Emergicon Gains Message Consistency, Increased Call Volume, and Shorter Hold Times with Balto

Emergicon’s success formula relies on Balto’s Real-Time Guidance and a hybrid contact center team actively enhancing the AI-driven system

The Challenge

Ensure uniformity, accuracy, and immediate access to a broad knowledge base for a hybrid team representing multiple clients

Emergicon is a Dallas-based ambulance billing company. While its primary clients are Texas ambulance providers, the service goes beyond EMS billing and collections into the customer service realm.

First-time ambulance users can be confused about their obligations and what their insurance will cover. Additionally, each ambulance provider has slightly different billing guidelines. Therefore, it’s challenging to respond instantly to every question with so many scenarios, but researching leads to extended hold times, consumer frustration, and fewer outbound calls for commissioned agents.

Shannan Turner, Emergicon’s Patients Account Manager, summed up the primary challenge for contact center agents, “The people on the other end of the line are talking to us because they’ve had an emergency medical event in their lives or the lives of a loved one. The circumstances of each situation are different. Many callers have the same kinds of questions but having Balto as a resource for the ones we don’t get often allows my team to respond to common and unusual customer questions with the same confidence.”

Those questions can change the interaction dynamics, prompting agents to put the call on hold to locate the information or escalate it to a manager.

In addition to the need for on-the-spot answers, Emergicon’s priorities include:

• Successful outcomes — securing payments or establishing payment plans
• Relaying consistent and accurate information
• Shorter calls and hold times
• Compassionate customer service with responses that don’t feel scripted
• Continuous training for a hybrid team representing multiple clients

The Solution

In-the-moment prompts through Balto’s Real-Time Guidance combined with a proactive “train the trainer” system

Emergicon has relied on Balto’s Real-Time Guidance system powered by AI for the past few years. The ever-present virtual partner for in-office and remote agents uses custom playbooks to provide the support and consistency integral to Emergicon’s business model.

Real-Time Guidance addresses many of the one-off questions that previously led to hold times and call escalations. However, Emergicon doesn’t just implement Real-Time Guidance as a training and coaching tool. It turns the tables and consistently relies on the contact center team to improve the AI-driven prompts.

Agents actively update the Balto system at monthly meetings, adding to Emergicon’s custom playbooks based on those one-off questions requiring research. So, the level of customer service continues to rise as each agent enhances the AI for the entire team’s benefit.

“Balto helps the agents on my team provide timely, relevant, and complete information to the customers they are talking to. The ability to have general and specific information at their fingertips gives my agents the courage to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Our customers benefit from their certainty.”

Shannan Turner, Patients Account Manager, Emergicon

In addition, Balto seamlessly integrated with RingCentral MVP, Emergicon’s VoIP softphone platform, ensuring reliable uptime, voice quality, and its ability to handle high call volume.

Key Results

Call response consistency, 2.5-minute call handling, and one minute average hold time

Emergicon’s agents wear many hats. They’re collection agents, customer service specialists, and insurance experts. Simultaneously, they represent different ambulance providers, each with its own set of rules and guidelines, and some agents work remotely.

So, having Balto’s Real-Time Guidance as a virtual partner keeps everything on track. Additionally, because agents take ownership of the system, consistently adding to the playbooks, they’re more apt to use it to its full potential.

Emergicon reports some of the following Real-Time Guidance benefits:

• Significant decrease in hold times — averaging just over one minute
• An average 2.5-minute call handling
• Call volume increase per agent
• Call response consistency within a hybrid team
• Continuous training — complying with Emergicon’s Three-Step Quality Assurance Improvement Plan
• Scalability — quickly adapting to new clients and guidelines
• Straightforward integration with RingCentral — extending to remote agents as well as in-office
• Facilitating agent recognition

Emergicon agents have achieved call consistency and a rapid response rate driven by Balto’s Real-Time Guidance. Regardless of where they work, they have on-the-spot answers and in-call recommendations resulting in fewer escalations and a higher close rate. Agents are also more relaxed and able to let personalities shine through with a personal touch and compassion that’s essential in the ambulance world.

“Balto isn’t just helping my agents feel more assured in their work. It’s also driving measurable results. Hold times are significantly shorter because my team isn’t using “hold time” to find answers – they are delivered directly to the agent. Shorter hold times equal happier customers. An added benefit is that my agents are now able to handle more call volume. This means more customers helped in a day and bigger returns for my commission-based agents.”

Shannan Turner, Patients Account Manager, Emergicon