Kymenlaakso Social and Health Services (Kymsote) is the federation of municipalities responsible for social and health services in the region of Kymenlaakso in Finland. Kymsote currently has about 6,000 healthcare professionals employed. The organisation is investing in multichannel customer service to ensure a good customer experience and level of care.
“In Finland, the public sector’s social and health services are rapidly being digitalised. The role of ICT is growing quickly, and this applies to both practical patient care and customer service functions,” says Kymsote’s CIO Matti Ahola. Ahola has long experience of working in ICT management for social and health services. He has long advocated the proper management of customer interfaces and says it’s important that customers’ expectations are properly addressed in the public sector.
Kymsote’s strategy places the client firmly in the centre. To achieve the goals of its stated strategy, the organisation needed to further develop its customer service and add new channels to it. “We wanted a comprehensive customer service solution – one that allowed us to serve our customers via chat in addition to a switchboard,” says Ahola.
“The coronavirus has added pressure to decision making and requires us to direct our customers to the correct services as efficiently as possible. We felt the time was right to upgrade our customer service tools to meet the increased demand.”
A Reliable Partner
Ultimately, the solution that was deemed suitable comes from Telia, a long-term business partner of Kymsote. Telia ACE customer service solution has recently been implemented throughout the organisation. “We’re happy to have partnered with Telia. They already provide us with voice subscriptions for mobile phones, as well as some of the data communications. It also helped a lot that we’ve had a congenial relationship with Telia’s people for many years,” says Ahola.
“What’s important for us is that the solution works well technically and meets our needs. Telia ACE easily meets these two criteria.”
Telia ACE is a multichannel customer service solution offering a comprehensive suite of communication tools such as email, chat, video and social media channel management. The suite includes a knowledge, chatbot interactions, as well as comprehensive analytics tools.
Tested and Approved in the Field
The town of Hamina’s healthcare centre is part of Kymsote’s regional responsibility. The nurse Outi Salojärvi has words of appreciation for Telia ACE, especially its user-friendliness. “Compared to the previous solution, ACE lets me know at a glance which phone calls need to be treated as urgent. The user interface allows me to send a text message confirming an appointment while I’m still on the phone with the customer. In addition, the service allows me to easily check the number of people on hold, and how long they’ve been waiting.”
The phone keeps ringing non-stop at the Hamina healthcare centre. Customers ask for advice, make appointments and ask for laboratory results. Due to the coronavirus, the number of daily calls is much higher than usual, but Telia was able to implement ACE call centre functionality without interrupting normal operations.
Other ACE features requested by Kymsote will be introduced at a later date. “I’m really looking forward to being able to use the chat function. And with video calling, it’s going to be much easier to evaluate the necessary level of care when you can see the customer,” Salojärvi says.
The challenge: The Finnish regional healthcare provider Kymsote wanted to speed up customer service and include multichannel features to facilitate quick and easy communications. However, the provider’s old solution only supported phone communications. A new approach was necessary to implement the provider’s customer-centric strategy.
The solution: Kymsote implemented Telia’s ACE customer service solution, with telephony and chatbot in step one. The chatbot helps customer online twith questions regarding Kymsotes different services.
The benefits: Employees and customers alike call it a positive experience. The solution is user-friendly compared to the old system, and customers benefit from quicker customer service.
Text: Satu Ekman
