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3 Ways Contact Centers Can Deliver on Digital Expectations

The pandemic accelerated digital adoption of messaging, web, and cloud at light speed, and in doing so contact centers have been at the front-line of large volumes of people in need for support, comfort, and information.

Fostering these digital-first experiences for customers will take innovation, people and technology will need to be optimized to handle unexpected volatility and volume surge. To help solve this challenge, VoiceFoundry, a TTEC Digital company, partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to explore how contact center leaders can executive effective digital experiences customers expect.

Here are 3 key takeaways from their on-demand webinar:

1. Rethink the traditional contact center

The inability to scale during fluctuating volumes, little to no connected data, and increased diversity of needs is acutely affecting customers who need quick and powerful support programs in an uncertain environment.

To meet the need for quality service matched with compassion, Dennis Lauth, principal business development lead for AWS Healthcare & Life Science, recommended that leaders rework their legacy systems to serve large numbers of customers in need.

Lauth listed four essential AWS cloud-based services to dynamically serve customers with personalization:

  • Skill-based contact routing: Maximize the efficiency of agent and customer conversations with the ability to connect those in need to the appropriate service. Integrate chatbots to triage the needs of customers, which allows agents to focus on problems that demand empathy.
  • Voice and chat recording: Record conversations to monitor and approve the quality each time an agent chats with a customer. The recorded content can then be turned into actionable and trainable insights for each channel.
  • Real-time and historical analytics: Each channel should be analyzed by machine learning capabilities to understand trends, cadences, and preferences to help agents understand their audiences at an individual and whole level.
  • High-quality voice capability: Agents are now spread throughout the world, so invest in headsets to ensure seamless online interactions are not broken by voice inconsistencies.

The traditional contact center model is facing a reckoning. All the technology that was introduced to make conversations easier and more efficient will now be put to the test.

2. Create meaningful interactions

“Good customer service is directly correlated to good agent preparedness,” said John Marino, CEO of VoiceFoundry.

A main blocker for agents is the disparate amount of customer information coming in across different channels. The shift between voice to messaging and vice versa complicates the traditional conversation between agents and callers.

Marino discussed the importance of deploying tools like Amazon Connect customer profiles to create a unified and personalized picture of a customer by gathering customer information from various sources such as contact and order history. By doing so the agent can then pull up relevant details about the caller to tailor the interaction to their direct needs.

The growing omnichannel environment has helped connect the world during the pandemic, discovering and gathering information on why and how the customers use these channels is key to serving them best.

3. Think big, start small

Innovation should not be introduced in one wave; the pandemic is a testament to the effects of immediate change at once. Instead, create dialogue among smaller groups of agents on the new products and technologies being implemented into their workday.

Technology cannot be introduced for technology’s sake. Automation and digitalization can be applied to give agents an advantage with every conversation. Walking a department through the new technology at their disposal is an essential part of discussing how their job is enhanced, not replaced.

Watch the full webinar featuring VoiceFoundry a TTEC Digital Company and AWS to learn how contact centers can activate the digital experiences customers crave.

In Their Own Words: Vaccine Patients Share Their Experiences

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout begins across the country, patient experiences vary. Hear what some people had to say in their efforts to receive some of the first doses of vaccine, and how what they’ve experienced can help improve future vaccine distribution.

Transcript:

Liz Glagowski:
Hi, I’m Liz Glagowski, editor of the Customer Strategist Journal. Vaccine rollout is underway with different levels of success around the U.S. and while there’s plenty of coverage about supply, distribution and clinical aspects, the customer experience side of vaccine rollout is often overlooked. We wanted to find out what it was really like, so we asked people with different circumstances about their end to end vaccine experiences. We spoke with medical professionals, retirees and others who were part of the first wave of vaccines across the country. Here’s what they had to say about their journeys.


Angel:
I’m Angel, I’m a nurse in the Los Angeles area. I would classify my vaccine experience as very easy and the reason it was so easy was how seamless the process was. I received an email to make an appointment, during my appointment slot, I went down to the basement, got my vaccine. I was in and out within 15 minutes and it was so straightforward.


Tab Abdeen:
Hi, my name is Tab Abdeen and I am an inpatient pharmacist at a government hospital here in Denver, Colorado. I also have the opportunity to be involved in our vaccination efforts where we help out from a pharmacy standpoint in mixing the vaccine and drawing up the doses as well. I’d say my vaccination experience was fairly easy. About a month before we received our first batch of the COVID-19, the vaccines, the director of our hospital held a town hall meeting to discuss the vaccine and who would receive it first. And then fast forward to about a week before we received our first batch of vaccines in December, we received a hospital wide email asking us to fill out a form with our profession, if we worked inpatient versus outpatient and if we have any face-to-face encounters with COVID patients in our day-to-day work.

And because I work in-patient, so I’ll sometimes work in the IV room, I’ll sometimes work in ICU, I was fortunate enough to be in group 1A, which is one of the first groups who received the initial batch of vaccines. We then received a link to a web based scheduling portal, where we scheduled our first and second doses at the same time. When I received my first dose, because it was in the early days of the vaccine rollout and we started off with the in-house essential employees first, the scheduling was the easy part. The pilot clinic actually went off very smoothly. I filled out the questionnaires when I got there, received my shot from a nurse practitioner and was observed for 15 minutes in a hall with other people who had also received the vaccine. And then before my second dose, a few weeks later, I received an email confirming my appointment time sent to my work email and then I was able to confirm my time slot.

