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Integrating Social Media Channels in Consumer Health Call Centers Should be Flawless; New Report from Best Practices

By Meenakshi Shankar
TMCnet Contributor

Call Centers and BPOs have gained an incredible momentum in the recent years. Along with this escalation comes the demand to have specialized talents and cutting edge technological adoption. The need for call centers is to modernize their technology and expand connectivity options in order to support a growing variety of customer interaction channels and tools. Such a shift can meet the needs of customers who are more and more mobile, ever connected, and left with little time to tackle the slow service.

Call centers within the pharmaceutical industry are one such division which is struggling in recent years, as they need to keep pace with rapid growth and change in the healthcare sector. Customer experiences with service center or helpdesk contact centers give a new dimension to the business. Consumer Health Call Centers are left with no choice but to revamp their approach as they are challenged to satisfy customer inquiries, while simultaneously also focus in cutting costs.

Various studies indicate that new social media technologies are creating innovative ways to communicate, and this acceptance is expected to have profound effect in the future to come. Integration of social media technologies into call centers is moving from a mere choice to necessity. But the question is whether the integration is done with zero gaps?

According to recent research conducted by research and consulting firm Best Practices, LLC, there are many gaps in adoption of social media platforms, such as live chats and blogs within consumer health call centers. 63 percent of respondents identified issues such as regulations, privacy and lack of knowledge on usability as key challenges to social media adoption. Additionally, 43 percent of the OTC segment reported using Facebook (News - Alert) as a customer interaction channel.

Best Practice’s report, titled "Building a World-Class Call Center: Performance Metrics, Operations, Structures & Trends at Consumer/OTC Companies", captures critical performance benchmarks for the size, cost, service delivery efficiency, structure, leadership, processes, technology, and operations of Call Center organizations for consumers / OTC companies.

Key study topics include:

• Call Center Budget, Staffing, And Management Trends
• Use Of Social Media
• CRM, IVR And Back-Up Services
• Role Of Third-Party Vendors
• Complaint Resolution Practices
• New/ Innovative Technologies & Trends

The research is believed to help leaders to maximize performance in the year ahead. The study provides readers with current metrics for call center performance in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, diagnostics, consumer health, and consumer packaged goods industries. 

Edited by Adam Brandt

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