Telehealth, virtual meetings, Microsoft Teams and Zoom - we slammed them in as a response to COVID-19. Now it’s time to launch an optimization project to ensure these services are being delivered to the quality level needed to provide long-term business value.
Why launch a telehealth/virtual meeting optimization project now?
People are continually searching for virtual meeting and telehealth best practices according to Google Trends. Pre-COVID-19, these did not even register on Google analytics. Now these search phrases are rarely below 25% and usually at 75% any given week. Your customers want to know how to provide a better experience, how to appear professional, and how to be at their best in what is going to be a long term situation. A project is needed to answer the cry for help from customers.
What is the value of doing an optimization project now?
The first realized value of a project like this is meeting the needs of our customers. They are searching for answers, standards if you will. Once you engage them, you can discover the information they seek and through the project, provide the answers. Are they looking for the best cameras, headsets, software, etc? Are they looking for the best home set up to ensure their connection does not freeze or sound weird? Are they wondering about backgrounds, colors to wear on screen, camera angles? Instead of continuing to allow people to waste time searching for answers, find out their questions and provide the answers.
The second value of a project like this is a standard look and feel for customers when they engage with your organization and brand. When customers “meet” with someone from your organization, including having a telehealth visit, are they going to see a “study” environment, “office”, blue background with your logo, what? If you standardize the look and feel, people will become accustomed to what they will get every time. Your brand will be consistent and represented the way your organization would like it to be.
What might this project look like?
Engaging sponsors such as the leader of the group holding the most virtual business meetings, such as the head of outpatient services, and the leader of communications is a great idea. If you can explain to them the value of the project, they will understand the impact on the brand and potential revenue. This can have a real return on investment, as all projects should.
The value to the organization should be measured in business terms. There can always be employee satisfaction and engagement metrics around the virtual meeting solution. One might also look though if there are frequent interruptions in the meetings and see if they are due to home technical issues. If so, the project can work to eliminate those. Another item to review is the number of telephone calls versus video meetings. I am seeing a large number of telephone calls continue because people are uncomfortable with video meetings. If appropriate for the organization, a metric to shift to more video meetings might be set. The value of the project needs to be determined in business language so the metrics can support the value.
So where is your organization along the virtual meeting maturity journey? Were you mature in the practices pre-COVID-19 so an optimization project is not needed? Or, are you like most of us and could use a good discussion around the value of improving and stabilizing these services? It might be worth a one hour meeting to explore the topic and see if now is the time.
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