|
Excellence in Customer Service
by Terri Jirak, Director of Support
Services
“Now that was a GREAT customer service
experience!!!!” How many times have you said
this in your life time? Last quarter, our Chief
Executive Office and President ,Walt Young,
authored the Executive corner article, “I Want
to Complain.” As the director of Support
Services, I want you to know that from our
perspective, complaining is a very important
aspect of our overall growth. Over the years, we
have worked hard to improve response times,
technology and industry knowledge, as well as
overall product functionality. Many of the
processes that we have implemented have actually
been inspired by suggestions from our customers,
or have evolved as a result of a customer
complaint: online chat, 24-hour response times,
Webinar Boot Camps, and web access to downloads
to name just a few.
To continually provide the service that you have
come to expect, we monitor customer satisfaction
very closely and take it very seriously. This
allows us to quickly correct any problem areas.
Over the years, we have accomplished this with a
variety of methods, including customer surveys,
direct phone calls, and a centralized customer
database that allows us the ability to evaluate
a 360-degree view of you, our customers. By
putting these tools into place, it ensures that
we are continually working to improve our
relationship with you.
Since customer service has dominated my world
for over a decade, I have learned that your
experience with Support has a significant impact
on your overall impression of our company. We
know that one person within Ortivus can make the
difference between a frustrating or an excellent
customer service experience. On a daily basis,
the Support Techs are dealing with a wide range
of customers with a variety of issues. My staff
continually amazes me with the amount of
patience they display and their positive energy.
Believe it or not, like the rest of us, they may
occasionally have a bad day. It is important to
us that you never even notice that they are
having one of those days. If the level of
support that you are receiving does not meet
your expectation, I encourage you to call me and
‘complain.’ Not only can we take action to
correct the problem, but it will give us the
opportunity to discuss your needs and what we
can do to make the experience better. I view
every conversation with a customer as an
opportunity to learn.
Providing you with direct phone and chat access
to knowledgeable support techs, prompt
responses, state-of-the-art technical abilities
and up-to-date programs are essential in our
effort to consistently provide you with
exceptional customer service. We are striving
for lifelong success and building relationships
with you, our customer, so that you end every
encounter with us saying, “Wow, now that was a
great customer service experience.”
Sweet Product Coming Attractions
by Dan Voss, Product Manager
As of this writing, version 5.2 of the Sweet
suite of products is in beta testing and is
nearing production release. New features have
been added to the products, as well as updates
to accommodate changes in the industry.
A major new option has been added to Sweet-Billing/Station
that enhances the functionality of Sweet-Billing
when importing data from external sources. This
new option is called Data Reconciliation,
and it provides a solution for situations where
data already exists in Sweet-Billing for
a patient or call and conflicting data for the
same patient or call is being imported from an
outside source. In the past, this new incoming
data would be rejected. With Data
reconciliation, the Billing or Station user will
have the option of selecting whether individual
conflicting pieces of data should be accepted or
discarded. There is also a full audit trail in
history so it is possible to see what data has
been discarded.
The practical applications of Data
Reconciliation include:
-
Allowing changed patient information from
Sweet-Field Data to move into Sweet-Billing.
-
Allowing call data from Sweet-CAD and
Sweet-Field Data to ‘blend’ in
Sweet-Billing/Station.
-
Allowing call and patient data being
imported through ASCII import to be blended
with existing call and patient records in
Sweet-Billing.
Data Reconciliation
provides the means to blend this data in
Sweet-Billing/Station while protecting the
integrity of the system.
Sweet-Billing
5.2 also implements support for provider NPI
numbers as well as enhancements to assist those
customers who are implementing ‘Condition
Codes,’
The enhancements for Sweet-CAD include
several new features.
Late Performance Checking
provides a valuable tool for tracking the
performance of both emergency and pre-scheduled
transports. For emergency transports, a response
timer is implemented that can adjust for
different priorities as well as geographic
locations. For pre-scheduled transports, late
performance is determined by comparing the
on-scene time with the scheduled pickup time.
Dispatch staff are alerted to ‘Late’ incidents
and can be forced to enter a ‘Late’ reason.
Two new external interfaces have been
introduced.
Sweet-CAD
now provides an interface for the CES Wireless
TRK-240 mobile data terminal. This interface supports the
Status Messaging functions, and the LCD
display of the
TRK-240 as well as allowing it to act as an
AVL receiver.
