CMS Essential Call Skills Training 4/23/2021 PDF

Essential Call Skills 4/23/2021 CMS Eligibility Support INFORMATION NOT RELEASABLE TO THE PUBLIC UNLESS AUTHORIZED BY Project Management LAW: This information has not been publicly disclosed and may be privilege...

Essential Call Skills 4/23/2021 CMS Eligibility Support INFORMATION NOT RELEASABLE TO THE PUBLIC UNLESS AUTHORIZED BY Project Management LAW: This information has not been publicly disclosed and may be privileged and confidential. It is for internal government use only and must not be Office disseminated, distributed, or copied to persons not authorized to receive the For Internal Government Use information. Unauthorized disclosure may result in prosecution to the full Only. extent of the law.  Serco Business Welcome Lead Instructor Instructor photo Instructor photo photo placeholder placeholder placeholder Lead VILT VILT Tech Instructor’s Facilitator’s Support Name Name Name Add us to your Jabber contacts now! 2  Serco Business Teams Control Bar 3 Serco Business  Serco Business Teams Control Bar  Hide Move your mouse off the screen or select the bar and then press the Esc key.  Unhide Move your mouse on the Teams window. Try it now! 4 Serco Business  Serco Business Remote Training Guidelines  Mute your line when you’re not speaking.  Ask questions by using the Raise Hand feature or Meeting Chat.  Limit distractions:  Close your email and Jabber.  Remove your cell phone from the room. Important: This is a PII/PHI requirement.  Return from breaks on time. Tip: Use the clock on your computer. 5 Serco Business  Serco Business Attendance 1. 2. 6 Serco Business Serco Business Chat Send message 7 Serco Business  Serco Business Training Objectives After participating in today’s training, you will be able to:  Describe how each of the 6 essential call skills affects the consumer’s overall experience.  Demonstrate the essential call skills. 8  Serco Business Where Are We Headed?  The Call Flow  Call Skills Recap  Practice Time  Active Listening Review  Adapting Delivery  Empathy Scenarios  It’s my Responsibility  Give Me a Play-by-Play  Getting Back on Track  Consistency with Guidance Q&A  Skills in Action 9  Serco Business The Call Flow Prepare for the call. Read the greeting and disclaimer, and verify the consumer. State the call purpose. Communicate the eligibility issue. Provide solutions/next steps. Close the call. After-call processing. 10  Serco Business Call Skills Recap  Individually reflect on the essential call skill you’ve been assigned.  Answer the questions in the “Call Skills Recap” section of your participant eWorkbook.  Be prepared to share your answers with the rest of the class. 11  Call Skills Recap: Breakout Serco Business Rooms  You will be assigned to breakout rooms.  In your groups, reflect on the call skill and answer the questions on the Teams form.  If you are the group leader:  Record the team’s thoughts on the form.  Be prepared to verbally summarize your group’s discussion for the rest of the class. 12  Serco Business Essential Call Skill 1: Active Listening 13  Serco Business Observation Feedback Form: Active Listening What are the 2 active-listening criteria that ESWs are expected to meet on every call? Question Expectation Did the ESW avoid interrupting Allow consumers to express the consumer unnecessarily? themselves without unnecessary interruptions. The ESW was engaged and did Avoid making the consumer not make the consumer repeat repeat information. information unnecessarily? 14  Serco Business Essential Call Skill 2: Tone 15  Serco Business Observation Feedback Form: Tone What are the 2 tone criteria that ESWs are expected to meet on every call? Question Expectation When the ESW spoke, did both Demonstrate a professional tone the manner of tone expressed by being courteous, sincere, and and the words used to respectful and by using positive communicate sincerity, respect, language throughout the call. and courtesy? Did the ESW repeat any Deliver information clearly and information or change their concisely, pacing your speech pace/volume of speech at the and regulating your volume request of the consumer? based on the consumer’s need or request. 16  Serco Business Essential Call Skill 3: Empathy 17  Serco Business Observation Feedback Form: Empathy What are the 2 empathy criteria that ESWs are expected to meet? Question Expectation Did the empathetic words used If the consumer mentions a by the ESW acknowledge the situation that impacted him or consumer’s feelings? her emotionally, you must make empathetic statements to acknowledge his or her situation or feelings. Did the empathetic words used If the consumer makes any by the ESW acknowledge the statements expressing an consumer’s inconvenience? inconvenience or frustration, you must acknowledge those inconveniences. 18  Serco Business Essential Call Skill 4: Ownership 19  Serco Business Observation Feedback Form: Ownership What are the 2 ownership criteria that ESWs are expected to meet on every call? Question Expectation Did the ESW make the Use phrases that demonstrate consumer feel like they would taking ownership and being help them with the issue? accountable for resolving the issue. Did the ESW refrain from Avoid using phrases that shift shifting blame or blame or accountability to accountability to another another person or group. person or group? 20  Serco Business Essential Call Skill 5: Call Handling 21  Serco Business Observation Feedback Form: Call Handling What are the 3 call-handling criteria that ESWs are expected to meet on every call? Question Expectation Did the ESW establish with the Before periods of dead air that last consumer that there may be longer than 10 seconds, tell the periods of noninteraction time consumer that there may be silence (dead air)? while you’re working and ask permission to place him or her on hold. Did the ESW check back with After pressing the mute button, you the consumer during extended must check in with the consumer periods of noninteraction time every 30 seconds. (dead air)? Did the ESW successfully Steer the consumer back to the redirect the consumer to the purpose of the call by acknowledging 22 purpose of the call? what he or she shared before  Serco Business Essential Call Skill 6: Consistency with Guidance 23  Serco Business Observation Feedback Form: Consistency with Guidance What are the 3 consistency with guidance criteria that ESWs are expected to meet on Question every Expectation call? Did the ESW state Use scripting to read the disclaimer verbatim. the disclaimer? Did the ESW apply Use scripting when verifying a consumer’s identity. correct