Healthcare call centers articles by Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
Consider an Internal Rebranding as a Strategic Initiative This Year By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Functionally you may label your operation as a medical call center, a healthcare contact center, or a medical answering service. This identifier may or may not be included in the name of your operation. Regardless, it might be time to […]
How We Conclude One Year Prepares Us for the Next By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD How has this year been in your healthcare call center? I suspect you’re ready for it to end. Though you may feel that way every year, the magnitude may be more pronounced this year. All the rapid changes and stressors […]
A Decentralized Call Center Is an Oxymoron By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD In the early days of our industry, the label call center fit perfectly. We handled calls from a central location. This was necessitated by the platform we used, which we installed in our office. It consisted of physical hardware to switch calls and […]
Address These Critical Items to Better Retain Staff and Serve Callers By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. Operating a successful call center in the healthcare industry is hard. There is a never-ending tension to balance the expectations of patients and callers with the needs of operational staff, all the while remaining fiscally viable. Here are six […]
Technology Provides More Communication Channels to Serve Patients Better By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD The label of call center referencing outward-facing communications is an historically accurate term. At one time it handled calls from a central location. Hence, we formed a descriptively accurate name of call center. But many call centers have moved beyond calls […]
Connect with Critical Groups Who Often Go Overlooked By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. As we wrap up our five-part series, Integrate Your Call Center, our fourth consideration is stakeholder integration. (If you want to review, the other three are Integrate Your Call Center Staff, Integrate Your Call Center Tools, and Integrate with Your Organization.) When […]
Hire Staff with the Abilities That Today’s Consumers Need and Expect By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD There was a time when hiring managers looked for three key skills in their call center applicants: a pleasant and understandable telephone voice, good spelling, and neat penmanship. Yes, legible writing was key because everything was handwritten. Then computers […]
Don’t Stay in Your Silo or Function in Isolation By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. I once needed to call a company in the healthcare sector. With their call center I encountered long wait times, surly representatives, and little help in resolving my dilemma. I made many unsuccessful phone calls. At last, one rep transferred me […]
Examine the Benefits and Disadvantages of Video Calling By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD For years, some call center managers have looked forward to having video capability in their call centers. Others weren’t so open to video calls. And most agents have opposed it as well. Yet the past few years have prepared us, even conditioned […]
Make Sure Each Piece of Contact Center Technology Works as a Seamless System By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. In continuing our series on call center integration, we move to the topic of technology, specifically the need to integrate your call center tools. Today’s vendors offer a wide array of technology options to enhance the contact […]