Boosting Healthcare IVR Payments: How One Contact Center Triumphed Using Self-Service
Chief Marketing Officer
Serving as the central hub for many healthcare organizations, the contact center plays a crucial role in how patients interact with their providers. Knowing this, agent, operational and software efficiency within the contact center can have a direct impact on how a patient will interact both pre and post-visit, and whether they leave with a positive experience.
Even with the increasing complexity of healthcare software solutions, it’s important to find innovative processes that don’t hinder the patient experience, such as scheduling an appointment, paying a bill or looking up patient account details. Furthermore, healthcare contact center agents are on the front line for patients, answering questions and solving problems to maintain patient expectations.
However, insights from Pew Research reveal that 52% of consumers report searching online for healthcare-related information. With more consumers doing research online, it is crucial for agents to be equipped with the correct information to ensure your customers receive the support they need.
But the prevalence of research doesn’t necessarily mean that consumers are dissatisfied with customer service in the healthcare industry. In TCN’s Consumer Insights about Customer Service published in 2023, results revealed that 65% of patients reported being satisfied with their healthcare providers. What is interesting, however, is that this satisfaction level is up from 59% in 2022. Plus, patient satisfaction levels vary across generations, with 50% of Baby Boomers and 77% of Millennials expressing satisfaction.
Quick read: More on TCN’s Consumer Survey
Examining satisfaction along the patient journey
Leveraging a platform that solves for improved efficiency, increased automation and better patient satisfaction can make a world of difference in how agents and patients interact with your brand.
A recent healthcare organization switched to TCN due to the additional options available to them within Operator and the future-proofing of their healthcare omnichannel communication solution with a patient engagement platform.
Starting in their outbound contact center operations, the Operator platform and solutions quickly replaced other departments and teams, from customer service to scheduling.
Here’s a closer look at the TCN client data and how they optimized their Interactive Voice Response (IVR), taking their contact center to the next level.
Inbound IVR for customer service
The client’s IVR handled an average of 841 calls per month, which means 841 patients were able to self-serve to either pay or look up their balance on their own each month.
| Payment Month | Total IVR Payments | Balance Lookup | Total Self-Serviced Calls |
| January | 773 | 212 | 985 |
| February | 663 | 178 | 841 |
| March | 676 | 183 | 859 |
| April | 691 | 174 | 865 |
| May | 614 | 180 | 794 |
| June | 616 | 184 | 800 |
| July | 561 | 192 | 753 |
| August | 619 | 208 | 827 |
TCN’s IVR solution is also incredibly reliable and continuously updated to ensure your contact center is running at peak efficiency. Discover how Meduit, a top revenue cycle management provider within the healthcare industry, also experienced a significant decrease in customer wait times thanks to TCN’s IVR.
Outbound customer service
According to the data, the clients’ outbound automated dialer campaigns placed 112,387 phone calls. Of those calls, an average of 12.5% of patients answered the phone to speak to a representative.
The dialer truly shines in regard to time savings. Because it handled everything while connecting 87.5% of live answered calls to an agent, the client experienced significant Full-Time Employee (FTE) savings because agents were not having to handle these calls manually. The FTE savings are growing each month as they qualify more patients for calling.
| Call Month | Total Outbound Calls | Live Connections | Live Conversation Rate | System Handled | Dialer Relief | Total Time Savings | FTE Savings |
| March | 13,073 | 1,958 | 14.98% | 11,115 | 85.02% | 111:25:30 | 0.6 |
| April | 14,939 | 2,020 | 13.52% | 12,919 | 86.48% | 135:34:06 | 0.8 |
| May | 17,679 | 2,067 | 11.69% | 15,612 | 88.31% | 166:53:54 | 1 |
| June | 19,388 | 2,342 | 12.08% | 17,046 | 87.92% | 180:09:48 | 1 |
| July | 22,772 | 2,514 | 11.04% | 20,258 | 88.96% | 202:32:36 | 1.2 |
| August | 24,536 | 2,891 | 11.78% | 21,645 | 88.22% | 217:52:54 | 1.3 |
TCN has helped many of its clients save FTE hours. Learn how St. Luke’s University Health Network also saved over 1,400 FTE hours in only two months of usage with TCN.
SMS text and outbound for appointment reminders
Texting and other digital channels are growing in popularity. While looking at text messages, a total of 103,418 messages were sent to remind patients of their upcoming appointments. In addition, reporting processes captured replies from the patient to confirm an appointment, reschedule an appointment or cancel an appointment. Streamlining patient reminders while reducing no-show rates will dramatically improve the patient experience.