verification When the consumer provides his or her guidance on information, you must verify those answers using confirming the the information in the system. If verification fails, consumer's identity? you must follow guidance to close and notate the call. Did the consumer Some parts of scripting should always be read receive the correct word for word. Other scripts don’t have to be read and necessary verbatim, but depending on the nature of the call, information to you must use the appropriate script to provide the understand how to correct information or answer to the consumer. resolve their issues? By the end of the call, the consumer must know 24  Serco Business Practice Time 25  Serco Business Active Listening How can you show consumers that you’re engaged even though they can’t see you? 26  Serco Business Connect with Your Partner Step 1. Identify your partner’s Step 2. Initiate an individual chat name using the information with your partner and exchange available in the Meeting Chat. phone numbers.  Minimize the meeting window.  Go to the Teams app and initiate a new chat with your partner.  Share your phone number and ask for your partner’s number.  Determine who will call the other person for all paired activities. Step 3. Note your partner’s phone number and return to the 27 meeting window.  Serco Business Adapting Delivery Practice adapting your tone and delivery style to meet the consumer’s needs. 28  Serco Business Empathy Scenarios Review the 4 scenarios in your eWorkbook, respond to the prompts, and practice delivering your empathy statements. 29  Serco Business Empathy Scenarios  How can you tell if you should empathize with the consumer?  What was challenging about delivering an empathetic response? 30  Serco Business It’s My Responsibility  Read the consumer statements in your eWorkbook and respond using an ownership statement.  Remember to avoid placing blame on another person or group when responding.  You will share your responses with the class. 31  Serco Business It’s My Responsibility  As a consumer, how might you feel if the ESW did not make an ownership statement?  What was challenging about this activity? 32  Serco Business Managing Noninteraction Time  Describe the play-by-play technique. 33  Call Handling Practice: Breakout Serco Business Rooms  You will be split into 2 breakout groups.  In your breakout rooms, you will participate in 2 activities:  Give Me a Play-by-Play  Getting Back on Track 34  Serco Business Give Me a Play-by-Play  Dead-air time may occur when you are:  Navigating to the correct script in the document outcome table  Pulling up the list of preferred documents  Pulling up the consumer’s application  Looking for the clock end date  Experiencing technical difficulties with the system  In your eWorkbooks, list what you could say to the consumer to avoid dead-air time in these situations.  Your goal is to make sure that the consumer feels at ease throughout the call.  Then, practice using the play-by-play technique with a partner for each of these situations. 35  Serco Business Getting Back on Track  Follow along with the class demonstration using the scenario in the Getting Back on Track worksheet.  Pay attention to what the consumer does to take or keep the call off track.  Answer the prompts in your eWorkbook to identify how you could redirect Ms. Morris to the purpose of the call.  Practice how you would redirect Ms. Morris in this situation. 36 `  Serco Business Consistency with Guidance 37  Serco Business Consistency with Guidance Q&A  If a consumer is struggling to provide answers to the verification questions, can you tell the consumer which state is listed on their record?  No. You cannot tell the consumer which state is listed in their application because that’s PII.  If the consumer needs to know which preferred documents to send, do you need to read the full document list?  You may read the preferred documents list up to the point that the consumer recognizes the documents he or she has on hand to resolve the issue.  If the consumer asks how to update the income amount listed on his or her application, what should you do?  Read the instructions in the script to the consumer. 38  Serco Business Consistency with Guidance Q&A  If the consumer asks a specific question that is covered in an FAQ, what should you do?  Navigate to the FAQ in the wiki and read the FAQ to the consumer.  If the consumer asks a question that you do not know the answer to, what should you do?  You can say something like, “That’s a good question. Let me look into that for you.” Then, use available resources such as scripting and the FAQ to find the answer to the consumer’s question. If you are still unable to find the answer, ask your supervisor for help rather than giving incomplete or inaccurate information. 39  Recognizing the Essential Call Serco Business Skills  Listen to the call demonstration.  Follow along with the scenario on the Recognizing the Essential Call Skills worksheet of your eWorkbook.  Take notes on what the ESW does well and where they could improve. 40  Recognizing the Essential Call Serco Business Skills  What essential call skills did you hear?  What was missing?  What would you have done differently? How would this have improved the call? 41  Serco Business Skills in Action  When playing the consumer or the ESW:  Use the Skills in Action worksheets in your eWorkbook to understand the scenarios.  When playing the ESW, refer to the following to provide accurate information to the consumer:  Scripting Excerpt: All Scenarios worksheet  Scripting Excerpt scenario-specific worksheet  When playing the observer:  Use the Observer Checklist worksheet or the Teams form to determine if the ESW met the criteria for each call skill.  Use the Scripting Excerpt: All Scenarios and Scripting Excerpt scenario-specific worksheet to 42  Serco Business Skills in Action  As the ESW, what challenges did you face while helping the consumer? Did you think about the categories from the Observation Feedback Form as you handled the call?  As the consumer, did you feel that the ESW demonstrated the essential call skills effectively?  As the observer, what categories or specific criteria did you observe the ESWs struggle with the most? 43  Serco Business What We’ve Learned  In addition to reviewing the call flow and the 6 essential call skills, you’ve discussed techniques and tips to implement each call skill.  Now, you can use the essential call skills to provide a positive overall experience to consumers. 44  Serco Business Next Steps  Complete the evaluation form on the INFORMation Station.  Check in with your supervisor. 45