Customer Service
Providing the necessary support for your employees during a Dependent Verification program is key for the success of the program and employee relations. HMS recommends providing a host of support channels to assist your employees though the process. You know your employee base the best, so when determining the support and methods that you provide, consider your company culture.
Website
If your company hosts an intranet, consider creating a “Dependent Verification” Page and offering the following services:
- Project phases and Timelines
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Eligible Dependent Definitions
- Required Documentation
- Resource Links (how to procure marriage certificates, birth certificates, etc.)
- A Contact Us link for questions or issues (link to Inbox)
- You could also utilize the intranet for project announcements, reminders, and stats throughout the process.
Email Inbox:
Creating an Inbox for Dependent Verification assistance is an efficient way to track questions and responses. You may also consider sending a confirmation e-mail to your employees as they complete the process. This confirmation will ease employee concern as to their status when they have submitted documentation.
Incoming e-mails should receive an automated message stating the inquiry has been received and set the expectation of when to receive a response. To ensure some level of privacy, it is critical to limit the personnel who have access to the Inbox. Those responsible for managing the Inbox and responses should all understand the process when responding via email. Additionally, it is critical to give standard responses that do not offer information that could be taken out of context. Remember that emails are printable and can be used as a record by you or your employee.
Recommendations for proper management include:
- Create a filing system for messages that are awaiting a response and those that are complete.
- Create a list of “standard” responses to questions you expect to get during the process. The FAQ’s and Best Practices are a great place to start.
- Anytime a response is given outside of the original “standard” list, file it for use for future responses for the same question.
- Never provide more than one response to the employee, I.e. – don’t go back and forth over email. If additional information is requested after the initial response, request the employee contact the appropriate team in the business for assistance. This will ensure that the employee’s question is answered in a personal manner, thereby assisting the employee in completing the process.
- Focus on answering the question asked, no more no less. Also, ensure you are addressing a question, not just a complaint. Discourage printing the email sent by the employee–the more things in hard copy, the more opportunity for poor security and privacy.
Voicemail/Hotline:
Procuring a phone line and/or voice mail box is something you will want to consider. This enables your employees to reach out with an issue or question they have. It will be key to have a good process in place to monitor the phone line or voice mail box to ensure messages are returned in a timely fashion and you will want to ensure responses are consistent. You will want to set the expectation of your response in the voice mail message.
Fax:
Most fax volume will be used for document procurement. However, depending on your culture and preferred communications, some employees may want to write and fax questions to you instead of email or voice mail. If you have e-mail Inboxes set up to receive faxes, this is the best case scenario. From there, you can manage responses to the faxes similar to managing the Inbox process. We do not recommend responding via fax as it may be hard to control who will be able to view the fax.
If you do receive customer service related questions via fax, you should ensure the inquire(s) are managed, but responses should be either by a phone call or via e-mail to the employee to protect their privacy.
