March 16, 2016
For almost three years, Mindsight has worked with a local healthcare contact/call center in Chicago refining and customizing the solution to fit their precise needs. In every environment, there is a story, and the story of our involvement with this organization illustrates an important reality about technology and the nature of IT consulting.
The Problem Before Mindsight’s Involvement
Before this healthcare company was our client, they dropped their previous contact center platform because it failed to deliver the service levels and functionality they needed. Instead, they opted for a new contact/call center hoping it would fare better. This was an substantial investment in new software licenses and consulting fees for over 3 years.
The new contact center needed substantial customization to accommodate over 1,100 agents and integrate with an enterprise telephony platform developed by a different manufacturer. For the next four years, the healthcare company cycled through technology consultants, escalated tickets to both technology manufacturers, and accrued an enormous amount of undocumented custom coding in an attempt to fix integration problems and provide a seamless patient experience.
Despite all these efforts, the contact/call center system still struggled with multiple persistent issues and maintaining expected service levels. Frustrated, our client nearly made the decision to rip out their newly purchased contact/call center and install a new contact center software. This initiative would have cost between three and five million dollars with no guarantee that the same problems that caused them to switch platforms in the first place wouldn’t come back.
It was at this critical stage that Mindsight was assigned the project.
One Solution Focused on Three Areas
When the Mindsight engineers came on board, our focus was threefold. First, we homed in on understanding the client’s business needs, where their contact/call center fit into that dynamic, and how we could simplify the environment. Next, we had a responsibility to deliver a level of customer service that was superior to their previous technology provider.
With these two approaches working in concert, Mindsight was able to deliver a single, effective solution to their immediate problems. From there, we developed a roadmap for future projects to improve the environment.
Addressing Problems:
First, we took the list of ongoing problems with the system and one by one began to address them. By working to simplify the custom coding provided by previous IT consultants, our engineers were able to eliminate issues and establish a functional level of compatibility between their call-processing software and the contact center platform. Additionally, we implemented call recording and quality management with scoring to help the contact/call center managers better train their staff and improve the customer experience.
Customer Service and customer empowerment:
With all of our client’s, Mindsight strives to be as responsive as we can, and this healthcare provider was no different. The previous technology consultants was often slow to respond and slow to react to problems. Drawing contrast between them and Mindsight, our team addressed and fixed issues within the hour whenever possible. Mindsight focused on simplifying the contact environment and training the customer to handle most changes by themselves.
Future Projects:
After initially stabilizing their environment, Mindsight has continued to work with this client for almost three years to find further improvements. Currently, we are implementing Work Force Management and we are in the process of completely de-customizing all the call routing, to allow for easier changes in an ever changing patient journey. EMR integration and self-service are next on the list. Once complete, this healthcare provider will be empowered to make their own changes to the environment as the need arises.
Why Was Mindsight Successful?
We share this story because it brings to light one of the real truths in IT consulting.
Sometimes it’s not your depth of knowledge that matters. Sometimes it’s your breadth.
Our client sent support request after support request to their previous consultants and the technology manufacturers to no avail. No one that they were working with could figure out how to make their call-processing software and their contact/call center platform compatible.
While Mindsight does possess an in-depth understanding of Interactive Intelligence’s contact/call center solution, that isn’t exactly why we found success. It is because we have the same level of expertise with both contact center systems that we were able to establish compatibility and integration. No technology works in isolation, and at Mindsight, we understand the importance of mastering this interconnectivity in technology.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for an emerging business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
About The Author
Siobhan Climer, Science and Technology Writer for Mindsight, writes about technology trends in education, healthcare, and business. She previously taught STEM programs in elementary classrooms and museums, and writes extensively about cybersecurity, disaster recovery, cloud services, backups, data storage, network infrastructure, and the contact center. When she’s not writing tech, she’s writing fantasy, gardening, and exploring the world with her twin two-year old daughters. Find her on twitter @techtalksio.
For Further Reading
Case Study: Voice and Contact Center Support in Three Phases