, was their collective friendliness. It didn’t matter who I talked to or how. Whether on the phone or in person, they were always friendly. The next steps beyond friendliness are acquaintance and relationship. I got to know the owner – who never felt it condescending to wait on me – and his key staff. We developed a relationship. With a relationship comes understanding, tolerance, and forgiveness. Let me explain.

Although they exemplified the adage to perform “under promise and over deliver,” there were occasions when things did not go as expected. Sometimes this was my fault, sometimes theirs, but regardless we worked together for the common good of our long-term relationship to reach an acceptable solution. I understood that they were in business to make money, that ultimately they needed me to be a profitable account; likewise they understood that I needed their product to be in an acceptable and usable form. Without a relationship, instead of seeking our mutual benefit, we would have sought our individual self-interest; we would have become adversarial.

Similarly, relationship begets tolerance. Tolerance overlooks the small stuff, the things that don’t really matter. If the wrong paper was used but didn’t affect its essential utility, tolerance made it acceptable. However, if the paper selection was integral to its final form or function, then reprinting was in order; our relationship prompted their desire to reprint and tolerance that gave me the desire to allow for extra time.

Lastly is the relational benefit of forgiveness. If a deadline was missed, I would try to be forgiving as a byproduct of relationship. If I needed to unexpectedly move up a routine project to become a rush job or needed to change a parameter in mid-production, they would tolerate the lack of forethought and planning on my part.

One day I walked into their shop. In the time that it took me to stride from the door to the counter, three people momentarily stopped their work, glanced up smiling, and cheerfully greeted me by name. They were glad to see me, and I was happy to be there. It was Bob who approached me. “We’re just like Cheers,” he beamed, “We’re the printer, where everybody knows your name!” He was right, they did know my name and that made me feel welcomed and appreciated.

Bob and I got to know each other quite well over the years.  When Bob bought into the business, he was quick to share his exciting news.  I changed jobs and Bob’s downtown shop was no longer convenient for me, but I kept going anyway. When he relocated to manage a satellite store, I followed him there, rejoicing that it was closer. Later, when a downturn in the economy made it necessary for that location to be shuttered, my loyalty followed him to a third location. It was not as convenient, but the extra drive was worth it to see Bob.

Then they “merged” with another company. This resulted in yet another name change and a subsequent closing of Bob’s satellite office. Needing to have some envelopes printed, I returned to their original location. I was dismayed to see no one I knew and no one who knew me. Sadly, I represented an order, not a relationship; I was an invoice, not a business partner.

It’s not that these things are integral to printing stationary, but they are a pleasant bonus. Having a personal connection with my printer does not have a direct bearing on the quality of their output or affect the utility of the final product. In a hard-core business sense, these things don’t matter.

Or do they? When I picked up my order, I was shocked at the bill. Their rates had gone up – a lot – but foolishly I had not checked.  I had given the new regime the trust earned by the old regime and was paying the price – quite literally – for that lapse.

When I began using the envelopes, I was again distressed. There were problems with two of the first 20 envelopes that I grabbed. A 10% error rate is not the quality that I expected or paid for. Although that ratio has grown decidedly better as I have worked through the box, the initial impression stuck with me. In the old days, I would have called up Bob, and we would have worked something out.  Now I did not know who to call – and didn’t really care. There was no relationship any more. Mentally, I was already searching for another printer.

What I learned is to be appropriately personal in both conversation and in business; build relationships; avoid a professional distance or a clinical detachment. In the long-term, adding that personal touch is good business – and good medicine.

Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s Healthcare Call Center Essentials, available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book.

Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of AnswerStat and Medical Call Center News covering the healthcare call center industry. Read his latest book, Sticky Customer Service.