Additionally, the client deployed TCN cell phone scrubbing, which identifies whether numbers are landlines or cell phones to ensure each patient gets a notification, even if they only have a landline on file. Of all the phone call reminders, 4,068 were made to landlines.
| SMS Month | SMS Reminder | Call Reminder |
| April | 7682 | 0 |
| May | 27068 | 0 |
| June | 21106 | 134 |
| July | 22666 | 1789 |
| August | 24896 | 2145 |
Scheduling department using outbound
The scheduling team utilizes TCN’s outbound dialer for many other use cases, such as scheduling appointments for outpatient services, no-show follow-ups and rescheduling visits per patient request.
| Call Month | Total Outbound Calls | Live Connections | Live Conversation Rate | System Handled | Dialer Relief | Total Time Savings | FTE Savings |
| January | 8,368 | 2,470 | 29.52% | 5,898 | 70.48% | 60:40:36 | 0.4 |
| February | 5,842 | 1,663 | 28.47% | 4,179 | 71.53% | 41:52:36 | 0.2 |
| March | 13,064 | 3,835 | 29.36% | 9,229 | 70.64% | 91:12:48 | 0.5 |
| April | 8,628 | 2,568 | 29.76% | 6,060 | 70.24% | 62:58:12 | 0.4 |
| May | 8,830 | 2,646 | 29.97% | 6,184 | 70.03% | 65:50:00 | 0.4 |
| June | 8,799 | 2,579 | 29.31% | 6,220 | 70.69% | 65:30:18 | 0.4 |
| July | 10,065 | 2,412 | 23.96% | 7,653 | 76.04% | 77:27:36 | 0.4 |
| August | 12,651 | 3,073 | 24.29% | 9,578 | 75.71% | 96:16:24 | 0.6 |
Pre-registration department using outbound
Pre-registration is a key part of healthcare because it saves time on the day of the visit. The pre-registration team utilizes the outbound dialer to increase contact rates, keep agents on live conversations and reduce the FTEs required to handle any amount of call volume.
| Call Month | Total Outbound Calls | Live Connections | Live Conversation Rate | System Handled | Dialer Relief | Total Time Savings | FTE Savings |
| January | 7,520 | 2,892 | 38.46% | 4,628 | 61.54% | 47:47:24 | 0.3 |
| February | 5,430 | 2,062 | 37.97% | 3,368 | 62.03% | 37:47:24 | 0.2 |
| March | 5,840 | 2,255 | 38.61% | 3,585 | 61.39% | 42:22:12 | 0.2 |
| April | 6,313 | 2,191 | 34.71% | 4,122 | 65.29% | 47:04:12 | 0.3 |
| May | 6,488 | 2,379 | 36.67% | 4,109 | 63.33% | 42:46:30 | 0.2 |
| June | 9,802 | 3,432 | 35.01% | 6,370 | 64.99% | 58:39:42 | 0.3 |
| July | 8,366 | 2,805 | 33.53% | 5,561 | 66.47% | 54:50:54 | 0.3 |
| August | 9,094 | 3,100 | 34.09% | 5,994 | 65.91% | 59:39:00 | 0.3 |
Agent scores and satisfaction surveys
To understand how agents and patients communicate with each other, the healthcare client measured patient satisfaction during after-call surveys. During the same period of the data collected, the teams collectively maintained a 4.5 out of 5 for overall patient satisfaction.
| Survey | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September |
| Q1: AVERAGE SCORE Speed of Answer | 4.45 | 4.26 | 4.33 | 4.33 | 4.55 | 4.47 | 4.3 | 4.29 | 4.42 |
| Q2: AVERAGE SCORE Rep was Knowledgeable | 4.59 | 4.56 | 4.56 | 4.47 | 4.72 | 4.61 | 4.37 | 4.6 | 4.36 |
| Q3: AVERAGE SCORE Issues Resolved | 4.62 | 4.54 | 4.5 | 4.49 | 4.7 | 4.66 | 4.39 | 4.59 | 4.6 |
| Overall Average Score | 4.56 | 4.46 | 4.47 | 4.43 | 4.66 | 4.58 | 4.35 | 4.5 | 4.46 |
Boost healthcare IVR payments with TCN
Having agents work in a fully blended environment keeps them productive. In this data, all three departments found that TCN’s entire Operator suite of services enhanced their operations.
As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, embracing cutting-edge contact center solutions will be essential to staying competitive and providing the highest quality care. By prioritizing patient satisfaction and operational efficiency, healthcare organizations can build stronger relationships with their patients and achieve long-term success.
This healthcare client isn’t the only one who has benefitted from TCN’s comprehensive suite of tools. Discover how this healthcare client was able to serve patients with less downtime through TCN.