Today was one of the days we saw a major company's contact center operations take a giant step back. Listening to those are sad -- especially when so much attention is being made of customer satisfaction.
During a routine call to healthcare giant CareFirst, a customer service representative told me that my provider had been paid for multiple claims I was being billed for by the provider. Interestingly enough, CareFirst's own computer system showed my coverage as lapsed because I had switched from one group to another, and the old group's coverage still showed on the record.
"That's IT's problem," said our rep, whom we call Cheryl, since that's the only name she provides.
No, actually, it's the company's problem, but what do we do about this bill?
Well, says Cheryl, it's your doctor's fault.
[Stop when you sense a trend developing]
But I want to speak with a supervisor. Cheryl says that doesn't happen because there are none. Apparently Cheryl, whose supervisor uses the name Ms. Taylor, is working by herself tonight. All of CareFirst's 3 million policyholders are apparently being cared for by Cheryl tonight because a supervisor can only call back within 24-48 hours. That's an awesome responsibility.
Later, we get force-transferred (that's what call center reps call the process when they transfer your call without permission). We have to give Cheryl credit though. She forced us into a provider queue for doctors and hospitals. With no id code to enter, we couldn't go anywhere. No buttons transferred us out and without a code, we couldn't get connected to anyone.
The only choice? Hang up.
The First Company, the one originally known as CareFirst, apparently meant healthcare, not customer service care.
As consumers you don't have to accept that kind of behavior when it is inflicted upon you. In our case, a letter is already on its way to "Interim CEO" David D. Wolf. This will allow Mr. Wolf and his team in Owings Mill, Maryland to relieve Cheryl of her awesome responsibility in supervising the company for the next 48 hours.
Mr. Wolf will also presumably fix "the IT problem" and "my doctor's problem". Because this happened to a Consumer Help Web person (and we were fair to say this was going on the web), we won't list CareFirst under our pending complaints, nor will we put a negative one next to their score in our databases.
Yet.
We'll keep you posted on what happens, however, to this real life case study where we can freely use the customer's name and experiences. Our demand letter to Mr. Wolf is very simple and requires that CareFirst update its computer systems to show our family's updated coverage and rescind the letter sent to our doctor demanding a refund for money they already paid him.
A simple resolution request laser-targeted to the senior executive gets results. We get those results and help hundreds of consumers. If this happened to you, let us help you resolve your complaint too.
Labels: call center, CareFirst, customer satisfaction, David Wolf, healthcare
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