Pharmaceutical Salary Fund for Austria

The preparation: a strong project team

Microsoft offers a good basis – but needs to be expanded individually: “Every company wants to improve. That's clear. We want to deliver a better service with the same number of service employees. Simply leaving the system as it is with more staff is not very sustainable in a digital society,” says Martin Urwaleck, Head of IT at the Pharmaceutical Salary Fund for Austria. “Member satisfaction is our top priority, but at the same time, processes need to be digital and automated today,” adds Julia Berwein, front office employee and part of the project team. For Urwaleck and Berwein, the goal was clear: to find a solution that not only improves call efficiency and service quality for members, but also enables analyses that can be used to optimize processes based on data.

And this is only possible in collaboration with experts who know about these key figures and the specialist department that works with the processes. “We couldn't exploit our service potential with teams alone. My team and I talk to our members every day. We know where things are faltering and can quickly identify what is needed for good telephone service,” emphasizes Berwein. “The service is more personal when I know who is calling because I can see the pharmacist's name,” adds the front office employee.

The solution: Integration of Contact Center in Microsoft Teams incl. Power App

The foundation was laid with Microsoft Teams and its basic settings. The Salary Fund was looking for software that could be integrated into Teams to make its call volume more efficient, faster and more customer-friendly and found a suitable solution in ROGER65.io's Contact Center. “We also wanted to integrate the member file into the new software. The service is faster because I loaded the member file directly via the Power App,” emphasizes Urwaleck regarding the introduction of the Contact Center into the company's existing Microsoft Teams structure. “The challenge was to find software that was compatible with our IT landscape, but flexible enough to meet future requirements,” adds Urwaleck.

The result: key performance indicators with potential

As a first step, Pfalzcloud carried out an inventory of existing Teams settings and configurations, recorded call volumes, IVR announcements and call flows and analyzed them. This knowledge was then used for implementation. In the proof of concept, a new service number was set up as a “test drive” and configured, tested and circularly improved for the defined use cases in collaboration with all key stakeholders. Acceptance of the new software was achieved by involving management and the specialist department in the planning and implementation by IT from the outset. It quickly became clear that the POC could go live sooner than expected. “We have set up an optimal process, why wait? In live operation, we saw improvements after just a few weeks,” says Urwaleck. And the specialist department is also satisfied: “We are now happy to present our key performance indicators to the management,” agrees Berwein happily.

Shorter call handling, reduced waiting times and active calls

The result is impressive: An improved average waiting time of under 2 minutes. A shorter call handling time of less than 3 minutes. 90 % of callers receive the target contact person thanks to the optimization of past routing settings. Fewer abandoned or “lost” calls by offering a callback option, which is automatically and dynamically offered to callers when call volumes are high. This has also significantly reduced the processing time for inquiries within the specialist department. With the new Contact Center, spontaneous “special events” within the company can be communicated in a targeted manner: The caller is informed via the IVR system of current malfunctions, the processing status, receives information on news or a reference to alternative communication channels. The result is a reduction in active telephone calls, as the caller is provided with all current and relevant information without having to contact an employee. “I was impressed by the fact that I can adapt call flows myself and configure announcements on an ad-hoc basis. This allows us to create a professional caller experience – at all times,” says Berwein.

Top management of the Pharmaceutical Salary Fund for Austria is also highly satisfied with this significant improvement. Pfalzcloud scored points in this project with its experience and communication at eye level – both technically and economically. “I've found the right partner when I can talk to them at a high technical level. We found that with Pfalzcloud after a long period of exploring the market,” says the IT manager of the Salary Fund. Pfalzcloud will continue to support them on its way to an even better member service. The next step is already in the works: integrating the customer database into the Contact Center and connecting the member file via the Power App.