From the behind the scenes and logistics that’s the standpoint, I think mass vaccinating is proving to be a bit of a challenge for scheduling. Right now we are still running two clinics, an employee and a patient one, but they’re each using a different scheduling package. As an example, there’s one clinic who is essentially confirming and scheduling their same day appointments on an Excel spreadsheet, which is not really the best way of going about it. So this is a bit of a challenge for us in pharmacy because we can’t get a good estimate on how many doses to make for the rest of the day.

Some other issues that we’re seeing right now range from distribution and storage of the vaccine, ensuring people when they’re scheduled, that they come with their CDC issued vaccine card and how to deal with the no-shows and cancellations, especially when it comes to that a second dose. Also, as we ramp up our operations, staffing the clinics is also a bit of a barrier since we need administrators and schedulers and nurses to actually administer the vaccine, a lot of whom are working overtime right now.


Liz Glagowski:
Angel and Tab got their vaccines within a closed loop healthcare setting. But for the general public, it’s been a different story. Claudine Vieten, a retiree in Connecticut, found the online portal, an overall process to be a bit complicated.


Claudine Vieten:
It started with I went on the website VAMS to try to register and that was a pure exercise in frustration. I can manage a computer, I do own a computer, but it was so ridiculous. You had to fill out this information then you got to the bottom, and then you had to wait for them to email you a number that you then had to go back in and put into the same website that you had been in and then you had to wait again. But there wasn’t a lot of explanation on how to do that, or what would happen once you put the number in, and even after you put the number in, then you were in never, never land again. We are on My Chart for Hartford Healthcare, and I had an appointment with a urologist unrelated to anything COVID and she said, “You have to go into the app.”

And that opened me up to something on my chart that [inaudible 00:06:28] I would’ve never gotten an app, never. That would have been the last thing that would have occurred to me, especially since I’m on My Chart. On my computer, I could see that I could register for different places, so I went in to register, to find out where they were and the local hospital, Wyndham Hospital did have openings for a few weeks down the road, so I went into do that. And as I did, one opening popped up for a few days later, which I took. We went the next day and my husband waited in the car and I went in and they were as nice as can be. They were absolutely wonderful. They were very organized. I had everything online, was registered online, of course, so they just told me that they were giving Pfizer that day and I said, “That was fine.”

And they said, “Wait, on that line over there.” There were two people in front of me, so then I got my shot. I waited the 15 minutes. When I was getting the shot, the nurse asked me something and I said, “Well, my husband doesn’t have an appointment until February 8th.” So she said, “Well, ask about a list for the end of the day for shots.” So I did and she said, “Well, nobody has not showed up, so we don’t really have a list.” But there was a doctor walking around, I guess, to make sure nobody got anaphylactic shock and he came over and he said, “Let him in.”

So I went to the car to get my husband and we came back in and there was a fire drill. All told, we were probably there an hour. It was smooth, it was pleasant. There were no problems. Everybody was as nice as can be and we had no problem. We had these shots on January 22nd. We have vaccine shots for the 15th. They give you a little card that says what you got, et cetera, et cetera. And they told me to go home and make the appointment on the computer, which is exactly what I did. I do want to make a note that I’m computer savvy, my husband is not computer savvy and could have never negotiated the system.


Liz Glagowski:
Others also had varying levels of success when trying to navigate the system with circumstances that didn’t fit the typical eligibility requirements.


Jen Reese:
I am Jen Reese and I live in Virginia. Our experience was actually surprisingly easy. I live in Loudoun County, Virginia, which is outside Washington D.C. and our department had sent out a press release mid to late January saying if you’re a healthcare provider and your employer is not able to provide you with the vaccine or not scheduling them, please email the County health department. And I’m in a special circumstance where I have a daughter who just turned 13 who has pretty significant medical disabilities. She hasn’t really left the house much except for doctor’s appointments since COVID. And so, my husband and I are her home healthcare workers. Right now we’re not having any nurses come in just because of the fear of COVID. And so, I emailed the health department and I said, “Hey, we are home health care workers.

My daughter, isn’t going to be able to get the vaccine for a really long time, is there a possibility that we would be considered for the vaccine?” And so, they emailed back and honestly it was three or four days my vaccine was scheduled in the system at the time it was just by the County. My vaccine was scheduled, I showed up. Everybody was well organized, our volunteer medical core for our County handled everything. Quick registration, quick through the line, still had a hangout afterwards to make sure that you were okay after your vaccine, didn’t have any reactions but it was really a nice process. And I had my first vaccine on New Year’s Eve, so it was early on. I had the second one, January 28th. So the County had registered with the CDC service, I think it’s called VAMS, an online service until you were able to reschedule because we were already in the system.

So upfront, I went back and forth with our health department to get registered and it was still a small process, so it was dealing with a nurse at our County health department. Since then, I know last week Virginia went to a statewide system and so, all the counties and all the areas are supposed to be feeding their information into the statewide registration system. I haven’t heard how it’s been since then, but ours was surprisingly easy. I mean, for us, we were really lucky. But the one thing that has been surprising is just the inconsistencies, our County health department understood. I was able to make a plea that we are healthcare providers, but next County over people were having so many issues. So it’s the inconsistency about who decides who’s a priority 1A, who’s a priority 1B and in Virginia, they’ve broken it down at different levels.

