Overview
Established in 1956 as a state-certified public-health department, the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center of Lake County, Illinois manages an estimated budget of $70 million for 52 separately funded programs.1,000+ professionals work at the Lake County Health Department to support the daily mission of promoting the health and well-being of all who live, work, and play in Lake County. An accredited public health department, the Lake County Health Department operates several contact centers including:
The Patient Access Center, which serves as the primary patient contact center for all inbound communication for medical, mental, and behavioral health services, An IT help desk for internal customers and a COVID-19 hotline that serves hundreds of calls per day.
Supernova Award Category
Future of Work: Employee Experience
The Problem
The Lake County Health Department was using an on-premises contact center system and was in the initial stages of a five-year digital transformation strategy. However, when the pandemic hit, the normal intake of around 50 daily calls from the public suddenly spiked to more than 700. The Lake County Health Department needed to shift to the cloud. It had already implemented Microsoft Teams as its collaboration solution, which also inspired the move to the cloud.
The Solution
Lake County selected the Five9 Intelligent Cloud Contact Center for its ease of use, pre-built integration with Microsoft Teams, scalability to meet high call volumes, and capability for teams to work remotely. Due to the sudden spike in call volumes during the onset of the pandemic, they needed to implement the solution within 48 hours. Shortly after the Five9 implementation for its COVID-19 hotline, they began using Five9 technology for the Patient Access Center, and its IT help desk contact centers.
Lake County’s contact centers take advantage of the Five9 UC integration with Microsoft Teams. For instance, agents often need to transfer a caller from the Patient Access Center to a more specialized subject matter expert. They can check experts who use Teams to see if someone is available, then transfer the call to the expert or conference them in. They also use Teams messaging to interact with other agents, supervisors, and subject matter experts.
The results
Now that call volumes have stabilized, the Lake County Health Department is putting more focus on refining workflows and the Five9 platform to leverage its full value to the broader organization. They’re reimagining both the patient/public and agent experiences. Lake County has implemented Salesforce as their CRM and the move has consolidated information to help agents utilize the power of real-time customer data. McMillan-Willhoit’s team is also exploring bilingual options for its IVR and has begun making outbound calls. Moving to the cloud also enabled the Lake County Health Department to expand its volunteer program, since people no longer have to go through a badge/ network access protocol when they work remotely.
Metrics
- We did 10 years of technical transformation in 3 months, we had a 5 year roadmap to move to the cloud and move into remote collaboration but this was accelerated due to Covid. MSFT Teams - 1.Increased first call resolution 2. Increased collaboration 3. Was able to use back office during heavy call volume times 4. Ability to ensure select experts were identified and when available could be connected
The Technology
Five9 Intelligent Contact Center, MSFT Teams integration with Five9, Salesforce- Lake County uses customer relationship management to orchestrate vaccine management.
Disruptive Factor
Timing, we were wrapping up evaluations and negotiations at the end of November with a December 31st deadline. Based on the Five9 presentation, and strong recommendation from partners, Lake County went with Five9 and was able to go live in 48 hours.
Shining Moment
Able to stand up a remote contact center in 48 hours