Case Studies / Contact Center Training

Training Redesign Helps Leading Healthcare Insurance Provider Improve Member and Provider Experiences, Increase First Contact Resolution, and Decrease Average Handling Time

Healthcare Industry

Challenge

• A leading healthcare insurance provider engaged Northridge to redesign their new hire training program to ensure contact center associates had the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver accurate, personalized service and provide great experiences for both members and providers.

• Multiple gaps had been identified in the previous training program and the materials that were available were not easy to access or use, leading to frustration among frontline associates.

• The training content was to be tailored to the unique requirements of frontline teams from three business groups: Medicaid Member Services, Marketplace Member Services, and Provider Services.

• The objectives of the redesign included improved member and provider experiences, increased first contact resolution (FCR), decreased time to proficiency and average handling time (AHT) for new hires, and reduced attrition.

Approach

• Northridge redesigned training programs for both facilitators and newly hired frontline associates, ensuring that all training content and materials were delivered in a new format for more efficient access and consumption.

• The new programs included lesson plans for facilitators as well as learner guides for newly hired frontline associates covering the skills necessary for delivering great member and provider experiences. The plans were formatted with basic knowledge, then directed learners to the topic in the knowledge base for policies and procedures, for easy access by both the member and provider services teams. The training redesign:

  • Targeted content that is truly needed and will be retained

  • Defined learning objectives and provided practical applications so learners could practice skills

  • Structured content around member/provider interaction types (reason for contact)

  • Tailored content to the unique requirements of the frontline teams from three business groups

  • Trained associates to use tools and resources effectively and to know how and where to look up the details

• Northridge trained facilitators how to utilize the lesson plan and learner guide to help drive engagement and learning retention with associates. Associates could easily locate the information they needed in the knowledge management database so that learning could be accomplished more quickly and efficiently, which motivated the teams to learn more and decreased new hire time to proficiency.

Business Impact

• The training redesign effectively addressed the learning objectives for frontline representatives and positioned them to deliver service to members and providers with higher accuracy, effectiveness, and efficiency.
• The training modules were so easy to use that associates went through lessons more quickly, which significantly decreased their time to proficiency and reduced new hire attrition.
• As the associates became more confident in their abilities, they were able to resolve issues for members and providers more quickly and efficiently which increased FCR and decreased AHT.