And so, I think that was the hardest part just for other people I’ve heard from, especially is that inconsistency and the, well, we got it here in my County, but three County’s away there’s no way that they’re going to give it to a parent of a child with disabilities. It’s just really been surprising to me that they weren’t ready. I helped my parents register in Florida and they used Event Bright as their registration system, which is in the very beginning. And then now, I mean, Florida is a whole different story and different pharmacies involved, but here, no, I happened to email the right person at the right time and said the right words to get us in. And so, I think it’s really, this needed to be planned way more ahead of time. There should have been consistent services, there should’ve been even just online databases that were appropriate. And we knew this day was going to come, they’ve been working on the vaccine for a long time. Why we weren’t more prepared just with the tech part of it is a bit absurd.


Michelle:
My name is Michelle and I’m from Denver, Colorado. I would say that my vaccine experience has been difficult because it’s very difficult to understand who is giving out the vaccine, how to get in line, where to sign up. There’s been a lot of contradictory information. So for example, one, doctor’s office might send you to a hospital to sign up but then you get to the hospital, and then they say, “No, you have to go to your doctor’s office.” And so, we get caught in a loop of trying to sign up for vaccines, and my doctor’s office told me that they would let me know when it’s time for me to get my vaccine. But the truth is that I work in an industry, a frontline industry that’s considered an essential business, so that’s not in my chart. So I’m not sure how they would know when it’s time for me to get my vaccine.

I think the particular pain point is really just trying to get signed up and get in line. My particular provider said that I can sign up online in my online chart, but there’s nowhere to sign up. And she said, “Well, that’s because it’s not your turn,” but it seems to me that they could be collecting names and just let us know when it’s my turn based on information that I provide. I also went to my health department trying to see if there were some central database in Colorado or with my County that I could sign up for and there wasn’t, but they gave a lot of different options. So I’m a little bit concerned that I’ve mucked up the system because I signed up for vaccines in every place I could. I have no idea when I’ll get a vaccine. Some of the places I signed up at said, “Thank you, we’ve received your application,” other places it just seemed like a black hole. But I’ve heard nothing and I don’t know that I will hear anything from any of them.


Liz Glagowski:
So what can we learn from the vaccine experience so far? Each of my guests emphasized the need for more resources, coordination and technology, as the vaccine becomes available to millions more.


Angel:
My biggest recommendation for people involved getting the vaccine to people is just to make the process seamless. No questions about it, which category do you fall under? When can I go it? Where can I go get it? Where do I park? Just very seamless delivery of information would be best. I also think that the public could use a little bit more education about the vaccine, how it works. Right now, most people are getting their information from Facebook or Instagram or [inaudible 00:15:14] University, I don’t know, which is fine, as long as the information is accurate, but what sucks is when there’s tons of information being disseminated that is not evidence based. So I think teaching the public about the risks and the benefits of the vaccine in an accurate way is really important. And to help our public understand which sources are reliable and which really aren’t.


Tab Abdeen:
I think from a process standpoint, I believe automating a lot of our processes would be central as we wrap up the vaccine administration, especially from a scheduling standpoint. Right now, this is proving to be a bit difficult since our greatest at risk population that we’re trying to vaccinate right now that doesn’t really have adequate access to technology, which is making a scheduling a very manual process at the moment.


Michelle:
So I think if I were going to stay in my phase that someone who is 41 I think that would be phase three. If I were going to stay in that phase, I think an automated system would be just fine. For anybody who has a special exception, I think that a well trained human would be incredibly helpful. I talked to my doctor’s office and she basically said that she didn’t know how or why or when things were going to happen. So I don’t think it’s just a human touch, I think is a well trained human touch.


Claudine Vieten:
I think that there was very little coordination. I think when it gets down to your age group and your computer savviness, there’d be no problem whatsoever. But I think that the lack of available places to go locally is a big problem for a lot of older people. I think that’s the biggest thing. And then the telephone number has to have many, many, many more people involved in that. Call centers should be much better manned and more manned. I think that would be a big help because most people have a phone, even if they aren’t computer savvy, they have a phone and they can make a phone call, so that will help and especially in populations that don’t have computers.


Angel:
I would just say, go get it as soon as you can get it. Don’t rely on herd immunity, there are people who really have to rely on herd immunity. We’ve worked so hard to get here and we will get out of it together.


Liz Glagowski:
Thanks for listening, and look for more in our vaccine series by subscribing to the CX POD where you get your podcasts or by visiting us at thecxpod.com. Thanks everyone and we’ll see you next time.

The CMS Five-Star Quality Rating System is Changing. Here’s How to Stay on Top

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is raising the stakes on patient and member experience for health insurance organizations. CMS recently introduced changes to its Five-Star Quality Rating System that place greater weight on measures related to patient experience while reducing an emphasis on process measures.

Each year, CMS rates Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug programs on a five-star scale, based on how well they performed in the prior year, with five stars representing the best plan performance and quality. Plans that are awarded four or more stars earn a 5% bonus on CMS payment benchmarks, as well as higher rebates which are used to provide better member benefits. McKinsey & Company estimated in a report that in 2020, MA plans in aggregate received around $12.2 billion in stars-related payments.

The idea behind this bonus payment system is twofold. First, it rewards plans that do well by awarding them a higher bonus payment. Second, it brings down overall Medicare program costs by cutting down on payments made to plans in excess of projected spending. Plans that fail to perform are penalized or risk contract termination for consistently low ratings. For consumers, the system offers an easy way to shop for and compare plans during enrollment periods.

What’s new

In 2020, CMS indicated that patient experience metrics would begin to carry more weight in determining the MA plans’ star ratings as a reflection of the agency’s efforts to “put patients first and to empower patients to work with their doctors to make healthcare decisions that are best for them.”

