. Call Center Staffing and Best Practices Case Study - Murtech Consulting

The Challenge

A large Medicare and Medicaid Provider was experiencing retention issues with perceived negative effects on quality and overall customer experience in their call center. With potential impact to quality and customer satisfaction ratings, Murtech quickly organized a task force to uncover areas for improvement. Murtech team looked at ways to enhance the customer’s overall quality improvement strategy by focusing on the “People” component in the call center, including:

  • Ensuring role clarity and expectations
  • Ideal talent identification
  • Selection and onboarding process

The Solution

Murtech’s experienced team collaborated with the customer’s call center leadership to understand and define in some cases, call center goals, critical success factors, and key performance Indicators. Once defined, the team focused on building a clear vision of the role and its expectations with an emphasis on providing a member-centric experience. Key characteristics included quality communicator, being able to project a positive image, listening skills, and a commitment to detail.

Armed with a clear vision of the role and its expectations, as well as the ideal candidate profile, Murtech leveraged its first-in-class recruiting platform to find a pool of candidates for the call center. Knowing that enhancing selection process was an area of opportunity, Murtech team deployed a customized interview process tailored to the key characteristics of the ideal profile. A rigorous testing program was introduced to provide further qualification in narrowing down the candidate pool ensuring capability. Once testing was complete, a highly qualified candidate is presented to the customer for an in-person interview. Finally, Murtech implemented a new onboarding process with detailed checklists and communication plans to ensure the process is seamless to both candidate and customers.

By implementing a seemingly simple process, the client has realized significant improvements in the call center.

The Results

High turnover creates the need for hiring and training new staff which in turn increases operational costs and can lower the average level of experience on the team. Prior to engaging Murtech, retention rates of the call center were at just 33% with operational costs out of control. After implementing this program, the retention rates are up to 60% after just six months with the expectation that it will continue to climb much higher. Murtech is working with the customer to help measure, manage, and improve key performance metrics defined with the customer. It is expected that call center will reduce calls per 1,000 members by at least 25%, decrease the average number of calls necessary to resolve an issue, and increase overall member experience and satisfaction. With a clear view into value and what success looks like, Murtech implemented a program that is cost effective, provides the right staff who are committed to the organization, and ultimately increases the likelihood for a better member experience.