Case Study: University-based Health Care Center

CUSTOMER PROFILE

THE CHALLENGE

Before implementing NICE CXone, the organization used an on-premises system that was inflexible, lacked necessary functionality and was nearing its end of life.

The system had many limitations. It couldn’t integrate with other internal systems, such as the EPIC electronic medical records (EMR) platform or the organization’s CTI system. The SMS text system was from another vendor, which created inefficient processes and made it difficult to monitor how many texts were being sent.

“It was a pure telephony-based system,” says Miguel Ramos, president and COO of Precision Point Partners, which helped the health care organization choose a new cloud contact center solution and implement CXone. “It didn’t have an outbound dialer or omnichannel capabilities.”

Even though it lacked in features, upgrading the system was an expensive proposition. “It required a costly ‘forklift’ upgrade,” he explains. “The organization was also incurring other expenses, such as updating the hardware on an ongoing basis and performing regular system maintenance, because Cisco was an on premises solution.”

Additionally, IVR routing was extremely complex due to an elaborate mix of criteria that were followed to route calls to the appropriate agent. “The IVR had over 700 skills,” explains Miguel. “Average speed of answer and abandon rates were high because calls couldn’t quickly be routed to the correct agent. And it didn’t have callback functionality, so patients either waited on hold or hung up.”

The on-premises system also didn’t have scheduling functionality, so schedules were created in Excel and Power BI, a business intelligence reporting tool that required the IT team’s help. Schedules couldn’t be updated in real time, and common occurrences, like updating it for an agent’s last-minute doctor appointment, were difficult.

THE SOLUTION

Gained far more functionality while saving $500,000 annually

One of the biggest wins was gaining far more functionality with CXone at a much lower cost. “The organization is now saving $500,000 annually due to improved operational efficiencies and volume licensing,” explains Miguel. “They also eliminated paying for a separate SMS solution, and there’s no longer the need to buy hardware upgrades, because CXone runs in the cloud.”

It’s a win-win, because the organization is not only saving a great deal of money each year, but it also gained significantly more functionality. “Gaining added capabilities, such as omnichannel, work-force management, outbound dialer and more for a reduced cost is tremendous,” says Miguel.

Integrating Personal Connection dialer with EMR increases outbound efficiency

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CXone’s scalability made it easier to maintain business continuity. “We can essentially set up ‘pop-up’ contact centers in any location with CXone,” says Miguel. “We moved 400 agents to working from home in just 72 hours. With CXone, agents can now be located anywhere, which is a huge benefit.”

CXone Personal Connection was a critical factor in enabling the expansion of outbound interactions by 1,000% during the pandemic. By integrating SMS for CXone with CXone Personal Connection, an outbound dialer, the process of sending text messages is far more efficient and less time-consuming.

“It’s a pretty sophisticated system,” says Miguel. “CXone sends a text to a patient, and then we’ll receive a confirmation from the carrier letting us know if it was received. If it wasn’t, we assume the patient’s phone number is a landline, so we then use Personal Connection to leave a voice message. This helps ensure we’re reaching our patients using a variety of channels.”

Using CXone APIs, the health care system’s EMR is integrated with Personal Connection for auto-matically sending out patient notifications such as appointment reminders. Miguel explains how it works: “The agent schedules the appointment in the EMR, and at specific intervals, that information is sent via API to Personal Connection, which automatically delivers a reminder by text or phone.”

Using scripts to customize the CXone IVR was key in creating a positive customer experience and reducing abandonment by 65% and average speed of answer by 54%. “The call routing is very complex—the IVR has over 700 skills,” explains Miguel. “Calls are routed based on a lot of factors. For instance, let’s say a patient wants to schedule an appointment with an orthopedic doctor who is doing grant research on medical issues with the left elbow. The IVR has the intelligence to quickly route the caller to the right agent who can schedule that appointment.”

Improved scheduling increases real-time adherence

Agent scheduling no longer needs to be done manually using Excel and Power BI. With CXone Workforce Management, the contact center team can set up and manage schedules themselves, and they no longer need to involve the IT team.

“One of the biggest benefits of CXone Workforce Management is the fact that we can track impor-tant metrics, like adherence, in real time,” says Miguel. “The team was really excited to manage their operations using real-time adherence. It gives them much needed visibility that they didn’t have before.”

Clearly, the health care organization has realized some outstanding benefits with CXone. “We’ve achieved an amazing level of business continuity during the pandemic,” says Miguel. “We quickly moved agents to working from home and had the flexibility to set up new contact centers whenever and wherever we needed to.”

CXone has also enabled the organization to meet all of its original objectives for a new cloud con-tact center solution. “We’ve reached almost every goal, including cost savings and operational im-provements. NICE CXone ticked every single one of the checkboxes we had from a business standpoint.”