Category: Uncategorized

Your contact center is holding valuable upstream business intelligence.
But most leaders don’t know how to access it.

I worked with a big medical group fielding mammogram requests.
They were getting thousands more than they could handle.
The wait to get one scheduled was six months out.

That demand was flowing into their contact center every day.
The data was there. But nobody had noticed the opportunity.
Eventually, the right people saw it and acted.

They immediately went out and got more machines.
And acquired a couple other facilities that could do more mammograms.

A capacity expansion decision driven by contact center data.
Without it, the demand would have stayed invisible.

Your contact center is collecting calls, chats, and scheduling requests right now.
That data has insights your operations reports won’t surface:

– Unmet demand
– Unnecessary points of friction
– Gaps your leadership team hasn’t seen yet

The data is already there. You just have to mine it.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

You don’t want to be on the bleeding edge of technology in a contact center.

“Fast followers” almost always get the best ROI.

Early adopters absorb costs from:
– Implementation mistakes
– Higher purchase prices
– Unclear best practices
– Integration problems
– Vendor immaturity
– Reliability issues

Later adopters typically benefit from:

– Lower prices
– Better quality products
– Proven implementation methods

The savings from being a first adopter just aren’t there.

But the bigger issue is this:

In a contact center, technology is rarely a primary competitive advantage.
Two centers running identical software can have dramatically different results.

The difference comes down to execution:
– Training your people
– Keeping them upskilled
– Making sure you have really good processes
– Building strong people management and leadership

That’s where you want to be on the cutting edge.
Be world-class at execution and performance.
Let others be first with the tools.

So the ideal position isn’t first adopter.
But it also isn’t the laggard.
It’s fast follower.

Wait until the technology is proven.
Let others learn the mistakes.
Adopt once the ROI is clear.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

When Klarna announced AI had replaced 700 agents, every CEO I knew wanted the same thing.
I told them to wait.

In February 2024, Klarna’s AI handled 2.3 million conversations.
The CEO announced they had eliminated 700 positions.
The headlines called it the future of customer service.

Every board wanted a version of that announcement.
Every CEO was asking how fast they could do the same.

Here’s what the headlines left out

– Klarna froze all hiring for over a year.
– Complex interactions overwhelmed the AI.
– Customer satisfaction dropped as quality eroded.

By May 2025, they were rehiring human agents.
That same CEO reversed course less than a year later.
“Customers must always have a human available if they want one.”

The rush to savings cost them more than the savings were worth.

One CEO I was working with saw the story and wanted it immediately.
I told him there were steps that had to come first.

Here’s the sequence that actually works:

1. Fix your operational inefficiencies first.

A contact center at 45% occupancy doesn’t get better with AI on top.
You’ll just automate the waste.

2. Then layer in AI where it’s proven to work.

In healthcare contact centers, that means:
– Appointment reminders
– Outbound follow-up communication
– Simple rescheduling on the primary care side

There is AI that works in contact centers right now.
But it only works if the operation underneath it is sound.

Send me a DM via LinkedIn if you want to talk through preparing your operation for AI.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

The majority of BPO contracts are written to protect the vendor.

Here are the 3 clauses I tell every client to put in before signing:

1. Per-minute or per-hour pricing

Don’t agree to a fixed monthly fee.
Negotiate per-hour or per-minute billing instead.

Aim within 10% of market rate. Don’t push too low.
The lowest-paid account at a BPO is where corners get cut.

2. 90-day ramp-down

Every BPO will agree to ramp up. 
Ramp-down is the sticking point.

The clause you need: the ability to ramp from your current headcount to zero within 90 days at contract end, with the BPO supporting the transition.

3. AI savings-sharing

BPOs are already using AI to make their agents faster and more efficient.
The productivity gains that follow should reduce your costs, not pad their margins.

Make sure your contract specifies a savings target for each year of the term.
I’d aim for around 10% in year 1, 20% in year 2, and 30% in year 3.

If you want to talk through your BPO contract before you finalize it, send me a DM via LinkedIn.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

For too long, contact centers have not required an ROI out of vendors

This is especially true with technology partners.

The reason is usually baked into how the deal was structured.

The two most common pricing models are subscription and per-seat.
Both remove the vendor’s incentive to save you money.

On a subscription, your cost is fixed.
It doesn’t go down when the tool performs well.

On a per-seat model, the vendor makes more money when you add seats.
Saving you headcount works against them.

Here’s what I tell every CFO I work with:

Before you approve the spend, require a savings projection from your leaders.
Then put that number in the contract, so both sides are clear on the expectations.

There is no reason to buy technology that adds cost.
The vendor landscape is too competitive for that.

And secondly, don’t optimize for cost alone.
Include partners in the decision who will keep an eye on quality.

The two aren’t mutually exclusive.
Cost and quality can now work together very well.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

Before you invest in a new IVR, audit your existing one.

You might find out you don’t need a new one at all.

Most contact centers I walk into have the same problem.

