By Sheila Kelly~
The High Price of Old Technology Solutions for Answering the Phone in Healthcare – Incorporating Lessons Learned During This Pandemic
As we move from pandemic triage to business recovery at Parlance, we are taking stock of how to incorporate lessons we’ve learned into our business model.
One of the silver linings of an emergency is how quickly and starkly it can highlight where you need to improve processes and make best use of your highly trained staff. The simple task of answering the phone quickly stands out as a friction point for callers and employees if the organization is relying on outdated and displeasing technology for answering calls. Patients and their families are frustrated with clunky phone trees or waiting on hold; and employees are routing routine calls while they could be attending to calls with more complex service needs.
At Parlance we have more than two decades of experience in the world of voice-enabled call routing. We are acutely aware of how large enterprises answer their phones and how much waste is created when callers are confronted with technology that they perceive to be a hindrance instead of enabling easy access to the resources they need. During emergency situations when we see surges in call volumes, the inability to execute effectively on this small task is very costly — both in operating costs and patient experience.
Health systems receive millions of phone calls each year. Every call is an opportunity to make a good, solid impression on healthcare consumers. Every call is an opportunity to show patients what they can expect from you. At Parlance we partner with our customers to eliminate waste and maximize the value of each incoming call by making it easy for callers to connect to what or whom they need.
Parlance voice-driven solutions increase self-service, meet the customer experience demands of today’s leading organizations, and drive operational efficiency. Parlance relieves the burden of routine transfers and poor self-service, so business operations are optimized.
When you’re a hospital or healthcare system, patients judge your competence at every level. And if you can’t get your phone right, they’re wondering if you’re going to get their hip replacement right. Parlance has helped maintain patient’s confidence in the care they receive with us. — Jake Dorst, Tahoe Forest Health System CIO
