The Importance of Call Center Scalability

One of the biggest oversights we see working with healthcare call center operations across the nation is a failure to plan for scalability. It’s a problem so common that we wrote a white paper about it. Is your internal call center a “revenue center” or a “cost center?” A successful call center fuels the revenue cycle through effective calendar management, minimizing the impact of no-shows and ensuring a steady flow of bookings. If poorly managed, these same things can result in significant costs to your bottom line—

Sounds simple, right? It’s not. 

Often, we run into health systems that have already purchased an integrated CRM that smoothly combines telephony and call center software. They have a staffing model that responds to natural changes in call volume with maximum efficiency and good agents that demonstrate profound empathy and great patient satisfaction scores. These organizations are certain they have a successful call center, but the reality is they still have a long way to go before they reach “revenue center” status.

Revenue centers use proactive revenue capture, consistency of productivity to revenue generation, and ROI as the core of their DNA.

• Proactive revenue capture means: capitalizing on proactive work such as answering marketing calls to action, managing outreach campaigns, or even something as simple as putting one phone number on your website.
• Consistency of productivity to revenue generation is the percentage of booked appointments from total calls. It’s important to know through analytics the total percentage of the work a call center does and there should be a consistent return in appointment generation.
• A revenue center is structurally organized around growth as an expectation. It’s in the revenue center’s DNA to ensure all cancellations are rebooked, all calls are answered, and all patient needs are met as much as possible on one call. This is known as “one-touch resolution.”

It’s about planning for scalability because when the call center is truly effective there will be growth.

When building an internal call center organizations must keep the “revenue center” model in mind. A revenue center optimizes people, processes, and technologies by managing an efficient labor pool enabled by technology and enhanced by advanced use of data and analytics. A revenue center interacts with more patients more efficiently resulting in a higher appointment conversion rate with an overall greater patient experience through a seamless experience. This model turns the passive, purely reactive, and inbound call center inside out into an active, growth-oriented revenue center meeting the needs of patients who are shopping for their healthcare as savvy consumers—

One that will scale alongside the business itself.

No matter where you are in the process, cost center, or even a highly functioning call center, Envera’s comprehensive engagement partnership can help in establishing an effective revenue center. Through the right combination of people and technology, we build custom solutions that transform the patient access experience and position you to realize your full market potential.