August 10, 2006 - Cincinnati Children's Billing Call Center Earns J.D. Power and Associates Certification

Thursday, August 10, 2006

CINCINNATI -- The Cincinnati Children's Billing Customer Call Center has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program. With this distinction, J.D. Power and Associates has named the call center a certified call center of excellence for providing "An Outstanding Customer Service Experience."

The call center was established to improve the customer service experience of families who have questions about their hospital and physician bills or have a billing problem that needs to be resolved. The call center's 15-member staff handles approximately 2,000 calls, 3,500 pieces of mail and 100 emails each week.

"This award reflects the hard work of the entire billing customer service team," said Charlie Baverman, executive director of Professional Business Services at Cincinnati Children's. "While we are very proud of this accomplishment, we know our work isn't done, and we look forward to more opportunities to learn and improve to better serve our customers."

The call center successfully passed a detailed audit of its recruiting, training, employee incentives, management roles and responsibilities, and quality assurance capabilities. As part of its evaluation, J.D. Power and Associates conducted a site visit that included interviews with management, staff and a parent representative. The evaluation also included a random survey of approximately 400 of Cincinnati Children's customers who recently contacted its billing call center.

Results of the survey showed that Cincinnati Children's overall satisfaction score was 862 out of 1,000 – well exceeding the score of 730 required for certification. More than 80 percent of callers rated call center representatives with the highest ratings, either a nine or 10.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, Cincinnati Children's Billing Call Center surpassed the rigorous standards of the certification process, exhibiting a solid commitment to customer satisfaction.

To attain certification, a call center must meet the J.D. Power and Associates' cross-industry customer satisfaction criteria. The criteria used include evaluation of: courtesy; knowledge; concern for the customer; usefulness of the information provided; convenience of operating hours; ease of reaching a representative; and timely resolution.

Cincinnati Children's is a 475-bed institution devoted to bringing the world the joy of healthier kids. Cincinnati Children's is dedicated to transforming the way health care is delivered by providing care that is timely, efficient, effective, family-centered, equitable and safe. It ranks third nationally among all pediatric centers in research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The Cincinnati Children's vision is to be the leader in improving child health.