Case Study: Evolent Health

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Healthcare services company Evolent Health wanted to better understand the nuanced needs of healthcare plan members (patients) it serves on behalf of its client insurers and healthcare groups. The company implemented NICE CXone Feedback Management to launch a comprehensive Voice of the Customer survey initiative with the goals of improving both customer experience and employee engagement.

01 THE BEFORE

Searching for meaning

Evolent Health has a great deal of data at its disposal about interactions with the healthcare consumers it serves on behalf of clients in commercial, individual, Medicare, and Medicaid markets. But beyond contact center operational metrics, Evolent struggled to surface valuable insights from those interactions.

Lacking a formal post-call survey process, Evolent found it difficult to categorize the reasons a caller might be dissatisfied, particularly those the organization could control (such as agent knowledge and call queue service levels) from those out of its control (including healthcare provider policies and benefit coverage decisions). Even first-call resolution (FCR) relied on a proxy measure of caller ticket status.

02 DESIRE TO CHANGE

A re-commitment to core values

Leadership changes at Evolent triggered a reexamination of the company’s stated priorities. It quickly became clear that the real-world caller experience didn’t perfectly align with Evolent’s goals, particularly when it came to listening and responding to needs. “Are we really listening? We obviously have data, we document calls, but it was all from the agent’s perspective. We were not getting the pulse or the voice of the customer,” said Christina Za, Evolent Health customer service vice president. “How can we call ‘listening’ one of our values if we’re not listening in all the ways we can?”

New senior management, including an incoming chief technology officer, encouraged the customer service operation to add resources as needed to expand and improve Evolent’s ability to listen and respond.

03 THE SOLUTION

Short surveys, long on opportunity

Working with NICE, Evolent Health implemented CXone Feedback Management to add two brief post-call surveys, including both multiple-choice and open-ended, freeresponse questions. The multiple-choice options poll on agent performance (including service quality, efficiency, and courtesy) and assess the resolution status of the inquiry, while the free-response section invites callers to expand on their experience with the agent.

Results can be flagged for coaching review and aid in rolespecific root cause analysis. Broader metrics are published on internal dashboards, which have been enhanced by a clearer understanding of real FCR and better granularity of Evolent’s contributions to overall customer satisfaction. Callers have opted in to the surveys at a high rate, providing a significant and broad range of responses and insights.

04 THE RESULTS

Seeing the bigger picture

Evolent acted quickly on the fresh Voice of the Customer insights. Survey data has uncovered new areas of focus for agent training and ongoing development, as well as product development suggestions Evolent shares with its healthcare clients. Evolent continues to refine its agent scorecard with the insights delivered through the survey process and uses positive feedback to encourage and recognize agents for superior service.

Putting the FCR question clearly in front of the caller has also radically changed Evolent’s understanding of true performance in that department. The caller-reported FCR figure was substantially higher than the rate Evolent calculated based on internal ticket handling, giving the operation a better understanding of true caller needs and outcomes. “The survey metric is infinitely more valuable as it is the most accurate predictor of customer satisfaction, and of the propensity of the caller to continue calling for the same issue,” Rolland said.

05 THE FUTURE

Multi-channel, automated insights on the horizon

The survey solution has remained a robust source of data even as Evolent brought in a major new client, tripling average daily call volumes. In the near future the company will expand the survey program to email and SMS channels and launch text analytics to derive more insights from free response answers. These insights will assist Evolent’s development of end-toend customer journey analytics.