Many health care and insurance related companies have experienced high ASA (average speed of response) times and problematic call handling times (CHT). Others have experienced challenges with ABN (Average Abandon Time) and ATB (All Trunks Busy). A company’s call center is often the first contact, the critical initial taker responsible for customer claims when problems or losses occur. As with most call centers, there are times when internal occupancy rates are 90% and no one is available to answer the phone.

A business call center could certainly return the call an hour later or the next day, but that may be too late, as the client may have already contacted a lawyer or gone down a more troublesome or expensive path than necessary. For claims-related issues, industry experts agree that cycle time delays can dramatically increase the cost of your claims while reducing the effectiveness and level of customer service provided by your organization. This is why many of today’s contact centers employ outsourced call centers for overflow, evenings, and weekends. Professional staffing available 24 hours a day with overflow capability offers greater call center responsiveness and improves the overall customer experience.

By leveraging a contact center for overflow, nights, weekends, and holidays, businesses can improve organization by up to 40% while improving the customer experience. All of these things can have a positive impact on the bottom line of many, if not most, organizations. Today, many high-quality call centers outsource FNOL (first notice of loss) for overflow and non-peak hours, while some outsource their entire operation. JD Power and Associates has stated that insurers with cycle times longer than the average of 14.8 days rank in the bottom 50% in terms of customer satisfaction.

With 80% or more occupancy, internal call center staff are extremely busy, turnover often increases due to burnout, customer service is negatively affected, and many calls go unanswered. At 50% occupancy, staff have flexibility with downtime, customer service levels are typically very good, and most calls are answered. At 20% occupancy, virtually all calls are answered, ASA times are short, customer service is excellent; however, the efficiency is low and the cost per claim is astronomical. Finding the right balance with outsourced first notice of loss (FNOL) solutions can enable call centers to improve efficiency and achieve optimal effectiveness.