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Throw those binders out!In the health system contact center, knowledge is king. When callers dial in, they need information, and let’s not mince words here: sometimes it’s a real roll of the dice to be connected to a knowledgeable agent that can provide the correct information and quickly. Some answers come from veterans who have been in place long enough to know everything, other information can be new to everyone if changes have recently been made.

For this reason, a searchable, easy-to-update knowledge base will make all the difference and improve the customer satisfaction and first call resolution rates, and can reduce the average call length. A knowledge base is the tool that gives all agents, regardless of how many years worked at the company, access to the information needed to help callers.

A knowledge base is designed to include anything and everything that will help an agent provide accurate answers to customers and patients. Directions to labs once inside a hospital, appointment availability, whether a physician is accepting new patients, and existing marketing campaigns are all the different types of information that can be placed into a knowledge base. Patients feel secure knowing they can simply call one number to get answers. A functioning knowledge base is a key to improved customer service.

Because agents are required to find answers to wildly different questions but do not have access to a knowledge base, we see too many contact centers with giant binders full of flyers, forms, maps, print-outs, handouts, and who knows what else. We don’t love binders. Whatever else is stuffed in them, chances are high that the information is outdated, and perhaps has been outdated for some time. When a caller asks for information, it takes time to physically flip through the pages to find the answer. If only an agent could search for a keyword and have the pages related to that search pop up. Would that they could! Except we have the technology now to do just that. By moving this information online into a searchable knowledge base, all agents have access to the same information and can get answers to patients quicker, and now those patients can be on their merry way sooner. That also frees up the agents to take more calls. It’s time to look into a knowledge management solution. Might we suggest our very own PowerBase®?

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