Canada’s largest provider of community healthcare services provides clinical care to five provinces and hundreds of communities. Their leadership sought to improve consistency in their Client Services operation, where community services are scheduled, and customers are onboarded and managed. Client Services work was facilitated at 20+ locations across the country. Each location had different workflows, system setups, call tree designs, management structures and leadership approaches.
An assessment identified the following opportunities:
- Work processes across locations were not standardized, leading to inconsistent client experiences
- Workflows, system setups, call tree designs, and management structures were inconsistent
- Changes to workflows were difficult to make
- Work force effectiveness was difficult to measure
- Customer service costs were high and results were not measured
- Backlogs were difficult to track
- Service issue identifcation and reporting was lacking
Carpedia partnered with the hospital leaders to decrease supply costs and to increase lab utilization
- Developed a new org chart, migrating the team members to new positions
- Developed new roles, responsibilities, and performance standards
- Consolidated location-based teams into regional, provincial, or national teams to create flexibility and leverage staff skills
- Established 40+ best practices and implemented across all locations
- Trained/coached Client Services teams on new best practices
- Standardized setup and use of phone queuing system
- Reduced volume of phone calls by addressing root causes of calls
- Enhanced leadership skills by establishing data use, daily KPIs, and routine management engagement and follow-up with teams
The Results
Over a 12-month period, the Client Services project delivered a transformation of the organization. The new org structure, roles and responsibilities, and best practices led to more productive and consistent practices, and most importantly, to an improved client experience.
Specific results include:
- 25% productivity improvement
- 17% reduction in backlog, driving improved customer service
- 2:1 annual return on project fees
In addition to the measurable improvements, the project built a structure for ongoing change through the creation of operational excellence standards and the installation of a continuous improvement mindset at all levels of the organizaiton.
