Winner, Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award
Three numbers best sum up the success that The Beryl Cos. have experienced under CEO Paul Spiegelman: 98, 95 and 97.
The 98 represents Beryl’s employee retention rate, a level rare for Beryl’s industry — call center services. Ninety-five signifies the company’s customer retention rate, also high for the industry. And 97 is the percentage of Beryl’s clients that recommend the firm to peer companies.
It’s all part of Spiegelman’s whatever-it-takes-approach that has made Beryl, which provides a variety of call services and support to health care providers, uniquely successful.
Spiegelman’s task wasn’t easy, especially because he plays in an industry rife with obstacles and a generally poor reputation. But none of that deterred Spiegelman from his goal — to align Beryl with its clients’ goals of improving the health of its patients.
To combat the perception of call centers being boiler rooms, Spiegelman set out to differentiate Beryl from his competitors. He made it clear to every employee that the company was in the health care business, not the call center business, and subsequently, he focused employees’ efforts on improving the patient experience.
By doing this, he was able to build a culture based on a people-centric, “family” model, which helped maximize employee morale while ensuring a roster of satisfied customers.
Beryl was also able to innovate where others had not, developing comprehensive systems that allowed the company to command premium prices and generate profits five to six times the industry average.
Beryl moved beyond enhancing customer satisfaction and toward influencing clinical quality through a post-discharge call service. The program, which had a significant external impact, was designed to help hospitals prevent 30-day readmissions of previously discharged patients — a problem caused by poor-quality medical care.
Spiegelman invested heavily in technology, which lets the company leverage one of the industry’s most advanced technology and IT teams to manage the complex triage responsibilities that enable nurses and clinically trained Beryl call advisers to assess patient needs and arrange the most appropriate medical connections.
Combined, all of this has made The Beryl Cos. a significant player in the marketplace and a regular on regional, state and national “Best Place to Work” lists.
How to reach: The Beryl Cos., www.beryl.net
