November 2005 Newsletter
 |
The Quadax Difference
The last several years have been a period of considerable growth for our EDI Business, and it has occurred at the expense of our competition, since the acquisition of new clients comes by displacing another vendor. In almost every circumstance, the main reason cited for making the switch was that the client’s current vendor’s service levels had changed, and that reference checks concluded the Quadax approach to customer service was of significantly higher quality.
The two concerns expressed most often during sales presentations are, “When I call, will I be able to speak to a person?” and “Will someone be coming out to see us on a regular basis?”
The answer to both of these questions is an unqualified, “Yes.”
Our organizational structure allows us to maintain a separate staff whose primary function is to receive incoming calls from clients. The Client Support Center (CSC) permits clients to reach a person who can gather, document, and forward news of an event associated with the use of our products and services. This group may not always be able to answer questions or resolve problems immediately, but they will work to obtain enough facts to allow the appropriate person to respond accordingly.
Field Service is addressed through the use of Account Representatives, Service Managers, and Regional Managers reporting to a General Manager for customer service. Account Representatives are responsible for a geographic territory, which is designed to enable them to conduct routine client visits. This distribution is done as equitably as possible so that our objective of regularly scheduled visits can be maintained with minimal difficulty and maximum efficiency.
Our Philosophy
There are two catch phrases we use in our daily operations:
Assess the need; Initiate action; Remedy the situation (AIR)
and
Solve problems - Don't just close events.
Attempts to maintain a balance between these two philosophies can occasionally present challenges, since it is normal for a client to desire a problem be resolved immediately (which is what AIR attempts to accomplish). However, the simplicity of closing an event can often conceal a more deeply-rooted problem that might affect our other clients. To address this situation, we regularly review CSC (aka Help Desk) documentation and choose selected events to use as case studies to educate and train our staff to recognize the global affects of client concerns.
Our Organization
As the number of clients we support has grown, so too has our organization. This growth has also required us to rethink the structure of our support staff and expand it in conjunction with the makeup of our client base and the enhancements made to the Xpeditor product.
CSC
The Client Support Center (CSC), our "triage facility" for client issues, was established in January, 2002. Originally referred to as the "Help Desk," this group was charged with accepting incoming client support calls and determining an appropriate course of action to resolve issues in a timely manner. This usually meant recognizing the specific support representative assigned to the account and re-directing the call to that individual. However, we discovered that clients had difficulties accepting this concept, primarily because direct and immediate answers were not always provided.
To rectify this concern, the group was renamed, and a campaign was launched to explain the role of CSC. Today, the CSC handles an average of 700 phone calls plus an additional 300 emails and client-logged events each week.
Manager: Jeff Short
Dispatcher: Ben Frayser
Phone Reps: Kim Demboski, Joe Ziebert, Janette Lozada, Patrick Blech, Sarah Lawlor, Nancy Cramer
Field Service
Maintaining a customer support staff that provides on-site assistance is a given in this industry and an approach that Quadax has always taken. Of recent note, however, is the expansion of this part of our organization and a resultant increase in levels of service, along with a more proactive methodology. We are not content with simply responding to client issues; rather, we are making a concerted effort to identify areas that can be improved by means of personal visits. These include:
RAMP-UP - Is our acronym for Regional Account Management Program. The intention of a RAMP-UP visit is to present capabilities and services that a client is not currently utilizing. This ranges from a review of recent product enhancements, to obtaining a commitment from the client to utilize additional services, such as Eligibility, Claim Status, or Dashboard.
Drive By - Many times we pass a client on our way to another. When time and resources permit, we encourage our field service personnel to make a visit simply to engage the client. In so doing, we can often resolve issues that otherwise get deferred to a later date or develop in severity.
Out-of-the-Blue - Our Account Reps are also encouraged to pick up the phone and call a client that they haven't heard from in a while, just to maintain the relationship. These efforts also routinely result in the identification and correction of an issue.
Automated visits - Most of our activities are dictated by the e-mails, phone calls, and Help Desk events we receive daily. Because priorities are addressed based on these factors, we have developed an automated routine that creates an unattended Help Desk event when an Account Rep has not recorded a contact with a client in the recent past. This results in an event that the Rep can only close after having visited the client.
General Manager: Len Stusek
Regional Manager: Dean Lauria
Service Managers: Linda Millheim, Steve Powell, Brenda Ware, Marilynn Wellman
Account Reps: Misty Szymczak, Linda Lewis, Melissa Shively, Wendy May, Candy Garris, Todd Rogers, Dave Hronek, Doug Hunt
Operations
The Operations group is the core of our EDI business; they perform functions that are vital in ensuring claims are received from clients, processed, transmitted, and confirmed as received by the various payers. With close to 1,000 installed accounts, submitting over 20 million transactions, and adding nearly 10,000 provider numbers each year, this highly efficient staff keeps the wheels turning with an exceptionally high degree of accuracy.
Manager: Brent Pagel
Client Setup Manager: Margo McCarthy
Provider Registration Reps: Nancy Donofrio, Melanie Sklenicka
Technical Support Manager: Nelson Laracuente
Consultants: Hamilton LeGreve, Dave Meek
Transmissions Manager: Matt Andel
Auditors: Mary Rezabek, Karen Vanek
XIT
The increased acceptance of our Xpeditor product by hospitals in our geographic region inspired the creation of a separate team whose role is to implement the application in the shortest possible time frame with the least amount of disruption. Prior to the formation of the Xpeditor Implementation Team (XIT), a typical Xpeditor installation required several people be displaced from their primary role so that the new account could be established. With the advent of XIT, specialization in the area of these implementations permits a more streamlined approach, while enabling our service teams to continue to perform the duties and tasks originally designated for them.
Project Leader: Mike Daugstrup
Technical Leaders: Nick Halpin, Mike Elam
Workflow Leaders: Alison Hollo, Jennifer Spencer, Ellen Grace
Sales, Systems, Management
At Quadax, customer service is not limited to members of the Service Department. Individuals that sell accounts are regularly called upon to provide assistance and clarification for our clients. Programmers from our EDI Systems staff often accompany Account Representatives on client visits. Furthermore, our Division and Corporate Management executives participate in these efforts as well. All told, Quadax is a unified team committed to providing our valuable customers with unparalleled support and service, now and in the future.