The star rating score is comprised of more than 40 measures, which are divided into different categories, such as “Patient experience and complaint measures,” “Measures capturing access,” and “Process measures.” Each category is assigned a weight of one to five and under the new adjustments, the patient experience, complaints, and access categories will increase in weight from 1.5 in 2020 to 2 in 2021. By 2023, the weight of these categories will be a 4, representing about 57% of the overall stars ratings.

Meanwhile, process measures will represent only 17% of the star ratings in 2023, down from 25% in 2020. In other words, payers that prioritize sales process measures over patient and member relationships will see a decline in their overall rating and ultimately, in their revenue.

No time to lose

Plan administrators need to act now to adapt to the rating changes. Even for five-star plans, maintaining current performances may not be enough. “As other plans improve their performance on customer experience metrics, the threshold performance required to earn high stars ratings on customer experience measures could increase since stars measures are scored on a curve,” McKinsey & Company noted.

To stay on top of the star ratings program, a clear focus on higher overall plan quality is the right approach. Any improvements need to be holistic and considered from the point of view of the entire member lifecycle, not just focused on improving the individual measures that comprise the inputs to the star ratings. Ratings can drop for many reasons. While some of these are relatively easy to fix, such as getting members to take an annual flu vaccine, others might prove to be more of a challenge, such as patient adherence to prescription medication guidelines.

Consider the evaluation of a member’s overall rating of a health plan. An overall rating is the sum of many factors, largely driven by that member’s experience with the health plan across multiple interactions. At each of these interactions, a member’s expectations on the desired experience can vary widely from member to member.

A member who has just turned 65, is still working, and lives at home has a different set of needs and expectations than an older member who is 80 and lives in a retirement home. A member with a chronic illness will require more attention and handholding than a member who comes in for screenings and basic checkups.

In order to create a satisfied member who will give a high overall rating for the health plan, the payer must create customized interactions that will meet each member’s needs at multiple points in the member experience. To do this, each member’s needs, behaviors, and value to the health plan must be carefully analyzed from the point of view of the member lifecycle.

A holistic approach to improving ratings can thus ensure that the member’s needs are met during each interaction and will leave the member satisfied and less likely to switch plans the next time the open enrollment period comes around.

Another benefit of a holistic approach is that CMS updates the inputs to its star ratings annually. The agency has structured the star ratings strategy to be consistent with its three-part aim: better care, healthier people and communities, and lower-cost care through improvement. Any future updates to the measures will incorporate this strategy. Therefore, an approach to create the ideal experience must look at all aspects of the member lifecycle; otherwise the result will be a piecemeal approach that will result in lopsided or short-term gains to the ratings.

Experience matters

Companies across a wide spectrum of industries have been competing on customer experience for years. Although the healthcare industry still has a long way to go before it can catch up, CMS’ initiative to raise the bar on patient and member experience is an important step in the right direction. After all, a positive member experience can lead to higher enrollment, higher plan satisfaction, and lower costs—a winning situation for everyone.

4 Ways to Orchestrate Amazing Ominchanncel Customer Journeys

Customers like options. They want to choose how to customize their products, services, and even the channels in which they interact with brands. To keep up, companies are scrambling to enable more customer experience channels for sales and service.

But simply turning on channels or technology isn’t enough. To offer customer experiences that are truly effortless, companies must develop a deep understanding of their customers’ unique journeys; successful ones then will use that knowledge to orchestrate interactions across any channel customers may choose.

Embracing an omnichannel strategy may seem like a big undertaking – indeed, making things effortless for customers often entails much hard work on the part of brands. But the benefits are well worth the effort. Here are four ways to get started:

1. Design effortless customer-centric journeys
Brands need to gain a clear view of what customers are experiencing before making decisions on new journeys. A good way to gain insights is to create a customer touchmap. A useful map will deconstruct unique journeys into discreet steps that illustrate key moments of customer truth, delight, and pain. With all this essential information in hand, learn what tools and technology are needed to fill in gaps to orchestrate and accelerate your future-state CX.

Journeys should begin with the customer and employ an outside-in approach. This will ensure the customer experience remains at the forefront. Brands can get better insights into customer behavior, preferences, and habits by integrating data silos that will offer a 360-degree view of customers. Based on that data, build an agile and insight-driven service delivery model.

Finally, empower both the customer and the employee through effortless design. The easier processes are, the more people – consumers and employees alike – will use them. 

Customers want to interact with brands on their own terms. Companies that invest the time and resources into developing meaningful customer journeys will reap the benefits long term.

2. Automate and optimize the experience
Once brands get a strong understanding of what an effortless customer journey looks like, they must keep refining it to continually improve the experience. Automation should be a key to this process.
With so many options available, it may be tempting to adopt as much automation as possible. But simply bolting on new technology often results in a more disconnected and frustrating experience for customers.

Automation should be embraced, but only where it makes sense, adds value, and improves the experience. Find those places along the journey where automation will reduce effort, and where it can make it simple and easy for customers to have their needs met and for agents to do their jobs successfully.
As important as customer experience is, employee experience is equally critical, and automation can benefit the workforce as much as the consumer. Brands should apply easy customer self-service where it makes sense, but also enable and equip customer-facing associates with the tools they need to deliver effortless experiences as well.

A one-size-fits-approach likely won’t work when it comes to automation. It may make sense, for instance, to apply different service levels for different customer needs – such as a fast path to an associate for a high-level need. This will help ensure everyone’s need are met.

