Dynamics 365 is key to MSI’s global impact on reproductive healthcare

MSI chose Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Customer Voice to leverage each point of client contact and optimize customer relationship management to provide the highest levels of continuous care. MSI’s implementation has driven increased collaboration and efficiency with more accurate and more timely data, and a higher quality of care for its clients.

MSI Reproductive Choices (MSI) started in 1976 as a single clinic in London. Today, it opens doors to reproductive healthcare in 36 countries on 6 continents, overcoming the challenges that come with serving in remote geographies with language differences and limited medical supplies. By making reproductive choice possible and more accessible, MSI and its partners and donors are helping increase gender equality, break cycles of poverty, and meet sustainable development goals. Working hand-in-hand with local healthcare partners and governments to build quality reproductive healthcare that’s available for the long term, MSI’s global healthcare network has supported more than 200 million people in making the choices that are right for them, their families, and their futures for more than 50 years.

To deliver better care, gather better data 

MSI’s Client Contact Centers play a pivotal role in the client journey before, during, and after service delivery, fielding millions of calls and messages a year from clients in 19 countries and regions. More than 300 mobile outreach teams travel on foot, by 4x4, and in boats to rural and poor communities where limited access to phones and internet service creates even more obstacles for people seeking information and care that’s already hard to come by. MSI is uniquely positioned to realize the power of high-quality, accurate information to improve health outcomes.

But the global International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) felt hamstrung by the lack of visibility into client data and limited client feedback mechanisms. The process of measuring its impact and making changes based on client sentiment was too slow to be meaningful. Contact centers, meanwhile, are a critical point in a client’s care before, during, and after service provision but agents were hampered by a fractured view of clients’ interactions with the organization. Better data collection and client relationship management (CRM) would drive greater efficiencies and improved care experiences at every step of women’s journeys through their local healthcare systems.

To maximize the benefit of each instance of contact and equip staff and providers with high-quality data to help women determine their best course of care, MSI chose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service and Customer Voice.

MSI considered other solutions for its contact centers, but only Dynamics 365 Customer Service easily integrates with many other proprietary components and systems that are used in contact centers and more, including phone and hospital record systems, thereby simplifying MSI’s technology stack and reducing operating costs. With computer telephony integration (CTI) software from Upland InGenius, Dynamics 365 communicates across the range of technologies in use to deliver phone traffic directly to the CRM database.

In 2019, Kenya’s contact center became the first to go live with Dynamics 365. In just five years, MSI deployed its solution in 18 more countries. Ephraim Muvirimi, Senior Manager for Global Contact Centers, is thrilled with how easy it was to roll out. He adds, “The standardized deployment of the solution means our small central resource team can support a wide array of users.”

Greater efficiencies at contact centers drive greater impact in the field

The influx of data to MSI’s contact centers is saving time and increasing productivity. “Operationally, Dynamics 365 has been a game changer for us,” says Muvirimi.

Handling more traffic and encouraging collaboration

In 2018, roughly 350 contact center employees handled 1.5 million conversations. The efficiencies gained with Dynamics 365 enabled contact center teams to handle growing traffic across voice and messaging channels (including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger). In 2023, with staffing down by a third and a client base that had grown by 20%, the contact centers managed more than 3.77 million conversations—more than double the number from 2018 with just two-thirds of the staff.

Collaboration also skyrocketed. Dynamics 365 allowed MSI to standardize processes and make actionable insights easily accessible in Power BI dashboards, giving the organization’s staff a unified view regardless of geographical and language barriers. Inter-organizational communities of practice have sprung up, where colleagues around the world can share best practices and offer clients enhanced guidance and support.

Removing barriers to care 

Before Dynamics 365, the lack of standardized data collection and visibility into prior communications and activities meant that clients were often forced to repeat their histories at each contact. Not only could this slow down the delivery of care, but it could further deter clients who already faced major obstacles to accessing care.

Deterrents are antithetical to MSI’s mission and approach. Many of MSI’s clients live in remote areas. Given the limited access to phone and internet service that’s available to them, it’s imperative that their questions and concerns are addressed quickly and thoroughly. Contact center employees strive to resolve inquiries on the first call. If that’s not possible, information from the first conversation should inform subsequent conversations.

