UPMC Health Plan - Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year

Company: UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, PA
Company Description: UPMC Health Plan, the second-largest health insurer in western Pennsylvania, is owned by UPMC , an integrated global health enterprise. Our products and services are utilized by nearly 2.3 million members. Our local provider network includes UPMC as well as community providers, totaling more than 125 hospitals and more than 11,500 physicians throughout Pennsylvania.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year - All Other Industries

Nomination Title: UPMC Health Plan Customer Service Coaching Program of the Year

Our Member Services Coaching Program has significantly improved over the past year. Our top priority is member experience and to set the tone we start off by listening to positive member comments loaded in our coaching app, “Beyond”. We take time with each team member before diving right into coaching asking how they are doing and truly connecting with them on a personal level. The pandemic has drastically changed the workforce with everyone going virtual, but here at UPMC, we have not missed a beat, especially with our coaching model. Coaching has remained consistent and so have the coaching/concierge relationships. We have acclimated our teams by utilizing Microsoft Teams camera feature and purchased web cams for all of Member Services so that we can still have that “face to face” interaction and team building comradery.

Alongside our dedicated coaches, we have a dedicated leader, Staff Development Supervisor, to oversee the coaching process. The leader ensures that the coaches and their team are being supported so that they can succeed in their own roles through coaching and development. Our leader supports our coaches by partnering with our trainers and leadership teams known as “Coaching Connections” to continue to drive improvements. Through monthly Coach One on One’s, the coach and supervisor come together to discuss struggles and challenges that are faced during coaching. It is time set aside so that the coach can share feedback, ask questions, and discuss process improvements and career development.

Briefly describe the nominated organization: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):

At UPMC Health Plan, our Member Services Team is recognized for offering a remarkable and welcoming member experience. Our goal is to provide First Call Resolution (FCR) by offering excellent customer service and to help ensure we do that, we have a coaching program that is designed around our mission, “A World Class Team Delivering World Class Service”. Each team has dedicated Staff Development Coaches who have progressed through their careers within Member Services that allow the coach to effectively understand and identify areas of excellence and areas of opportunity. Each Coach goes through an extensive hands-on Staff Development training so that they are fully prepared with the tools and resources to focus on the needs of our team members, attainment of all call performance standards, and guarantee our team members understand our World Class call requirements. On a bi-weekly basis, each coaching session includes listening to a call(s) for comprehensive feedback and to have an open evaluation of the member’s experience. This in turn empowers our concierges to take full ownership of their calls, achieve their personal and professional growth and to be confident in their roles so that they provide exceptional service to our members.

Explain why the achievement you have highlighted is unique or significant. If possible compare the achievement to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 250 words):

From our one on one’s, collecting feedback from concierges, focus groups, and coaching sessions, we identified a key opportunity of improvement. Previously in our Sharepoint, our coaching forms were created by a lengthy, manual process completed each week. To review performance such as call productivity and statistics, quality audit scores, member experience scores, and member feedback, data was manually uploaded into a SharePoint. Different and broken views affected all teams across the board, making coaching a difficult and frustrating process. Our new “Beyond” Coaching App has eliminated this manual intervention allowing us to move at a more rapid pace, spending our time on coaching vs. preparation. Its unique and incredible capabilities allow other departments across our organization to submit coaching opportunities through Beyond. We utilize Microsoft Forms and Power Automate to customize a seamless process for learning opportunities that was once all completed by sending an email to the respective leadership to review. It is now all stored where it is easily accessible to be reviewed with the concierge by the coach.By reinventing our coaching program, we have seen significant improvements across the board. Our After-Call Survey Scores, offered on every call for 2020 for an all-time high: 4.9/5 for Member Satisfaction, 98.4%Agent Helpfulness/Customer Effort, and 95.5% FCR. Quality scores are at an all-time high of 98.6%.Beyond this, on our most recent JD Power Contact Center Certification Survey, we achieved a score of 889!An improvement of 31 points over our last certification score!

Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):

Coaching is an important aspect of creating a World Class Team. Our Coaching Program was designed to bring out the full potential of our team members, ensuring it facilitates the process of identifying high potential and allows for further development opportunities. As we grow and develop our team, many move up through the coaching career path as demonstrated on slide 6. Many of our coaches have grown into supervisory and managerial roles. Leadership closely monitors coaching progress through robust reporting from Beyond, ensuring our team gets feedback they need to thrive (Slide 13). We value positive and constructive feedback in all forms, so much that we have departments we work closely with entering coaching opportunities into Beyond so this information can be completed in coaching sessions (Slide 16). We are proud of the outstanding Quality that our coaches have helped the team to achieve, with our most recent score at 98.61% (Slide 20).). As demonstrated on slides 22-25, we have extensive rewards and recognition based on our concierges’ performance and include outstanding coaching completion for our coaches as well. Monetary incentives are in place for the concierges at $200 monthly, and for coaches $300. Coaching plays such a vital role in our World Class Contact Center that we made sure to invest in the tools and technology needed,have dedicated roles and leadership to support it, have strong oversight and monitoring from Leadership, and Recognize,Reward, and Incentivize Coaching. Coaching has been the key to our success!