As they’ve grown, the call routing never kept up:
– outdated greetings
– incorrect transfer numbers
– COVID warnings still running

Nobody’s touched any of it in years. They’ve just worked around it.

When it comes time to move to a new system,
Everything (including the issues) gets migrated.
So you’ve spent the money but you still have the same problems.

The fix is simpler than an upgrade: Audit your current call flow first.

Document everything.
Find what’s broken and fix it.
Then measure what you actually have.

Two things happen when you do this:

1. You get a clean baseline.

It tells you exactly what the new technology should deliver
And what to expect in savings before you sign anything.

2. You might realize you don’t need the upgrade at all.

Most IVR performance problems aren’t technology problems.
They’re maintenance problems.

A new system won’t fix that. 
But a thorough audit will.

If you’re evaluating IVR technology right now, start with the audit.
Don’t approve the spend until you have a clean baseline.

Send me a DM on LinkedIn if you want to talk through what that audit should cover.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

Where should you outsource your contact center?

Here’s how each option breaks down across 7 factors:

Domestic (U.S.-Based)

Cost: Highest by far
Scalability: Limited talent pool
Attrition: Most stable workforce
Accent: Zero friction for patients
Time zones: Perfect alignment
Data security: Same jurisdiction, simplest to manage
Travel: You can be on-site fast if something goes wrong

Nearshore (LATAM / Caribbean)

Cost: Moderate
Scalability: Growing talent pool
Attrition: More stable than offshore
Accent: Generally well-understood by U.S. patients 
Time zones: 1-3 hours, real-time collaboration still works
Data security: Fewer legal regimes, easier to audit
Travel: 3-6 hours, you can actually visit regularly

Offshore (Typically India / Philippines)

Cost: Lowest by a wide margin
Scalability: Largest talent pool by far
Attrition: Highest, 30-45% annually on average
Accent: Strongest accents, but software solutions exist
Time zones: 8-12 hour difference, can be managed with night shifts
Data security: Most complex, tightest governance required
Travel: 15+ hours, oversight structure matters more here

The right answer depends on what you’re optimizing for.

What factor matters most to your operation?

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

There are two main metrics to measure contact center costs.

Only one of them increases customer satisfaction.

1. Cost per call
2. Cost per resolution

Cost per call is straightforward.
It measures your cost every time an agent answers.
This incentivizes agents to spend as little time as possible with customers.

Cost per resolution measures something more nuanced:
Did the customer get their problem solved or question answered?
This incentivizes agents to actually help customers and resolve issues.

Cost per resolution has typically been harder to measure.
Because you have to confirm the issue was actually resolved.
But modern AI tools can now monitor and report this on a per-call basis.

That changes what you can demand from your team.
It’s not just about answering the call and having an interaction.

It’s about:
– Did they call in?
– Did they get their question answered?
– Did it result in a good resolution and satisfied customer?

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

If your contact center budget has a leak,

It’s almost certainly hiding in one of these 5 metrics.

Here’s what to measure, and what to aim for.

1. Slip Time
This is the time between clocking in and being ready for the first call.

Two minutes is a well-run center.
Five minutes is on the high side.
Fifteen minutes is a serious problem.

2. Occupancy
This is the share of an agent’s day spent actively interacting with patients.

Target: around 80%.
Below that, you’re paying for time that isn’t producing.
Above that, you’ll start burning people out.

3. Average Speed of Answer
This is how long callers wait before reaching someone.

New patients will wait about 30 seconds.
Existing patients are accustomed to a little longer.
Match your staffing to those expectations by call type.

4. Average Handle Time
This is how long calls take from start to finish.

The most common driver of high handle time:
Unnecessary steps agents are required to follow.
A well-run call contains only what’s needed to resolve it.

5. Supervisor Ratio
This is the number of agents each supervisor is responsible for.

Target: 15–18 agents per supervisor.
This way every agent has access to the support they need.
Running closer to 1:10 means you’re likely carrying positions you don’t need.

Check these against your own numbers.
If they don’t match these benchmarks, you have a leak.

Send me a DM on LinkedIn if you want help finding it.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.

At contact center scale, small efficiencies become big savings.

Here’s how removing just 20 seconds per call saved $350,000 a year.

I had a client whose quality team required time-of-day greetings on every call.
“Good morning.” “Good afternoon.” “Good evening.”

The agents were offshore, so they had to check their clocks before each call.
Nobody had ever questioned this step in the process.
Until we ran an analysis on the call transcripts.

We realized that just that step was adding 20 seconds to every single call.
At $1 per minute, across 300 agents, it came out to $350,000 a year.

We updated their greeting to simply: “Thank you for calling.”
When the clock-checking step disappeared. So did the cost.

Most contact centers have dozens of unnecessary steps just like it.
Analyzing your transcripts will show you exactly where they are.

If you want help running that analysis, send me a DM.

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I’m Mark Danielson, and I help healthcare leaders reduce support costs while improving patient satisfaction.

Follow me for practical insights on cutting contact center costs, improving service quality, and modernizing operations without the tradeoffs.