The challenge

As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout gained steam, a state Department of Health’s contact centers were overwhelmed with calls from residents seeking information and vaccine appointment assistance. The organization needed an experienced partner with the staffing resources and technology to help it quickly ramp up and provide citizens with critical vaccine information and scheduling support.

Our solution

The Department of Health selected TTEC as its partner based on our experience guiding organizations and other state agencies through similar vaccine and other surge events. The client leaned on us to deliver insights and best practices for providing its citizens with rapid support.

We analyzed the state's initial rollout and found inadequate planning, technology, staffing, and training to support the overwhelmed vaccine support line. We remedied the problem with a comprehensive staffing and digital solution. Utilizing our expansive talent pools, we rapidly recruited, trained, and ramped 100 experienced healthcare associates to answer calls from a virtual contact center and assist residents in scheduling vaccination appointments.

The technology team collaborated with the client to optimize the IVR prompts and add a digital messaging capability to support communications and tracked results daily. Twice a week, we also conducted meetings with all of the Department of Health contact centers to adjust priorities, staffing, messaging, and other key parameters as needed. Given how quickly information about the vaccine changed, this step was key to ensuring that all of the teams had up-to-date information and were delivering consistent support.

The result

The experience, technology, and guidance that TTEC brought to the table played a critical role in turning the Department of Health’s vaccine scheduling program around. In less than one month, we had more than 100 healthcare associates online, trained, and ready to take calls. On the busiest day of operations, the associates handled 5,000 calls from residents seeking vaccine information and scheduling assistance.

Our associates did so well in handling the inbound volume that they were asked to make outbound calls as well to citizens who struggled to schedule online appointments. As demand for the vaccine decreased, the client easily scaled back its contact center support while maintaining the agility to quickly ramp up again when necessary.