“That’s where Dynamics 365 Customer Service has really improved our ability to provide better service,” explains Muvirimi. Automated case creation and the ability to document and track cases in the system are “really helpful in terms of improving the client experience and also gaining the insights that we need to improve outcomes in future cases.” Jennifer Gassner, Director Marketing and Innovation agrees. “Dynamics 365 has provided robust data visibility and increased collaboration which enables us to drive efficiencies, manage performance more effectively, and ensure that women who reach out to us are getting more accurate information, reliable referrals to high quality care and a seamless experience in their healthcare journey."

Freeing clinicians to see more patients

Post-care communications are a vital part of a client’s healthcare journey. In fact, 12% to 15% of calls to the contact centers are made after care has been provided. With the integration between Dynamics 365 and the electronic health records system, contact center agents have a full view of every client’s history. They’re able to provide optimized response times, greater continuity of care, and higher client satisfaction. If clients experience complications or have questions about medication, agents are better equipped to provide answers and assurances—particularly important for clients who are served by MSI’s mobile clinics.

When contact centers replace providers as the first point of contact for clients’ post-care calls, clinicians no longer have to divide their time between seeing patients and fielding follow-up inquiries. As a result, the providers spend more time seeing patients. Because Dynamics 365 makes effective task-sharing possible, Muvirimi says that the productivity of MSI’s providers has soared. A three-month case study in one of the countries showed that this deeper connection between the contact centre and service delivery teams saved over 350 hours of provider time—the equivalent of three full-time providers. “It’s a better experience to have immediate support for our clients, and we’re enabling our clinicians to be more productive at each site,” he explains. The potential for this innovation is even more impactful if extrapolated across the 34 contact centres that MSI operates.

Supporting client feedback

Among MSI’s priorities is to collect candid feedback and respond expeditiously. With varying literacy skills among its clients, sometimes the only way to capture feedback was face-to-face in the clinic where care was sought. The circumstances of the feedback made it unreliable. Clients are more than hesitant to give negative feedback to a staff member directly, for fear of impacting their own, and others', access to care. The feedback was captured by MSI staff members on paper forms, adding another layer of distance between a client’s experience and an accurate review. And by the time the feedback was compiled, entered into an Excel file, and reviewed, the delay could have already alienated clients and potential clients to the point where they no longer sought care.

Now, Dynamics 365 Customer Voice makes collecting client feedback in 10 countries and regions as easy as clicking a button which explains why more than 24,000 clients have provided feedback in the last year alone. Power App built by Velrada makes collecting honest, private feedback accessible immediately so that MSI can take timely action in service of its clients, online and off. MSI is dedicated to its clients' care and offers many convenient ways to collect feedback from as many clients as possible with help from Dynamics 365. Customer Voice enables data collection in MSI’s healthcare settings with reliable connectivity via private touchscreen kiosks, links, or QR codes for onsite surveying, as well as offline in remote areas. Data collected offline is automatically uploaded to Customer Voice when providers are back online. Customer Voice also enables MSI to collect feedback via links sent to clients to complete on their own devices. Customer Voice links are embedded in the CRM which enables contact center agents to capture client feedback during post-care interactions. Feedback is immediately visible in a Power BI dashboard so that all MSI employees can view the same data regardless of its source ensuring swift action, remediation and high-quality care for its clients.

Documenting impact with data

Nonprofit organizations around the world are increasingly competing for the same funding. Angela Argenziano, Global Client Experience Manager for MSI, says that having the client feedback dashboard in each program country and region and in different languages positions the organization to document KPIs like never before. “Before Dynamics 365, we couldn’t benchmark our service provision against the industry. But now we have the data backing our claims of impact and satisfaction to show clients, insurance, and corporate partners and funders,” she explains.

A brighter, healthier future

Dynamics 365 Customer Service is the backbone of MSI’s client engagement operations, providing new efficiencies and better visibility into client data. Dynamics 365 Sales and Dynamics 365 Fundraising Engagement are also used to support funding streams that keep this vital INGO serving its clients. Communities all over the world are benefiting from MSI’s increased productivity and its clients’ increased control over their reproductive health.

With Dynamics 365, MSI is better equipped to continue their global mission to deliver greater reproductive choice and support for women’s rights and equality.