Contact center agents are doing a lot more than picking up the phone these days. 

At Mayo Clinic in Rochester, self-scheduling, digital worklists and text-based interactions are reshaping the agent’s day-to-day interactions with patients. 

For example, when a patient logs into their portal, they’re able to schedule an appointment. That information goes straight into a work queue or “work queue order.” Next, the agent schedules the appointment and sends a confirmation portal message to the patient. 

“We’re shifting our contact center agent’s mentality answering every work queue order and waitlist message is just as important as picking up the phone,” says Cassie Crary, Operations Manager, Access Management at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. “There’s a person at the end of every message we get.” 

Adapting a new mindset for agents

Abandonment rates. Average Handle Time. Average Speed to Answer. 

Those are all the vocab buzzwords in contact centers, but Crary says things are starting to shift. Managers are talking about self-scheduling, ticket bundling and texting, too. 

“We train agents to manage work queues alongside phones,” Crary says. “Initially, we thought about separating those duties, but discovered that agents liked the variety in their workload.” 

Dashboards allow supervisors to monitor call volume and work queue buildups, dynamically shifting personnel to address the greatest need in real time. But at first, shifting away from a phone mentality was challenging for both managers and agents.

“Providing real-time examples and stories that illustrate the benefits of various communication options for patients has significantly aided in the management of change among our staff,” Crary says. 

A note on automation 

What’s AI’s role in this new culture? 

“Simplification before automation” is Crary’s motto. Understanding current processes is the necessary groundwork before teaching a computer to complete the same tasks.

Lately, Crary has been leading an initiative around knowledge management and governance. 

“We have more than 40 specialty offices and we should be scheduling similarly,” Crary says. “We want to start building platforms to share the knowledge where everything is in one place that’s searchable for our agents. For example, an agent could help a patient in crisis by quickly accessing relevant information by typing a simple search query.”

What do the numbers say? 

Measuring the impact of this digital adoption mindset isn’t straightforward. While the center tracks increases in digital self-scheduling, seeing a direct correlation with decreased call volume is tricky. Internal calls between departments can muddy the data. However, the long-term goal is clear: greater efficiency and accessibility for patients who want a variety of contact options. 

“We’re never going to eliminate the use of phone calls, but we want to offer a range of ways patients can schedule an appointment,” Crary says. “Two-way texting is on the horizon, which reflects a generational shift. My daughter won’t even answer a phone — she’ll only respond to a snap or a chat. We have to offer different ways for patients to connect.”