An interface has also been completed that
supports Kenwood -80 series radios equipped with
GPS receivers so a fleet equipped with these
receivers can be tracked in Sweet-CAD.
Work is already underway on version 5.3 of
Sweet-Billing/Station, Sweet-Field
Data, and Sweet-CAD. Major changes are in
store for Sweet-Billing/Station and
Sweet-Field Data as the NEMSIS/NHTSA 2.2
dataset is implemented. A number of new fields
and some new code files will be introduced as
part of the NEMSIS/NHTSA 2.2 dataset, to be
implemented. If you are not familiar with the
NEMSIS/NHTSA 2.2 dataset, more information is
available at:
http://www.ortivusna.com/OrtivusTALK/4Q05/IndustryUpdates.htm#NEMSIS
http://www.nemsis.org
Ortivus is excited to offer our customers these
new features and updates for our Sweet software
line. Commitment to industry knowledge –
commitment to superior customer service – and
commitment to the latest advancements in
technology – are all foundational components of
the Ortivus vision. In addition to development
of the best software in the Public Safety and
EMS industries, Ortivus continually searches for ways of improving the ‘customer experience.’ We welcome your
ideas and suggestions!
Watch for the Traveling Pink Cowboy Hats
by Kathy Ransom, Ortivus User Group
Coordinator and Support Technician
Perhaps you’ve heard of the Red
Hat Society before? (If not, you Google it for
all the information you’d ever want to know.)
Well, there may be a new ‘hat society’ forming
as a result of the last Ortivus User Group in
Dallas on April 19 - 21, 2006.
This ‘hat society’ comes in the form of pink
cowboy hats, which were chosen by a group of
Sweet software users at the Dallas User Group as
their unifying and identifying symbol. This Pink
Cowboy Hat Society really demonstrates one of
the cool benefits that come along with attending
Ortivus User Groups – a network of users that
share many commonalities, including friendship.
Now, over a month later, the emails area still
going back and forth among this group.
The 2006 Dallas User Group brought in over 50
Sweet-Billing users, both new to the system
and those with years of experience. The size and
success of the Ortivus User Group Workshops
continue to grow each year, and Dallas proved to
be a popular location. “We had a terrific
session with over 50 attendees from all over the
country,” said Kathy Ransom, Ortivus User Group
Coordinator. “We were able to use the Knowledge
Development Center as our teaching venue,
complete with computer labs for each of our
sessions. We offered two training agendas - a
novice track for those individuals with less
than one year of Sweet-Billing experience
and a more advanced track for those who have
used both our billing and field data software.”
In addition to the hands-on learning on the
Sweet applications, there is ample opportunity
for networking to occur, which can become one of
the most long-lasting and beneficial results
that come out of the user group workshops. Tracy
(OR048) and Kim (MN060) both agreed that the
“networking and sharing that happened within the
classroom were awesome!” They also said that it
was nice to know that they were not alone in the
frustration and confusion that often goes along
with working in this industry. They said they
really made a lot of good connections and Kim
was delighted to bring back something to her
service that her supervisor wasn’t even aware
of. J.R. Henry completed the educational
offering, sharing his expertise in the EMS
industry. His topics included:
Method
4 to Method 2 billing, surviving a Medicare
audit,
EMS documentation, field data
collection, and compliance issues.
If you haven’t signed up for one of the two
remaining “hands-on” user groups in 2006, it’s
time to do so now; one in Chicago, IL, June 20th
– 22nd and the other in Atlanta, GA,
November 1st - 3rd. For
more information, check our website or contact Kathy Ransom at 563-387-3191, ext.
238. …and keep an eye out for the traveling
Pink Cowboy Hat Society…which all started at an
Ortivus User Group. Good things happen here!!
Sign up now!
 New Training Class Offered: Beginning Boot Camp
for
Sweet-Field Data
by
Beth Hollar, Support Technician
You asked for
it - you got it! Well, at least several of you
asked for it...a beginner class for the Sweet-Field
Data application - now available online. This is a
new web-based class that features data-entry
instruction for new or inexperienced field data
users. Beginner Boot Camp will cover the
fundamentals needed for complete and successful
data entry. This class reviews each section in
the Sweet-Field Data application to
simplify the learning process, as well as cover
frequently asked questions. Contact your sales
representative at 800-537-3927 for more
information.
|