3. Extend the CX journey across the enterprise
Looking at the big picture is key. The customer has a relationship with an entire company, so the journey shouldn’t be confined to just the contact center. Encourage other customer-related business units like marketing, sales, finance, and others to collaborate on a holistic CX ecosystem. Successfully managing and scaling operations across your entire ecosystem drives governance, superior customer experiences and growth.

A truly holistic approach to CX needs buy-in from top-level leadership that trickles down through the entire organization. To ensure the vision is embraced across the board, consider assigning a cross-functional transformation officer who can oversee CX across multiple units. This will help keep the strategy unified and keep everyone moving toward a common goal.

Leaders, managers and employees alike should feel empowered to share their ideas. Encourage a collaborative, cohesive organization that focuses on the customer and a shared mission around delivering the best possible interactions.

4. Leverage cloud technology for nimble CX delivery
Cloud technology is a powerful tool when it comes to breaking down barriers to a successful omnichannel strategy. The cloud brings numerous advantages: it’s flexible, it costs less than on-premise contact center technology, and it can support customers from virtually anywhere, to name a few.

The real transformation, though, happens when brands are empowered to do more once they get their contact center onto the cloud. AI and automation tools built into cloud technology enhance and augment the customer and agent experiences in ways that simply aren’t possible on premise.

Before making the leap to the cloud, find a cloud contact center partner with technology expertise and CX thought leadership. It’s important to balance technology with human experience and interactions, and experts can help brands find that sweet spot.

With the right help and the right strategy, brands can develop a cloud strategy that leverages innovative, cloud-based technology to deliver effortless experiences. Cloud-based insights also can provide a font of information, and should be used to drive further internal and customer improvements.

Increasingly, consumers want to do business with the brands that know them the best and offer effortless interactions. Successful brands will be those that can deliver on those promises; they’ll be the ones getting repeat business and referrals.

A strong omnichannel CX strategy allows brands to anticipate customer needs, provide preemptive customer service that avoids any customer effort, and offer self-service options in a customer’s moment of need. Brands that embrace these strategies will offer a harmonious customer experience that can’t be easily replicated by competitors.

A Healthcare Leader Weighs in on the CX Side of the COVID-19 Vaccines

woman getting vaccinated
Close up of a young woman getting vaccinated

Nurses and other healthcare providers are at the frontline of the COVID-19 vaccination efforts. Ann Marie Muñana, a nursing and healthcare leader at Chamberlain University who also serves on the Chicago Department of Public Health’s Scientific COVID-19 Vaccine Work Group, shared insights from frontline efforts to distribute the COVID-19 vaccines. She also reflected on what it will take to increase vaccine trust and accelerate the vaccination rate. The following interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Let’s start by talking about the Vaccine Work Group. Can you tell me what is its purpose and what has it accomplished so far?

Sure, absolutely. The work group was put together by our leaders at the Chicago Department of Public Health, our healthcare commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady. And it includes a number of area experts, physicians, scientists, nurses, ethicist statisticians who look at the data that was coming to the FDA, to the Food and Drug Administration as their process to do the emergency authorizations for the first two vaccines, the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine.

And so our goal was to you know, make sure that we were comfortable with how the process was going because there’s been so much dialogue and so much focus on the speed at which the vaccine was developed, that it was important to have members of the Chicago healthcare community support the vaccine in order to improve and increase the distribution, or actually the vaccine acceptance rate that is so important. We can have a vaccination, but if people are not getting the vaccine, you know, that’s a problem. So we were lending our expertise and our voice to the Department of Health to confirm that we feel that the FDA did what the FDA needs to do in order to issue the emergency authorization.

Have you seen any results yet, from your efforts?

Well, our findings, our summary, our results are published on the Chicago Department of Public Health’s website and basically just confirming and holding and supporting the findings from the FDA and the safety of the vaccine. And so our hope is to now, as we move forward, to reach out and be a part of the community effort to encourage and to educate our community on the importance of the vaccine and its safety.

What are you finding is key to engaging the community and also combating the misinformation that’s out there?

One of the challenges that we’ve seen is just the huge amount of information from all areas, right? It’s  from the television, from the internet, from family members, from friends. There’s just so much information that it is daunting for some of our patients and members of our community to sort through and to understand. And so our responsibility and our duty as healthcare providers, as clinicians, as doctors, nurses, and other members of the team, is to be the voice of our patients and to help them understand and help them make that decision that they need to make in order to accept the vaccine and take the vaccine. And so I think one of the challenges has been all that information. I think there’s been a disconnect in perhaps some of the leadership on do this, don’t do this and, and people changing their opinions. So it is very confusing and that’s going to be one of the challenges that we face is to make sure that we are messaging correctly. And appropriately.

Are there any lessons that have been learned from distributing other vaccines that might help such as the flu, hepatitis B, or HPV vaccines?

I think the lessons that are learned every step of this process is important. Every element from the vaccine development to the trials and the men and women who volunteered for the trials. And then now onto the distribution, it’s all very, very important. And I must say we certainly have been impacted by some things as straightforward as the temperature of the vaccine and how that has impacted the distribution.

And so, I think it’s important that not only do we commit the resources to our scientists and our labs and our you know, pharmaceutical company labs to develop the vaccines, but we also have to be very, very on top of the distribution and what that means. And when we say we’re going to have, you know, a million vaccines, well, that’s also a million bandaids, a million needles, a million alcohol swabs, and that whole process needs to come together. I think communication is another lesson that we need to make sure that we’re being responsible in our communication and being accurate. And if we don’t know the answer, then we don’t know the answer. And we find out the answer.
Listen to the full interview at the CXPod

Top 4 Artificial Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2021

Customers may have tolerated subpar customer experiences due to COVID impacts last year, but times have changed. They are expecting easier, better, and faster CX in 2021.

