3 Ways To Ensure Your Telehealth Solutions are Set for Success

The success of telehealth hinges on an organization’s ability to create a superior customer experience.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth — a concept many healthcare professionals have been envisioning for years — has finally gained widespread acceptance and adoption. According to recent studies, telehealth utilization is currently 38X higher than before the pandemic and the United States’ telehealth market is estimated to increase seven-fold by 2025.

To meet the rising demand for these services, healthcare organizations of every shape and size must ensure they’re equipped with the right infrastructure and resources. As proven over the last several decades, three key actions must be taken to ensure success:

1. Generate Cross-Functional Buy-In from Caregivers

While telehealth may feel jarringly different from in-person care, end users must understand that it is a highly effective form of healthcare delivery and is an unquestionably better option than the possible alternative — no visit at all. 

According to Becker’s Hospital Review, more than two-thirds of hospital directors and executives believe that the success of telehealth hinges on an institution’s ability to gain buy-in from their physicians, nurses, aides, and administrative staff. Once these key players are aligned, they can present a unified message to patients — one that promotes the value of new telehealth software and devices to ensure trust and speedy adoption. 

To achieve buy-in:

• Identify challenges as a team: Allow all caregivers the space to address roadblocks to telehealth adoption to ensure they feel heard and respected. 
• Share the goal: By explaining why new devices and software are important to the organization, you help your team understand what you’re hoping to achieve with these new tools. 
• Be inclusive: When selecting new telehealth technology, include caregivers in the decision-making process to help them feel like an active part of the process. 

2. Provide 24 x7 Contact Center Support

Technical and even basic user errors can impact customer experience as individuals attempt to launch video applications, send digital signatures, and remember their passwords to online portals. 

For many organizations, the resulting flood of inbound calls, emails, texts, social media notifications, and live chat requests become too much to handle, resulting in a poor customer experience that can diminish adoption rates. Without establishing a process for delivering robust customer care (whether it’s in-house or outsourced), over-taxed healthcare associates become burnt out as they attempt to become contact center agents — a role they didn’t sign for nor is the best use of resources.

Establishing a system for 24/7 contact center support allows healthcare organizations to: 

Expand their services while supporting staff: Dedicated customer care representatives serve as an extension of a healthcare organization, alleviating the burden placed on overwhelmed staff and thus reducing staff turnover. 

Deliver scalable, omnichannel customer support: The robust customer care team has highly trained agents ready to manage end users’ questions and concerns 24 hours a day, seven days a week utilizing multiple communication channels.

Deliver a world-class customer experience: Today’s consumers demand knowledgeable, real-time support, and nearly 90% of them want to receive support from a live customer service agent. This capability can be built in-house or outsourced to a trusted, HIPAA-compliant service provider. Outsourcing can be an effective way to deliver a superior customer experience that can insulate against angry messages, negative headlines, and bad reviews without overburdening staff. When outsourcing, it’s important to find a partner that can protect the organization’s brand and reputation while providing world-class customer experience.

Provide multilingual support: Multilingual services are essential in today’s diversifying societies. Contact centers that provide multilingual contact center support and translation assistance for devices logistics and training programs ensure all individuals receive the services they need, the moment they need them.

3. Train Patients and Healthcare Workers Effectively 

When patients and healthcare workers struggle to implement home healthcare technology they quickly become frustrated, blaming the organization that provided them with the new software or hardware. This negative experience can damage the brand and reputation of an otherwise reputable organization — according to a report from Salesforce, 80% of customers believe that “the experience a company provides is just as important as its products or services.” 

To create a glowing customer experience, comprehensive and on-demand training for all stakeholders is key. Experienced trainers that provide embedded, just-in-time training equip end users with the skills and confidence needed to use remote patient monitoring devices and other tools correctly, leading to higher adoption rates and greater user satisfaction. 

Arming end users with personalized training upfront also minimizes the need for ongoing customer support, which in turn reduces support costs and allows employees to focus their efforts on your core business.  

Maximizing the Effectiveness of Telehealth Technologies

By leveraging telehealth technology, healthcare organizations have managed to not only maintain, but expand access to critical healthcare services while streamlining inefficient processes in the healthcare system.

Epiphany is a full-service, HIPAA-compliant customer care and client experience company providing services to public and private companies within the healthcare space. We understand that integrating new technologies into existing operations can be a daunting task, and we’re here to help. 

Our comprehensive approach encompasses everything from 24/7 remote technical support from highly trained U.S.-based agents to exhaustive device lifecycle management to ensure a superior customer experience at all times. Serving as an extension of your organization, we ensure you can focus on what matters most: delivering high-quality patient care. Contact us today to find out how we can bolster the success of your telehealth program.