Contact Center Launch and Technology Implementation

Case Study

A state agency responsible for launching the servicing of new benefits to constituents including standing up a contact center and implementing new technology.

CHALLENGES

The state agency is creating a digitally native and customer-centric organization to support Paid Family and Medical Leave. The agency services claimants’ applications and claims processing of benefits associated with Bonding, Medical, Caring, and Military leave.

ZELUS APPROACH

Zelus is working with the state agency across business operations with a focus on business process design, operational readiness, staff training, and project management.

RESULTS

Define the business operation and design key processes across the claimant experience.
Build the operational business workflows to support staff work in vendor applications.
Advise operations team on process, organization, and workflow design.
Identify requirements for technical applications. Solution with teams to ensure requirements can be met and the system design meets the needs of the operation.
Test the technical applications being developed through months-long agile development program. Ensure business operations can be supported through technical capabilities.
Ensure end-to-end alignment of the technical applications and business operation.
Identify gaps and document business processes to support staff.
Lead business simulation testing. Prepare material for end-user testing, train testers, and execute simulations. Document results and identify gaps.
Create and deliver comprehensive training programs for internal staff and staff at the contact center partner.

Change Management and Learning Design For Technology Implementation

Case Study

A state agency providing motor vehicle registration services to constituents was given a mandate to replace their 30-year old operating system with modern technology. In addition, new federal mandates and new processes needed to be incorporated simultaneously in the implementation of the new system over a 3-year time frame.

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Multi-Site Primary Care Patient Experience Transformation

Case Study

A large regional primary care organization providing exceptional primary and specialty care services at more than 20 locations to residents of the Bronx and Westchester County.

CHALLENGES

The organization was looking to transform the patient experience at their 23 primary care offices in the Bronx, New York. They wanted to identify and prioritize the roadmap of initiatives and implement them based on priority.

ZELUS APPROACH

Conducted an assessment across the organization and developed a roadmap of initiatives that would positively impact the patient experience across all 23 primary care offices. The client engaged Zelus to implement three prioritized initiatives valued at over $3 million in financial benefits.

RESULTS

Zelus worked with the client to:
- Improve the CAHPS survey scores regarding timely communication of lab results
- Implement a Shared Services team to centralize back-office administrative work to unburden the patient-facing staff
- Improve the patient experience by aligning the right work with the right staff resulting in removing unnecessary administrative work from both clinical and non-clinical personnel.
To significantly increase patient satisfaction and the financial incentives received due to higher satisfaction CAHPS scores, conducted a comprehensive assessment of how (communication vehicle) and how often patients are advised of their lab results within 7 days:
- Observed the current process; and engineered an improved process to communicate patient lab results that reduced physician review time by 75%.
- Analyzed and developed business requirements to the EPIC application to automate the process.
- Identified vendor print distribution solution and developed business requirements to automate the end-to-end process to print 500,000+ letters annually.
Conducted an operational assessment of administrative work at 23 primary care centers to identify non-patient-facing work, (e.g.: rescheduling appointments) to move from the sites to a central support team allowing sites to focus on the patient in person. Created the role and responsibilities for a dedicated central team, as well as standard policies and procedures to drive the delivery of exceptional patient experience across the organization. Developed and conducted planning and delivery of communications, training, and go-live support to drive adoption of this transition of work.
Conducted an operational assessment of the major patient-facing functions of the primary care facilities (e.g.: Referrals, Sick Appointments, Lab Results, Prescriptions Requests, Appointment Access) to align the right work with the right people. Streamlined the processes, aligned the use of the technology; and developed the communication and training plans for each role. Improved the patient experience through operational excellence.

Contact Center Operational Consulting and Instructional Design

Case Study

The country’s longest running state-based marketplace established to provide high-value, affordable health coverage to individuals and small businesses.

CHALLENGES

The agency was in the midst of replacing their contact center vendor and implementing a premium billing vendor and was seeking operational and training expertise to assist with the implementation.

ZELUS APPROACH

The agency engaged Zelus to assess the current state call center operations versus the future state call center operations to identify process gaps and recommend call center organization. Zelus was further engaged to assess and build a wide variety of training to service the complex health, dental enrollment, and billing systems as well as lead the effort to create the future state standard operating procedures across all departments.

RESULTS

Provided a current state assessment of the call center workflows and team organization and made recommendations to reduce handoffs in the future state.
Developed a 5-day comprehensive curriculum and content for the Back-Office Document Verification Call Center Team.

The curriculum was new and source material was limited. Highlights of the curriculum included simulated eLearning of the Document Verification system applications which allowed learners hands-on practice for the first time.
Agents also learned how to evaluate multiple types of documents as proof of eligibility. Hands-on activities were a much-needed value-add readying the agents to service customers.
The agency’s Training Manager commented that content went from non-existent to state-of-the-art.

Zelus was engaged to project manage the completion of 175 Standard Operating Procedures across 100+owners including internal staff, and two vendors.

Only about 10% of the work was complete and the deadline was looming. Zelus fast-tracked the delivery by creating templates; conducting vendor training on how to write SOPS; reviewing each SOP process and handoffs with Owners; and editing about 70% of the SOPs.
Zelus had minimal contact with most owners prior to project start; and was able to use their operational and system design expertise to lead the owners through the process to create high-quality SOPs.
Ninety-five percent of the SOPs were delivered before the deadline. Those that were not complete were waiting for process decisions or technology updates.

Contact Center Business Process Improvement Assessments and Training Implementation

Case Study

The state’s Technology Services and Security Office whose mission is to use the best technology, design, and data to make every interaction with the state’s government simpler, faster, and more meaningful.

CHALLENGES

The state has several contact centers servicing specific constituent needs such as unemployment assistance, motor vehicle registration and licensing, and secondary education. The Technology Services and Security Office was looking to improve the overall constituent experience across the state.

ZELUS APPROACH

Zelus conducted comprehensive operational assessments for three state agency contact centers. We created a roadmap of improvements to deliver an enhanced customer experience. The projects provided agency-specific and global recommendations that spanned the state’s contact centers.

RESULTS

Developed detailed roadmaps for agencies servicing unemployment, motor vehicles, and secondary education to achieve short-term launch efficiencies and long-term operational vision for the contact centers.
Provided scalable and agency-specific recommendations. Identified areas of opportunity for state contact centers to collaborate to provide impactful solutions to standardize and improve the customer experience.
Completed a needs assessment and defined a centralized delivery model to provide contact center training to agencies across the state.
Developed the Agent Communication and Empathy classroom training focused on improving customer service empathy within eight state entities. The program was developed to allow classes with agent attendance from multiple agencies to reduce call wait time for constituents.
Revised the program to enable virtual training across the state due to COVID-19 workplace restrictions. Created a delivery plan that included agency and agent readiness (equipment and applications) for virtual delivery for approximately 900 people. No department in this project had previously conducted virtual training in this manner.
Developed a blended-model Coaching and Operational Planning for the 125 managers and supervisors. Revised the learning to be fully virtual due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Created a virtual course to set the foundations for effective change management in the contact center environment entitled “Becoming a Business Architect”. The course is intended for 125 mid-managers and supervisors. The course teaches leaders how to actively participate and take responsibility for their role in successful project implementations and focuses on team readiness to not only proactively participate in shaping change, but successfully absorbing changes into the operation.