The most successful brands will blend Artificial Intelligence (AI) with human intelligence to deliver the hyper-personalized effortless experiences today’s customers crave. Although there are many ways to synergize machines and humans in the call center, CX experts agree these four are primed to deliver the greatest outcomes in 2021.

ONE: Supercharge associates with RPA

Leading contact centers will use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to manage and simplify associates’ mundane, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks like identifying customers in the system, updating outdated information, and re-routing calls.

Many organizations will also use RPA to keep customers connected to systems of record via chatbots and voice assistants, so customers can act autonomously with internal systems to access bits of pertinent information quickly. For example, customers can track packages, check recent account activity, and update personal details seamlessly, in real time, without human intervention.

RPA in action: Use RPA and intelligent automation to tackle high-volume, repetitive tasks in the background, so associates can focus their attention on providing better customer experience in real time.

TWO: Train employees with AI-powered “customers”

Smart contact center leaders will use AI to train associates faster, in more engaging ways, and at half the price. Many companies will utilize advanced simulated training bots to play the “customer role” in on-demand, real-world scenarios. These revolutionary bots can react to the accuracy, confidence, word choice, tone and sentiment, and behaviors of the learner – making it possible for associates to accelerate through training at their own speed.

Additionally, the AI captures interactions and makes results ready for trainees and supervisors after each simulated interaction, providing a real-time feedback loop to prompt immediate behavioral changes.

Activate next-gen learning: Use training bots to achieve operational and quality KPIs faster, while reducing nesting periods and boosting customer satisfaction.

THREE: Empower associates with AI-driven advice

Today’s most influential brands are using ‘behind the scenes’ bots in their contact centers to give AI-assisted suggestions to their human teammates, in real time. And these new ‘bot-human dream teams’ are revolutionizing the entire customer experience!

These next-gen contact center bots can monitor conversations (text and voice) between associates and customers, and parse through structured and unstructured data sources for the best answers – faster and better than any human ever could. So, customers get the exact information they want, right when they want it – without ever knowing there’s a bot in the background assisting with answers.

Assemble the dream team: Use ‘bots in the background’ to suggest next best actions and responses – in the moment – to improve average handle time (AHT) and first contact resolution (FCR).

FOUR: Cultivate empathetic customer-facing chatbots

Today’s digital-first consumers have little patience for bots that can’t understand what they’re saying or don’t know how to provide an accurate answer. So progressive contact center leaders will spend extra time training and testing AI internally before letting it interact with actual customers this year.

Providing an environment for back-and-forth training between bots and associates ensures AI is optimized before it’s customer facing. Many companies plan to encourage (and even incentivize) associates to act as customers and play with bots using both common customer inquiries and complex questions. Doing this allows customers to receive accurate answers faster in the channel they initiated contact with the brand.

Deliver chatbot booster: Use associates to refine and improve customer-facing chatbots to automatically shift the burden away from customers, so they can receive the best experience possible.

Intelligent automation in the contact center is here to stay

As AI, automation, chatbots, and virtual assistants became even more embedded into our daily lives in 2020, it’s foolish for brands to assume these technologies will stay stagnant in 2021. Innovation in technology moves at lightning speed and can become outdated and clunky very quickly. Use these four ways to tie technology and the human touch together to deliver a better customer experience than either can do alone – everywhere, every time.

NRF 2021: Trends that Retailers Bet will Outlast the Pandemic

Re-opening business after lockdown. Cafe is open and serving customers who keep the social distance

With 2020 in the rearview mirror, retailers are ready to embark on a new path forward. However, it’s impossible to look ahead without acknowledging the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed on retail businesses, their partners, and consumer expectations. At NRF 2021: Retail’s Big Show, retailers and industry experts shared insights and predictions for which retail trends are likely to last even after the pandemic fades.

Survive, Sustain, Strive
Prior to the pandemic, attempts to fuse online and in-store shopping into a seamless experience were far from uniform. In-store shopping was a physical and social experience whereas online shopping was largely transactional. When the pandemic hit, those experiences shifted when retailers moved into survival mode, noted Mitch Joel, founder of the consultancy Six Pixels Group, in an online presentation. “Suddenly, shopping in a physical space became very transactional,” he said. “No more browsing—you line up, pick up your purchase and leave.”

Online retailers, meanwhile, leaned into efforts to replicate the in-store experience with virtual reality tools that let shoppers try on clothes and jewelry from home and other innovations. Similarly, restaurants made improvements to their online ordering system and deliveries, making it an effortless experience.   

Customers have responded positively to the changes; many like the efficiency of buy-online-pickup-in-store, virtual fitting rooms, and fast deliveries. More than half (58%) of respondents indicated that they would like more digital interactions at a restaurant such as an interactive menu, the ability to place orders from a smartphone inside the restaurant, and AI recommendations, according to a global survey of more than 5K consumers commissioned by Gouvea Ecosystem, a business management consultancy. And 54% want more in-store digital interactions such as virtual mirrors and scannable packaging.

“The question is, which of these innovations will we keep?” Joel asked. “And if you take something away [that customers like] what does that say?” Answering these questions will be crucial as retailers shift from what Joel described as “survival mode to sustain mode to striving mode.”

