MEDICAID SERVICES
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services |
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Internal Revenue Service |
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Office of Personnel Management |
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Internal Revenue Service Employee Study |
The Challenge: Improving Caller Satisfaction
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) wanted to improve their measurement and understanding of beneficiary satisfaction with the 1-800-MEDICARE customer service line as part of their Telephone Customer Service strategy. The implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act heightened the agency's concern about service due to anticipated increases in call volume. CMS identified the need for a third party to design an improved customer satisfaction assessment program and retained PCG to help.
PCG's Approach
PCG drew on our considerable experience in call center customer satisfaction measurement to design a new assessment program. We conducted a literature search and a best-practice study, interviewing industry experts and best-practice call centers to identify the most suitable approach for 1-800-MEDICARE. To ensure the survey would address beneficiary concerns, PCG conducted qualitative research with callers to the 1-800-MEDICARE line. This provided the information needed to create a customer satisfaction survey that reflected callers' experiences and provided the details that CMS needed to take action.
PCG conducted an ongoing survey, and using Net Impression® Leverage analysis, recommended data-driven and actionable improvement priorities at the national level for CMS. PCG provided different levels of reporting on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis to meet CMS's short- and long-term planning needs.
Results
CMS has a customer-driven satisfaction assessment program for 1-800-MEDICARE service that delivers actionable information.
- The 1-800-MEDICARE staff has gained greater insight into customer dissatisfaction with call resolution overall and for particular customer segments.
- CMS staff conducted action planning using PCG's Net Impression® Innovation approach to develop improvement plans for high-priority items such as call resolution. CMS plans to incorporate customer satisfaction measurement as a key component of improvement planning in the ongoing 1-800-MEDICARE service.