In the first 30 seconds of a patient’s interaction with your health system, you have set the tone for the remainder of their engagement – for better or worse. First impressions count.
In healthcare, 70% of people’s first point of contact is over the phone. The first 30 seconds is often spent pressing buttons on an IVR or waiting on hold to reach an agent or operator. When callers finally connect to a member of the support team, live representatives are often over-burdened and overwhelmed with the number of callers still waiting in the queue.
According to a Harvard study, it typically takes 8 subsequent positive encounters to overcome a negative first impression.
At Parlance, we believe in great first impressions. Since 1996, hundreds of health systems, higher education institutions, and enterprises have relied on us to modernize call handling and call routing, minimize caller effort, and reduce operational costs. As caller advocates, we make those 30 seconds simple and easy. Parlance blends Automatic Speech Recognition, Natural Language Understanding, and Conversational AI, enabling callers to speak naturally and connect quickly.
Health systems nationwide subscribe to Parlance so patients can access care without the friction and frustration that typical automated solutions present. Now, we’re taking it even further, improving the first few steps of the calling experience. Parlance verifies patient identity and passes information directly to agents. This shaves off redundant work for the contact center team, such as:
- Authenticating callers with custom verification requirements
- Asking specific health screening questions
- Recognizing upcoming patient appointments, confirming or canceling them as needed
- Sending SMS messages with directions directly to patients, including links to mapping services
Every day, people call hospitals to say the same thing hundreds of different ways, such as asking about an appointment, a bill, or to refill a prescription medication. Parlance simplifies the experience for callers by answering with the phrase “how may I help you today?” Patients can speak naturally and easily get to the resource they need.
By taking 35-65% of routine calls away from valuable live support teams, first call resolution and overall work force management are both significantly improved. Our technology solution is revolutionary for both operators AND call center agents. Parlance enables agents, who are overwhelmed from searching for information between 2-5 different screens, to transition to a single-pane-of-glass. This efficiency frees up resources to attend to patients with complex service needs, getting them to a person faster. From a patient perspective, callers are more satisfied and receive better care.
Make a better impression on your calling community; step into the future with Parlance.
About Parlance
For over 25 years, organizations nationwide have depended on Parlance to modernize and improve the first 30 seconds of every caller’s journey and remove barriers to service. With Parlance, people can speak naturally and connect directly to the resources they need. No confusing menus, no numbers to press, no long hold times. Parlance relieves the burden of routine transfers and poor self-service, so business operations are optimized, and live agent effort is saved for more complex calls.
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This post was originally published by Parlance.