Services are the new experience
Another example of an accelerated retail trend that is likely to stay is the shift toward services as an experience. “It’s not that experience is the new thing, it’s that services have become the new experience,” Joel said. What started as necessary services—curbside pickup, grocery delivery, and online classes—is morphing into a key way for companies to interact with customers and differentiate their brands.

Consider livestream shopping, which is promoting and selling products through live streams with influencers and other experts. Livestream shopping and shoppable videos have been around for several years but mainly as a gimmicky marketing tool.

“The pandemic accelerated our live selling features. [Even though] the stores were closed, we wanted to give that personal and interactive experience,” said Ophelia Ceradini, VP of digital technology at the Estée Lauder Companies, in an online panel discussion. Estée Lauder brand Clinique, for instance, hosted a livestream with “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke showing viewers her skincare and makeup routines. Viewers could click on each product as she used it and purchase it for themselves.   

Consumer response was especially strong when the company livestreamed sessions with a skincare or makeup expert, Ceradini said. “The education and shopping part really took off; consumers enjoyed engaging with our consultants and the instant gratification part of being able to immediately purchase [products].” Estée Lauder is continuing to expand its livestreams for other products, Ceradinia said. Makeup and skincare were a natural fit but the company is looking into other products—even fragrances, she added.  

Follow the customer
For retailers who haven’t already figured it out, it’s important to let the customer guide decisions. “It’s so important to follow the customer,” said Miya Knights, retail expert and author in an online discussion. “The customer has really spoken with where their money has gone.” The rise in mobile commerce shows mobile is key to customer-facing innovation, Knights continued. Even if mom-and-pop retailers can’t invest in a sophisticated mobile experience, the least they should do is make sure their stores can be found in a digital world. “Make sure your location is accurate on Google Maps, opening times are accurate,” she said.

Showrooming has also been turned on its head. Most consumers now enter stores with the intention to make a purchase versus browse and so retailers should plan for the discovery stage to take place digitally.
The key takeaway is that while the retail landscape was upended, retailers have an unprecedented opportunity to innovate the customer experience and deliver the reliability and convenience that customers crave. There’s no turning back.

A Coronavirus Survivor on What it Takes to Lead through a Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, prevention guidelines and restrictions can feel incredibly challenging. Eric Yaverbaum, CEO of Ericho Communications, knows firsthand what it is like to be stricken with the coronavirus while leading a company. He shared key insights and lessons for helping employees combat COVID-19 fatigue. The following is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.

So here we are in the ninth month of the pandemic and from what I understand, you contracted the coronavirus infection. Can you tell me what was it like recovering from it?

Awful, it’s as bad as you may have heard. You know, I was in bed for 29 days. I was pretty ill, I had an oxygen tank and I had five nights where I didn’t know if I could get air into my lungs. I mean, that’s five nights in a row where I’m thinking it was the last breath. So, you know not to be overly dramatic, but it’s awful.

The thing about it is, is that I stayed in bed. I took care of myself. I never, for a second lost hope. I was very, very transparent about my particular set of circumstances and in a 40-year career, this wasn’t the thing I wanted to be known for, for being, you know, the sick guy in bed. But I wanted people to know that there was help. You can get better, but take it serious and listen to what people, government officials are telling you to do, as confusing as that might be. Let’s get this under control. You don’t want what I had.

From your experience being a patient and an employer, what would you say was key to maintaining employee morale?

Leadership has to instill a little bit of hope, a little bit of confidence. You got to lean in, you got to make sure that you’re very, very transparent. My personal life in 40 years of being in the news has never been discussed nearly to the degree that it is now. I think it’s important that people know about that. I’m just like you, I don’t want to get sick. I don’t want my neighbor to get sick. I don’t want anybody in my family to get sick.

I’m also pragmatic and I’m a realist and I’ve been inspired by some historical figures in my life. Some of them, you know, I’ve represented. And, you know, I was always struck by Mr. Rogers, Fred Rogers’ testimony before Congress in ‘69, before there even was a PBS. And, you know, he said that in, in times of trouble, look for the helpers. If you see that they’re there you’ll know there’s hope. And I just want to be a helper.

Your headquarters is based in New York City—what’s your outlook for the coming year? When do you expect companies to return to pre-pandemic levels of business?

EY: I think they might not. I think it’s going to be different. Look, I’m biased. I think New York City is the greatest zip code on the planet, but I don’t think life will resume as it once was. I think it will be different in my industry for what we do. We actually don’t need those fancy conference rooms. We don’t need to pay the rent that we paid in the old days. We don’t need it as long as we can stay in touch, watch each other’s backs, play, you know, each of our individual roles. 

Listen to the whole interview at the CXPod.

In a Crowded Healthcare Industry, Stand Out with Stellar Patient Experience

Not that long ago, people had limited options when seeking healthcare: they went to their primary care doctor or, for more emergent needs, the local hospital. But these days, patients have a growing number of additional options: walk-in care centers, clinics located within retail pharmacies – even Amazon has entered the healthcare landscape.

As competition grows, so too are consumer expectations, meaning healthcare organizations must offer superior patient experience to stay relevant. Patients are increasingly savvy, and the healthcare industry needs to catch up, experts say.

“(Consumers) want things to be simple, they want things to be easy,” and they want a personalized experience, said Karen Andrews, vice president of customer experience and communications at TTEC during a recent CCW webinar, The Future of Patient Experience. “Of all the industries, healthcare is the most difficult [in which] to make that happen, yet we’re seeing those are the expectations of our consumers.”

