Prepare Your Customer Service Representatives for Success

It’s no secret that your organization’s customer service representatives play a key role in patient satisfaction. But you may not realize the powerful role CSRs can play in increasing patient payment outcomes.

As part of your team responding to patient inquiries, CSRs are in a perfect position to facilitate payments. But to do so, they need to be equipped with the right information and technologies – especially now as many customer service teams are having to work from home.

Start by giving CSRs access to the payment portal used by your patients. Then your CSRs will be empowered to recommend the same consistent payment options that are offered via the system’s automated channels. No matter whether it means recommending a payment in full, a prescribed payment plan, or financial assistance, CSRs receive the right information about each patient at the right time.

Next, make sure the portal provides dynamic scripting to guide CSRs through productive, empathetic conversations with patients regarding payments. The messaging should be carefully crafted and configured into the portal with the goal of a payment action happening during the call.

Finally, and perhaps most important, make sure you have ample and secure methods for taking a payment during the call. The ideal way to do this is by integrating an assisted payment capability. Assisted payment gives your CSRs the ability to send each patient to a safe, secure payment environment before ending the call. It should also enable them to re-connect after the payment is made and gather the patient’s digital preference before ending the call.

Ideally, assisted payment includes multiple channels for the patient to choose from. This means providing options for connecting the patient to a secure IVR system to enter credit card or ACH information, or sending an encrypted link via email or SMS so they can pay within the secure patient payment portal.

Patients can choose the method they prefer, any of which will serve to complete the payment process quickly during the call. Of course, all payment methods must ensure that credit card numbers or ACH information are not spoken out loud to an agent, giving patients greater peace of mind and increasing the likelihood that they will make a payment.

Assisted payment applications provide the ultimate self-serve payment experience while alleviating PCI compliance risk. Best of all, assisted payment is a funnel for single-call resolution, all steered by your CSRs and captured for tracking and reporting in your payment portal system.