Reducing phone calls is an important key to saving money. The 2020 CAQH Index says that automating a user’s medical claim status inquiry (in lieu of manually resolving it) could provide $11.71 in savings per inquiry!
But reducing phone calls is about more than just saving time and money; it’s also key to your customer relations and your company reputation. Customers don’t like slow, phone-based service, just as much as you don’t enjoy the tension of customer complaints about hold times and slow service. And deep down, you know that slow customer service reputations will impact your company’s overall reputation.
HPS knows how critical call reduction is to your reputation and to the efficiency of your business operations. That’s why we developed several online tools to help you prevent common questions from reaching your customer service phone lines.
Reducing your Customer Service call volumes is achievable, and it can be done using multiple methods. Here are the top 5 ways to reduce your Customer Service call volumes with your web portal.
1: Make Information Accessible Online and on Mobile.
This sounds intuitive but is often overlooked. Many callers call simply because they cannot find what they’re looking for, whether it’s an EOB or flexible spending data which is in another portal. By consolidating all of your data, portals, and vendors into one portal, you can create a centralized place where your stakeholders can find the information they need. When they can find it in your portal, they won’t call you to request it.
2: Use the Secure Mailbox to Funnel Questions to Your Team.
When questions do come up, make the secure mailbox your first line of defense in managing those questions. The Secure Mailbox lets users submit questions to you through secure email rather than through phone call. The Secure Mailbox can be accessed in 4 different parts of your portal, giving your users many opportunities to choose that communication method before they choose the phone. This will keep your call volumes low while also helping you address questions efficiently.
3: Make Sure Users Can Navigate Your Portal in Another Language.
If a user speaks another language and they can’t find their way around your portal, they’ll call you. The HPS Internationalization solution lets you translate tab names, button names, and other web page labels into the user’s preferred language. This makes information easier for your non-English speaking users to find, reducing the need for them to call you for help.
4: Use Live Chat to See What Your Users are Seeing.
It can be hard to answer a caller’s question when you can’t see what they’re looking at. Live chat lets you use screen sharing to see what your user sees so you can answer their question quickly and adequately. Whether through screen sharing, instant messaging, or translating chats to other languages, live chat empowers you to answer questions on-the-spot and prevent phone calls.
5: Fax Claims and Eligibility Updates to Providers.
While many providers have embraced technology, there are still many who avoid it – and choose to call you instead. For those providers who still habitually call you, divert them to the HPS Provider Faxback. This lets providers use an automated, phone-based process to request a fax of claim status and eligibility. Faxback is a good first line of defense for those providers who still want to call, and it saves your Customer Service efforts for the more complex provider calls.
The portal offers many ways for stakeholders to get answers to their questions without calling you. By being proactive in offering these alternative methods, your team will experience reduced call volumes, shorter call hold times, happier clients, and a stronger company reputation.
Schedule a Demo to see how you can use the HPS portal to reduce calls and communicate more efficiently with your stakeholders.