Focus on the Patient Journey

“As the demographics are shifting in healthcare, people are coming armed with more knowledge,” said Stephanie Clark, chief learning officer at Tennessee-based Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corp. “They’re researching, they’re looking at what they need to know, they’re coming with options and they want to be involved in their care – and they’re demanding that we meet their expectations.”

Now that patients have more options to choose from, she added, “We’re going to have to either shift of we’re going to lose business.”

To offer a great patient experience, providers have to bring services and information to patients the way they want to receive them. And that, increasingly, is digital.

Among healthcare consumers, 86 percent of people who have access to online portals use them entirely for all their communications, and 90 percent use mobile apps when they’re made available. Nearly one-third, or 30 percent, have used an app to communicate with their providers in real time.

“That’s the way the world is going, and healthcare is going to need to pick up the pace to meet those expectations,” said Dr. Mark Kestner, chief medical officer at TractManager, a company that helps meet the infrastructure needs of hospitals and physician groups.

Investing in an omnichannel approach that focuses on the patient journey not only benefits patients, but will also pay dividends for healthcare organizations over the long term. Research has found that 86 percent of consumers, across all industries, will pay more for a better experience.

Patient Experience Starts with Employee Experience

To provide an optimal patient experience, organizations need to start by turning inward and focusing on their employees. How employees feel about their work and their employer – and whether they see it as an extension of themselves, or merely a means to a paycheck – can have a direct impact on patient experience.

As Clark puts it: “Unless your employees’ needs are met, they cannot begin to meet the needs of patients.”

Organizations should assess where teams thrive, where they struggle, and whether they even function as cohesive teams to begin with. Too often, Kestner said, employees tend to operate in separate silos, even within the same organization.

“Are the physicians part of the team? And do they see that the nurses are an extension of their practice? That is a very important point that you sort of have to observe first, and not just assume that physicians are part of the team,” he said.

Leaders should be transparent with their employees, Clark added. Explain to them what goals are and how the organization plans to meet them, and ask them how they feel about that. Employee feedback should be solicited regularly, and leaders should use that information to inform their processes, she said.

In an increasingly technical world, it’s also critical to embrace technology in a feasible way that will work for your organization. Technology tools and their resulting processes, if they’re ever going to be successfully embraced, need to be as simple as possible, Kestner advised.

Equally important is leaders’ willingness to accept feedback and, when necessary, tweak processes or change course, he said.

“You have to be willing, as a leader, to abandon what you thought was going to be the next great idea,” Kestner said. If it’s not meeting a team’s needs, make adjustments.

For patients and employees alike, he added, “Everyone wants to have a voice and they want to be heard.”

To hear more from Clark, Kestner and Andrews as they discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the healthcare industry when it comes to patient experience, watch the full webinar, “The Future of Patient Experience.”

Another Round of CX Happy Hour: 3 Employee Experience Tips for 2021

In 2020, we can always use another round of happy hour. Luckily, TTEC’s Liz Glagowski reunited with CX expert Dan Gingiss for their second LinkedIn Live ask me anything, EX for What’s Next: Most Standout Trends in Employee Experience for 2021.

Here’s a recap of Dan’s best insights for driving positive and productive employee experiences in their happy hour discussion. Cheers (again)!

Takeaway #1: Champion the champions

A memorable customer experience starts with employees who feel valued. No other business has the unique individuals that can champion your brand story, but this is meaningless if you don’t champion your employees. An employee who is not valued, represented, or does not believe in the values of their organization can just as easily, if not more, impact customer experience compared to those with positive experiences.

It’s critical to focus on the values your customers cherish and look inwards to see if that translates to your employees. Happy employees are your brand cheerleaders and it’s important to ensure that they are seen and heard.

This approach is for more than just customer-facing employees. Every job role has a direct and indirect impact on customers. Ensuring a healthy and proactive environment for front- and-back-office employees leaves no customer experience untouched. More importantly, you’re treating everyone how they deserve to be treated.

Takeaway #2: Level the playing field

The days of strict corporate hierarchy are for now over. The complete takeover of communication software like Zoom has ordained every individual to the same box, literally. This more direct form of communication has leveled the playing field for employees who want to communicate with their peers and leaders in a direct fashion that forgoes the hierarchy of the traditional workplace.

This is a prime opportunity for employees to share innovation and ideas within their organization. In a digital remote world everyone is in the same predicament, so there’s opportunity to find common ground and explore how to make the new-normal extraordinary. This starts with ditching the power dynamic and looking at each other eye-to-eye (webcam-to-webcam).

Takeaway #3: Embrace the tangible

Employees might be in a digital-first world, but there are still plenty of opportunities to create physical connections. The simple act of sending a card to celebrate a birthday, work anniversary, and more can create small moments of delight for employees who have come to expect everything in the form of an email.

This can even apply to team building games. Dan recollected one activity where everyone would be sent individual Starburst candies to rank amongst each other. Activities like these would fit perfectly into the remote environment where everyone can enjoy a break from instant fulfillment. Not every activity needs to be done at lighting-speed, sometimes it pays to take it slow and enjoy the moment.

Leaders who show appreciation for employees can go a long way, tangible items and activities are authentic and genuine way to bring people together.

Forge a better employee future

Organizations will return to normalcy at different rates, some will embrace a return to full officers and others may never come back. Each visitor at happy hour faced a different future, but the experiences that bring them together need to remain consistent regardless of locations. Tomorrow’s employee experiences lay in understanding and acting on how to make your brand worth championing for everyone.

If you’ll like to learn more about the trends shaping 2021 please visit our CX Trends: The 2021 Edition today.

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