How to deliver superior customer
experiences with your vendors,
partners and outsourcers
David M. Johnson
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
Vendor Relationships
What if….
You could deliver superior customer service
through collaborative vendor partnership?
Your customers were unable to differentiate
between internal and external centers?
Your partners shared your vision, your values and
your purpose?
All agents shared the same purpose?
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Vendor Relationships
Prime Therapeutics’ purpose
Accountability
To help people get the medicine they need
to feel better and live well
Customer centricity
Teamwork
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Vendor Relationships
Goal
To have a partner that does whatever
it takes to serve your customer.
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Vendor Relationships
Simple and necessary
Selecting a partner who is willing to work together, not just
for you – What does that look like?
Engaging with your partner with open and transparent
communications – How do you do that?
Including your partners in internal operations meetings
– Builds a strong foundation of trust
– Benefits both organizations
Ensuring that your Statement of Work defines clear
expectations – Benefits of doing this?
Regular Operations Reviews – Measure what you expect
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Focusing our employees
on our members
Our culture - shared
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Member service
Integrating across the agent network
Prime’s Let’s Be Clear
approach
8 Step call strategy
5 Words
First call resolution
Empowered Agents
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Customer Service
How it works
Our philosophy: member centric approach
Prime’s Customer Service team focuses on customer care
Focus
Purpose
First Call Resolution
(FCR)
Provides the member’s perspective on our ability to resolve the reason for
their contact during a single call
Call Strategy
The call strategy focuses on soft skills and overall member interaction. It is
directly linked to increasing First Call Resolution, high satisfaction and low effort
Agent Effectiveness
Provides the member’s perspective on the agent’s courtesy, willingness to help,
and ability to explain things clearly
Non-interaction Time
Non-interaction time (NIT) is measured in order to limit the time an agent is
unavailable to interact with our members
Agent Adherence
Ensures representatives are available on phones as scheduled to serve
members and ensure short wait times
Turn Around Times
Ensures complex and/or escalated member issues are handled efficiently and
with completion, within specified times and according to procedures
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Fix it; don’t forward it
Empowering employees to solve problems
– Specialized cross-functional
team owns issue resolution
– Call center agents are
empowered to say
“I will fix this for you”
– Call center agents can
authorize free next-day
shipping and approve
reimbursements
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Member experience
Delivering value
It’s about member experience
Making it easy:
Recent Harvard Business
Review study finds
reduced customer effort
drives customer loyalty1
Customer effort
“Prime’s approach to
member experience is
focused on reducing the
effort customers must
make by…”
− anticipating needs
− addressing emotions
− focusing on problem solving
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© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
Customer loyalty
 Prime’s After-Call survey measures members’
response on how much effort required to resolve
their issue
 Results are used to identify and drive improvement
opportunities
 Escalation processes to reduce member effort and
recover service
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Focusing our employees
on our members
What does this drive?
Higher loyalty
More satisfied members
Fewer disruptions
A better customer experience
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Focusing our employees
on our members
Is it working?
Measured
23% .
Decrease to our
net effort score
8% .
Increase to our
ease of use
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
14% .
Increase to our
helpfulness of information
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Member experience
How it works
Proactive assessment
Surveys, monitoring and professional consultants provide a wealth of data
After-Call Survey
Internal Monitoring
External Survey
Voluntary survey offered
at the end of each call
Internal measurement of each
call monitored in Verint
SQM conducts third party post
call member surveys
Member transfers directly
to survey
Focuses on the results and
interaction with the agent from
the member’s perspective
Benchmarks Prime with other
health care call centers
Five questions rate the agent,
call resolution, and loyalty
Application in Verint records
results
Rating scale from a more than
to a less than satisfied
experience
Results help identify
opportunities to serve the
member better and enhance
business practices
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© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
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Vendor Relationships
What if….
You could deliver superior customer service
through collaborative vendor partnership?
Your customers were unable to differentiate
between internal and external centers?
Your partners shared your vision, your values and
your purpose?
All agents shared the same purpose?
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
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Focusing our employees
on our members
Is it working?
#1
Measured
in overall client
satisfaction*
*2014 Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute survey
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
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Focusing employees
on our members
Your culture, their culture
Companies with
energized, motivated employees
make an extra effort to create a
superior experience for customers,
who in turn reward the company with
intense loyalty and contributions
to its profit growth.
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
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The Rest of the Story
APPENDIX
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Member experience
How it works
Prime contact center network
Member Services at Prime:
Prime has networked contact center
locations in the US
• 8M calls per year
• 170K member interactions / week
• 7 minute average member handle
time
• 11.7 seconds to answer call
• Less than 1.3% abandon rate
Omaha, NE
Omaha, NE
Albuquerque, NM
Denison, TX
Tucson, AZ
Irving,
TXTX
Irving,,
Lubbock, TX
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL
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Member experience
How it works
Contact center staffing and roles
Contact center handles members needs and claims processing issues with retail
pharmacies
Approximately 800 customer service staff
1:15 supervisor to agent ratio ensures appropriate coverage and speed of response
Contact center role
Function
Member Service Agents (MSAs)
Member inquiries
Pharmacy Help Desk Agents (PSAs)
Pharmacist/Provider inquiries for retail and mail
Supervisors and Managers
Lead daily contact center operations.
Resolution Specialist Agent (RSA)
Next level agent assistance and escalations (member);
ensures consistent and professional member and client
communications
Account Specialist
Provides direct assistance for Client Engagement and Blues
plans in resolving escalated issues
Service Recovery Resolution Specialist
Provides detailed research and follow up directly to members,
plans and other entities. Service recovery to retain member
loyalty.
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Member experience
Delivering value
Service excellence starts with selecting people for success
 Structured recruiting and on-boarding
process ensures we acquire friendly
talented people who are service
oriented and eager to help
 Initial candidate screening includes
listening for personality, soft skills,
speech patterns, professionalism
 Next phases of screening include
online testing, two rounds of face to
face interviews, extensive background
and drug testing
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Member experience
Delivering value
Building our service team
New hire training
4 weeks “experiential learning”
training; task–driven with problembased learning
Immediate focus on soft skills,
empathy and advocacy, with
ongoing reinforcement
Additional 2 weeks of “Learning
Lab” live call training and
assessment environment
Client implementation
Prime’s dedicated trainers develop
customized training materials that
drive understanding of client’s
culture and service requirements
We use experienced agents to
anchor our implementation process
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Member experience
Delivering value
Ongoing development is a major focus
Coaching for success
– Quality monitoring and feedback on
member interactions
– Incorporating member feedback for
targeted coaching
Individual Development Plans
– Targeted to specific areas of skill
–
development in current role
Development of skills for career path
Ongoing refresher training
Training and development
plans for support and
leadership roles
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Member experience
How it works
Managing talent
Prime uses a balanced scorecard approach to managing
supervisors and agents.
The scorecard measures:
–
–
–
–
Call accuracy
First call resolution
CSR satisfaction
Non-interaction time
8 Step Call Strategy designed to guide
the agent through the call and ensure
members issue is resolved on the first
call
Daily, weekly and monthly dashboard
reporting tracks progress against
personal and corporate objectives
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Contact information
David M. Johnson
Sr. Director Member Services
972.630.1339
© Prime Therapeutics LLC CONFIDENTIAL