(Originally published in
Healthcare Call Center Times in November 2020.)
PHOENIX, AZ—The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged hospitals to be creative in how they address the evolving needs of customers. Banner Health creatively used its Call Center to embrace this challenge in three very different ways.
Banner’s 230Care Call Center team handles class and event registration as well as physician referral for Banner Health. During the pandemic, the Call Center team took advantage of its existing LVM software to maximize its use and functionality. Banner created virtual classes providing enhanced flexibility for customers, adding online scheduling, and using the LVM database for reporting information. Also, they maximized the software to include ordering and shipping of branded merchandise.
The first change Banner made was with OB and Baby Care class registrations. According to Cippy Seidler, director of the Consumer Care Center, “Traditionally, the Call Center staff takes calls, processes the reservation, handles any payments, and sends rosters to the educators.” During this time, Banner Health canceled all in-person classes for safety reasons. Doing so resulted in a significant drop in class reservation call volume as well as a challenge to new parents who needed this vital information.
To address the unmet need, Seidler shared, “the Call Center team worked closely with the educators as they developed virtual classes for their customers and updated all the class information in LVM. The customers were then able to register online through Banner’s use of LVM’s WebLink API, or, if preferred, they could contact our team directly.” Banner’s Call Center staff also sent materials and handouts along with the person’s registration.
Seidler shared several benefits of virtual classes. First, the class instructors were able to meet their students where they wanted—at home. Second, class costs are lower for the customer. Third, online classes allow for significantly more attendance, a result Banner experienced.
Previously, Banner was limited to small classes of 15 or so people. With a virtual class, there can be 100 people in the same session, with the peace of mind of social distancing while pregnant. Now, they can complete their class or OB Department tour from the comfort of their home.
During pregnancy and birthing classes, due to the small class size, often the mom attended alone. Now the spouse or significant other can be on a computer together receiving the same information. Banner has experienced times when even grandparents are now enrolling to be able to support their sons and daughters.
The Call Center’s second significant change during this time involved successfully adding online physician scheduling. As the Call Center staff process a physician referral call, they now have the option to schedule the customer while they are on the call, thus minimizing additional transfers and providing an enhanced experience for the customer. To capture the data, Banner customized some of the fields in their software. These customizations allowed them to track the data and share the Call Center’s efforts and successes with others. While Banner’s traditional scheduling teams were busy assisting a larger than usual volume of customers during the pandemic, the Call Center’s agile, flexible team was able to assist.
Finally, Banner’s Call Center also used its creativity combined with LVM’s N-Centaurus to facilitate an all-employee shirt giveaway. The organization wanted to give a free t-shirt to all employees. Banner’s 230Care leader Matt Bakken shared that “it was not difficult for our hospital and clinic locations, as they are still working onsite, however, our Corporate employees are mostly working from home, making the process much more difficult.” To meet this need, Matt adapted the LVM class registration function into a shirt ordering and shipping website!
According to Matt, “We sent a link to all the employees for them to register for their shirt. After the employee entered their shipping information and selected a shirt size (a class), we ran a roster by size for the demographic information to ship the shirts.” With the success of this project, Banner is now looking to expand its offerings through LVM to other store products. Matt added, “This allows us to continue to utilize our existing tool in new and creative ways, maximizing the software that we already have.”