State health insurance exchanges know the drill: Train contact center teams on the latest coverage, eligibility, and documentation requirements. Monitor performance to ensure compliance with all new regulations and protocols — until the next set of changes come down. Rinse and repeat.

It can be arduous. Once associates master a process, they must learn a new one and confidently explain to current and prospective members what all the changes mean for their election choices.

Challenge

Frequent policy changes triggered surges in demand as customers sought help understanding how changes impacted their health coverage. Contact center teams needed specialized knowledge and excellent communications skills to provide accurate and detailed information. In addition, associates needed to skillfully navigate the client’s proprietary platform and ticketing systems.

This was the primary challenge throughout the year. During open enrollment, demand spiked, requiring rapid workforce expansion within a short time period. High seasonal attrition created staffing instability.

In this market, demand for labor often outpaced supply. Further, employers here embraced remote and hybrid staffing models, stoking competition for talent because workers had more employment opportunities than offered in other states.

Our client needed to improve operational efficiency without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

Our solution

TTEC deployed a comprehensive workforce management and customer support strategy built upon a number of pillars:

• Rapid seasonal recruiting and onboarding
• Workforce stabilization tactics to address attrition
• Enhanced leadership engagement during training and nesting programs
• Specialized support teams for complex enrollment cases
• Agility to launch new customer communication initiatives

One member outreach initiative targeted about 1,700 consumers. Our teams from TTEC and TTEC Digital designed, launched, and executed an outbound campaign in just days, helping the state health insurance marketplace proactively convey plan optimization opportunities to members.

We implemented workflow automation that provided real-time guidance to associates, to help them navigate processes more efficiently, without relying on memorization or time-consuming search through the knowledgebase.

Results

Average handle time was reduced 22%, benefiting members who experienced shorter wait times and associates, who were more productive with each contact. The efficiency gains were credited to enhanced leadership engagement and the workflow automation tool that assisted associates with best next steps to take during an interaction.

Despite AHT improvements, CSAT rose and remained stable. Our teams achieved 90% CSAT, exceeding our client’s goal of 85% CSAT.

Ability to ramp up support to meet demand was crucial as regulatory changes triggered unexpected volume from members seeking assistance. The open enrollment surge was expected and planned for, yet still required speedy onboarding and training. TTEC ramped 150 seasonal associates in just 40 days’ time, ensuring teams were well-prepared to assist members with enrollment, eligibility verifications, coverage changes, documentation requirements, and other questions and needs. We quickly ramped from 150 to 250 associates during peak periods.

By reducing AHT through enhanced leadership engagement and workflow automation, TTEC helped its health insurance marketplace client serve members faster and more efficiently, while exceeding CSAT targets. TTEC’s ability to rapidly scale ensured members received timely, knowledgeable support. The result was an operation that delivered on both dimensions the client valued most: A productive team and a consistently strong member experience, regardless of demand volume.