What You Don't Know About Your Call Center Reps August 18, 2009
Vangent, Inc., a provider of enrollment and information management solutions and services for health plans, published new research on the administration of pre-employment behavioral and mental ability assessments to determine call center representative (CSR) reliability and trainability.
Vangent's study focused on assessment and performance data for 146 CSR applicants in its health plan call centers handling enrollment for Medicare plans. Researchers found the administration of pre-employment assessments favorably impacts CSR training outcomes and on-the-job performance.
Findings from the research show a strong correlation between high scores on the Thurstone Test of Mental Alertness (TMA) and high performance on Medicare and plan-specific knowledge exams. Preliminary analysis also reveals higher quality monitor scores are correlated with higher scores on a combination of the TMA and selected behavioral measures (i.e., integrity, service, and turnover).
With the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) imposing strict guidelines on health plans for telesales and marketing, and stringent penalties for non-compliance, Vangent says call centers handling enrollment for Medicare plans must ensure all CSRs uphold the highest ethical standards and possess the skill set to understand general Medicare knowledge and complex plan benefit designs in order to accurately answer questions from beneficiaries. Subsequently, Vangent points out, when a beneficiary wants to enroll in a plan by phone, the CSR must accurately complete the enrollment form and effortlessly relay critical information required by Medicare for the enrollment.
"The Medicare market is more competitive than ever, and health plans should strongly consider the use of proven pre-employment assessments to help staff their call centers with CSRs who not only provide outstanding customer service, but who also are capable of answering complicated beneficiary questions in an accurate and concise manner," says Dr. John Jones, Vangent's vice-president and chief scientist. "Wrong hires not only reduce a health plan's opportunity to achieve enrollment goals and meet CMS-required service levels, but they also make the plan vulnerable to unfavorable outcomes centered around CMS mystery shopping."
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