Prescription for Prosperity
Quick Start answers Express Scripts' call for customer service training
Express Scripts had a script in mind for its newest call center in St. Marys, Ga. But the pharmacy benefit management company needed help training 550 new Patient Care Advocates to take prescription orders and answer questions from more than 50 million members nationwide.
Enter Quick Start and Coastal Georgia Community College, with the prescription for prosperity.
Express Scripts executives knew training would be the key to success in Georgia, so they were excited to take advantage of Georgia’s economic development initiatives. “The state of Georgia was very helpful and provided support,” says Express Scripts Senior Director Roger Cheek, who oversees the St. Marys call center.
A key part of this support is Quick Start’s customized training. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen where a state steps in and says, ‘I’m going to help you employ people,’” says Natalie Stockton, Express Scripts training manager in St. Marys. “I’m surprised other states haven’t jumped on board. What a fantastic partnership!”
Begun in 1986, Express Scripts is the country’s largest pharmacy benefit management company, with over $13 billion in revenue in 2003 and more than 8,400 employees nationwide. Last year, the Fortune 500 company filled over 32 million mail service prescriptions and answered over 25 million calls.
Quick Start’s partnership with Express Scripts is already at work. In August, Quick Start began training Patient Care Advocates in customer service skills in groups of 100, using a customized self-study guide.
“People can begin to see the big picture through the training guide,” Cheek says. “It’s very clear, it’s very concise and it flows well. That’s very important.”
“We think it’s going to be a really important tool for a new Advocate just walking in to recognize and understand what the business is all about,” says April Sullivan, an Express Scripts training manager based in Horsham, Pa., who worked with Quick Start on the self-study guide and a training video Quick Start is producing.
After 80 hours of classroom training, including Quick Start customer contract skills training, each group of Advocates will receive another 40 hours of on-the-job training. When fully staffed, the 24-hour call center will employ 650 new employees, including Advocates who will field an average of 45,000 calls a day, and 12 on-site pharmacists who will help Advocates answer member questions about benefit plans.
The 67,000-sq.-ft. St. Marys facility will be state-of-the-art, says Cheek, boasting flat screen computers, a community area for employees, even a cyber café.
“It’s a multi-million dollar investment in the community,” explains Cheek, who says Express Scripts is eager to be a good corporate citizen. “We’ll be the largest private employer in Camden County. We’re going to be a part of the community.”
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