Prevent Agents From Giving Outdated Advice When Procedures Change at a Medical Practice

Right now, things are changing every day.

Company policies, national policies, world-wide policies––everything is affecting how you do business and how your agents are supposed to handle calls. So, when policies and procedures are changing all the time, what's the best approach for communicating those changes to your call agents?

It ain't Zoom, Slack, or email!

In the video below, I show you how to use Interactive Conversation Flows to make sure changes to policies and procedures are applied to each and every phone call. The example is of a call agent scheduling a doctor's appointment.

Messaging Apps Fall Short When Communicating Policy/Procedure Changes

Right now, call agents are working from home and trying to figure out how to keep the kids quiet/occupied, stop the dog from barking, when to pick up groceries, and all the other things going on right now as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The LAST thing your agents need to worry about is "What was that thing Tom sent yesterday? Does that apply to this situation?"

Look, messaging apps are great for keeping in touch with your agents and coaching them through change. But, they are terrible for communicating changes around your policies, procedures, and processes.

Your agents will not remember to apply the new policy and procedure that you told them over Zoom, Slack, or email during every call that requires it. It's humanly impossible. And if they do remember to check their notes, handle times skyrocket as they search through old emails and chat conversations.

Ditch the messaging apps for communicating changes to policies and procedures.

Use Interactive Conversation Flows Instead

A better way to communicate changes is by using what ScreenSteps calls Interactive Conversation Flows – a tool that guides agents through any caller scenario.

For example, let's pretend that an agent working at a medical practice gets a call about scheduling a doctor's appointment. Well, for a while, people with flu-like symptoms couldn't be tested for COVID-19 unless they met specific criteria. Below is an Interactive Conversation Flow that would have guided a call agent through that situation.

Pretend that you are a call agent and the person on the other end of the phone just said, "Yes" to the appointment being for them > "Flu-like Symptoms" > "Over 65" > and "No" to coming in contact with somebody who tested positive for COVID-19.

How you should respond?

Well, the pandemic has changed and your medical practice just changed its policy for testing individuals with flu-like symptoms. And since the policy changed, the process call agents must follow has also changed.

Before being enlightened by this blog article, you would have sent out an email or run a web meeting explaining what to do. But now you have Interactive Conversation Flows, so all you do is modify the existing Interactive Conversation Flow so that agents apply the changes perfectly every time.

Again, pretend that you are a call agent and the person on the other end of the phone just said, "Yes" to the appointment being for them > "Flu-like Symptoms." 

No matter how many agents you have, no matter what time of day they work, every agent will handle this call perfectly because they won't have to remember anything or shuffle through old emails. They'll just follow the step-by-step instructions in the Interactive Conversation Flow.

Don't Dread Changes

Sometimes, changes can be really difficult for managers and call center agents. Mistakes and outdated information being shared can be a real headache.

But with Interactive Conversation Flows, all you need to do is make an update in one location and suddenly, everybody can apply the changes. If you want to run a Zoom meeting or send out an email to announce the change, no problem. Just demonstrate how to go through the new Interactive Conversation Flow over the web conference or include a link in the email. Nobody will need to rely on memory to implement the new process.

And when the changes hit next week (and next month), just rinse and repeat. Update your Interactive Conversation Flows and your agents will immediately begin implementing the right changes.