One of the biggest challenges for a healthcare contact center leader is getting their CEO fully invested in what is traditionally seen as one of the least flashy parts of the business.

As the CEO of a marketing agency, my team is generally considered one of the flashiest parts of the business, and it’s always fun to show off our latest ads to the C-suite. But here’s a pro tip: When it comes to what the C-suite is most excited to see from us, it’s usually less about ad sets — and more about data showing a positive ROI from their marketing efforts.

Your healthcare contact center may not have a shiny new ad campaign to show off, but you can help create a greater ROI that benefits the entire organization. There is no healthcare CEO on the planet who wouldn’t be interested in increasing patient acquisition by 5% without spending another dime on advertising. The best way to get CEOs invested in your contact center is to show them how it’s an essential — and optimizable — part of their marketing funnel.

Make the marketing connection

A good start is to open a conversation with your C-suite to help draw those connections. Marketing doesn’t deliver leads in a vacuum because revenue only comes from the leads who actually book appointments and become patients. The contact center is a crucial part of that funnel — and thus also needs to be included in the strategy discussions at high level.

Part of that is the nuts and bolts of lead conversion. Good lead tracking is essential for any contact center, but it can be tricky to get buy-in from the COO and CEO to actually fund it. Explain to them that they can spend less on ads if fewer leads are dropped after reaching out to the contact center, and the value of lead tracking becomes more apparent.

It’s also worthwhile to have strategic discussions with marketing. Messaging should be consistent between marketing and the contact center, especially when it comes to addressing potential caller objections and roadblocks.

Highlight possible optimizations 

CEOs are busy, so it’s essential to give them the key things they need to know about any potential contact center optimization:

• Why it matters
• How to tell if it’s a problem
• How to fix it

Missed calls: Obviously there’s no lead if the caller never reaches anyone. Watch your abandonment rate and make sure it stays under 5%. Unanswered calls, long hold times, callers who give up in the phone tree — all of these mean the caller wasn’t connected with a person who could help them fast enough. Often this is just a staffing problem, but it can be worth looking at your phone tree, if you’re seeing a lot of abandonment there.

Missed follow-ups: An essential question to ask for any non-converting leads or unanswered form fills is: What’s the follow-up? There should be a systemic process in place to ensure that warm leads don’t turn cold.

Missed training opportunities: Every call into your contact center is a potential lead. But many contact center agents view their job purely as customer service. Answering questions is obviously part of their job, but if you’re seeing poor lead generation from incoming calls, it usually means that there hasn’t been sufficient training. Sometimes, this is a problem that needs to be addressed at the top by clearly defining the contact center’s mission. Agents who field calls should be trained to control the call in order to get more leads into the funnel, not just answering caller questions, but also proactively suggesting free consultations or assessments.

Measurement matters 

Whether you’re trying to figure out what needs improving, see if your improvements are working or gathering data to show the C-suite, measurement is the key. By using reporting and tracking, you can not only pinpoint the optimizations you need to make, but also show your CEO exactly why your contact center is so valuable. 

Alex Membrillo is the CEO of Cardinal Digital Marketing.