In a keynote presentation at the LVM Health Systems annual user conference in Scottsdale, Arizona in November, Kathy Divis, President of Greystone.Net, discussed the importance of healthcare contact centers and how a contemporary contact center structure can be built to stay relevant. Titled “The Day After Tomorrow,” the presentation covered: 

• Why the day after tomorrow matters
• Trends impacting healthcare
• How a contact center should prepare
• The next big things on the horizon 

A summary of the presentation follows. 

We tend to focus primarily on today — and we should, so we can pay the bills and keep the lights on. At the end of the day, we may think about tomorrow and how we can improve our service. But other than that, we don’t think much past tomorrow. However, to thrive beyond tomorrow, we need to think creatively and build the right structure, staff, culture and services for the long term.

What are some trends affecting healthcare that are of importance to contact centers? They include the:

• Rise of consumerism
• Growing importance of patient experience
• Transition from MarCom to MarTech
• Demand for attribution
• Emergence of non-telephonic communication
• Transition to population health
• Growing dependence on data

One of the more profound trends is the transition from MarCom to MarTech. While MarCom focuses on promoting and selling of goods and services, MarTech is the marriage of marketing and technology. Over one-fifth (22%) of marketing budgets are now allocated to marketing technologies, and marketing tech budgets are now larger than advertising budgets.

The transition to MarTech forces the rise of the Marketer-Scientist, a role that combines the creative functions of marketing with the scientific functions necessary to make informed marketing decisions and to show results. Understanding and using data analytics is now a required competency for marketers, along with mastery of the 4 Ps and 5 Ss of marketing. If you five Ss of marketing is new to you, they are:  strategy, social, science, search an storytelling. Contemporary call/contact centers leaders also need these skills.

How should call/contact centers prepare for the day after tomorrow?

To meet consumer expectations, call centers should:

• Build the right team
• Build an omni-channel center that spans social media, mobile, contact center, website, print, email and the brick-and-mortar facilities
• Add texting
• Monitor social media sentiment
• Embrace true CRM
• Consider a chatbot
• Leverage IPAs (intelligent personal assistants) such as Amazon Echo and Google Home

To win the battle for the day after tomorrow, remember:

• Consumer experience is the new battleground.
• Omni-channel and the other steps are the path to victory.
• The demand for contextual and real time, relevant customer service is soaring.
• Using this customer service approach allows you to adjust to technological disrupters on the fly, as needed.
• You must implement a flexible approach to customer service that excels in all the ways our patients want to communicate with us.