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Let’s be honest about something nobody says aloud at contact center conferences: not all BPO vendors inspire confidence.

You’ve likely encountered BPO vendors with compelling cost savings, but limited transparency around their operations where agents are located, how they’re trained or how performance is measured. And even as the numbers look attractive, a bigger question remains: Can I trust this BPO with my patients?

It’s a fair question. Nearshore and offshore operations can be harder to evaluate from a distance. The distance alone creates anxiety. And when you’re talking about patient scheduling, where someone on the other end of that call might be out of medication, in pain or trying to locate a loved one after an accident, the stakes are high.

So, before you sign anything, here are the questions you should ask.

How many patient scheduling calls do you handle?

Volume matters because it signals operational maturity. A BPO that handles patient scheduling at scale has built systems, trained agents for healthcare-specific situations and worked through the edge cases that only come with experience.

Invictus BPO, headquartered in Belmopan, the capital of Belize, delivers both BPO services and a technology platform, handling 1.5 million patient scheduling calls annually. With more than 13 years of experience, they’ve built deep expertise in HIPAA compliance, EHR integrations and the emotional complexity of inbound healthcare calls where “scheduling” often means, “I need help right now.

That experience is supported by iKunnect, Invictus’ proprietary platform that unifies voice, chat, email and social into a single agent workspace with built-in real-time translation across 140+ languages, already HIPAA compliant and deployable in as little as 24 to 48 hours.

What’s your agent turnover rate?

In the U.S., contact center turnover averages 40-45% annually. The institutional knowledge (plus the money and time you spent training agents) walks out the door constantly. So does the relationship your patients built with the person who answered their call last time.

“We have a turnover rate under 4 percent,” says Joseph Salisbury, SVP Sales & Marketing of Invictus BPO. “We have 20 employees who have been with the company for 10 or more years, and another 40 who have been there eight or more. When the same agents are supporting the same healthcare clients year after year, something different happens: they know the system, the hospital culture and the patients.” 

Will you let me talk to your other clients?

Any BPO worth considering should be able to connect you with references. You don’t want a polished case study or an anonymous quote on a flyer. You want to talk to someone who will tell you what it’s like to work with them.

Who is answering the calls? 

Patient scheduling is not a transactional interaction. It’s not tracking a package or troubleshooting a printer. The people calling into healthcare contact centers are frequently scared, frustrated or in crisis. 

What those patients need, in that moment, is not efficiency. They want someone with the composure, empathy and cultural fluency to meet them where they are. Invictus BPO hires specifically for that. Different roles require different people; the agent you’d put on a logistics account is not the agent you want handling an oncology patient trying to schedule a follow-up. 

“In healthcare, you will always need people talking to people,” Salisbury says. “Of course, AI has a role in our company, whether it’s assisting agents in real time, surfacing information and guiding call resolution, but it supports our agents. It hasn’t replaced anybody on our staff.” 

Also, find out exactly where the BPO is located. Belize, where Invictus BPO is headquartered, is the only country in Central America where English is the official language. “Agents are culturally aligned with U.S. patients and healthcare systems,” Salisbury says. The result, according to customer feedback, is agents who routinely outperform their U.S.-based counterparts.

What do your offices look like? 

 Invictus BPO welcomes its prospective clients to Belize to meet the team and see the facility. Their capital-city operation runs on the same infrastructure as the U.S. Embassy.

 “Clients who are initially resistant change their minds after their visit,” Salisbury says. “We want hospital operations staff to meet the agents they’ll be working with for the next five, ten or fifteen years. We see ourselves as part of your team.” 

Interested in learning more about Invictus BPO? They’re happy to connect you with a current client. Reach out directly to schedule a conversation.