The challenge

A state Department of Health faced an urgent problem: Its COVID-19 vaccine support line was unable to handle the call volume from residents seeking information and vaccine appointment assistance. With one failure, the governor's office was keenly aware of the need to not have any more mistakes. The Department of Health needed a nimble partner with the technology and staff to quickly ramp up and provide citizens with critical vaccine information and scheduling support.

Our solution

VoiceFoundry, a TTEC Digital company, analyzed the state's initial rollout and found inadequate planning, technology, staffing, and training to support the overwhelmed vaccine support line. We addressed the problem with a comprehensive staffing and digital solution. Utilizing our expansive talent pools, we quickly recruited, trained, and ramped more than 500 experienced healthcare associates to answer calls from a virtual contact center and assist residents in scheduling vaccination appointments. We also worked with the client to plan announcements about the updated support line to better manage call volume.

At the same time, the technology teams collaborated with the client to optimize the IVR prompts and add a digital messaging capability to support communications and tracked results daily. We also implemented end-of-day executive recap calls to adjust priorities, staffing, messaging, and other key parameters on the fly.

The results

In fewer than two weeks, TTEC had more than 500 healthcare associates online, trained, and ready to take calls. On the busiest day of operations, the associates handled 34,000 calls from residents seeking vaccine information and scheduling assistance. Equipped with the right training, resources, and managerial support, the associates provided fast and efficient assistance.

Even when the client implemented a new vaccine scheduling system, TTEC associates readily adopted the new system without disruption. Volume leveled off to an average of 10,000 daily calls and our flexible staffing and digital solution enabled the client to seamlessly scale back while keeping the agility to ramp up again if needed, ensuring the right support, every time.