How to Strategically Manage and Reduce Cost per Contact at Your Health Call Center
In today’s fast-paced healthcare environment, understanding cost per contact is crucial for managing and optimizing operations in a medical call center. Cost per contact is a key metric that represents the total operational costs divided by the number of contacts handled by the center. This figure includes all forms of communication, such as calls, emails, and other digital interactions.
Optimizing Contact Center Efficiency
The ideal cost per contact for a contact center should align with industry standards while ensuring efficiency and a high medical call center CSAT score. To maintain a competitive edge, centers must strive to minimize their costs without compromising on the quality of patient care. Regularly benchmarking against similar organizations can help identify areas for cost reduction and performance enhancement.
Calculating Cost per Contact in Health Call Centers
To understand how to calculate cost per contact in a call center, begin by aggregating all operating expenses. These include:
- Salaries
- Technology costs
- Facility expenses
- Overhead associated with running the center
Once you have this total, divide it by the annual number of contacts handled, which should include not only voice calls but also emails, chat messages, and any other forms of patient interactions.
For instance, if a call center’s total operating costs are $1 million and they handle 200,000 contacts in a year, the cost per contact would be $5.
Strategies to Reduce Cost per Contact
Several tactics can effectively reduce the average cost per call at a call center. Implementing an optimized Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system can direct patients quickly and accurately, reducing the workload on human agents. Skill-based routing ensures that inquiries are directed to the most appropriate agent, improving resolution times and reducing costs.
Moreover, incorporating technologies like self-service portals and chatbots can significantly decrease the number of routine calls handled by agents, thereby lowering costs.
Other operational improvements include:
- Regular training for agents to handle calls more efficiently.
- Investing in robust analytics to monitor and improve call center performance continually.
These steps not only reduce costs but also enhance the overall patient experience, potentially improving your center’s health call center CSAT score.
Let’s Talk Health
Effectively managing the cost per contact is vital for the sustainability and success of healthcare call centers. By implementing strategic cost control measures and optimizing operational efficiencies, health call centers can provide excellent patient service while maintaining control over expenses. For dedicated patient care coordination and efficient handling of your healthcare communication needs, reach out to Sequence Health. Together, we can ensure your communication strategies align perfectly with your patient care objectives.
Read more: Understanding Healthcare Call Center Best Practices