customer service representative

United Concordia Dental

Customer Service Rep in the Government Business Ops, handling TDP and ADDP lines. I like most of my coworkers that work there, some are rude.  There is a good training program but they can only teach you so much and some you basically need to learn by working. After training, you will be assigned a phones team with leads for assistance if you need help. This is where you will begin to see the true colors of the company, the majority of the leads are terrible and quite honestly, I have no idea how they even got the job in the first place. Then supervisors, basically the same. Everything is rushed here and they want you trained and answering back to back calls all day long. Then you will begin to realize that about 95% of the people that work there have no idea what they are doing, major screw ups on this company, you then have to deal with. Management needs an overhaul, get some people with a personality and some compassion for employees. The whole company needs a reform at this point.  There is no recognition for good employees and the turnover is extremely high. They preach about promoting from within, but seems like they promote all of the idiots that are probably “friends” with someone. Higher up management has been there for twenty some years and just get stuck in the stagnant stage for years on end,  using the same outdated management styles, and software. This whole company needs an overhaul and maybe hire some people that have experience in the first place.  Also, the software needs a major update, nothing is integrated and you have to use 50 other programs just to do simple things. The software is basically from the 90’s  and crashes all of the time but guess what, you still have to take calls you can’t even service. The computers have issues about once a week with the phone system integrating with the software you have to use, can’t do a restart though without permission,  even though you can’t service calls. This place is backwards, zero compassion for employees, the leads and supervisors are zero help but that’s probably because they have no idea what they are doing anyway. The pay is not that great considering how much money they were paid to service these contracts and how much work and frustration you go through because you’re basically fixing screw ups of other employees all day long. This place just really needs to rebuild from the ground up because there’s major issues going on here and hints the extremely high turnover rate. Even if you’re the best of the best, you will get sick of it and leave. Benefits are good, that’s about it. Training was great but once you’re out of that phase, the rest is terrible. Don’t even get sucked into this place, you will quickly regret it. 

A typical day of work would be busy for me and I would have to navigate my email, my daily work instruction, other representatives that required assistance, and any additional requests that would be considered priority. I learned how to navigate a workplaces politics, culture, needs, hopes for the future, and their overall strategy. The management at United Concordia was understanding, patient, and busy. There was consistent difficulty with management prioritizing meetings, executive priorities, and employees individual needs. The workplace culture was busy, demanding, and in a constant state to improve. It was required that employees be hardworking, patient, and understanding. Representatives did not always understand why a change was occurring but we would be required to comply with the change regardless of its affects on our work. The hardest part of the job was navigating the needs of other departments while balancing whether any change requested by that department would violate one of our departments rules. We did not always understand other departments needs and they did not always understand our rules so there were many instances of emails occupying significant amounts of my time to explain the situation and whether or not the work can be completed and what may be required to complete the work. These occurrences were at times escalated to management for a deliberation and at times the decision that was come upon could be seen as a violation of our departments guidelines. I saw these occurrences as a poor use of time and a way to undermine the departments rules. I enjoyed the experience of solving an offices problem no matter how complicated or time consuming. The offices would acquire an appreciation for our work and build a positive rapport with the company overall. I had many offices claim we were difficult to work with however if I could solve their problem in one phone call they may exclaim how easy that was. Offices just wanted information and I feel in some ways we shared the same experience.

This company does not know a good hard-working employee when they see it. The way they structure their growth plan makes you think there’s actually a chance at growing within the company, but their requirements make it extremely difficult as a person with a life outside of work as well as kids to meet. An associate customer service rep should be a senior rep by year 3, but they find different ways to not allow you to advance. Their PTO policies are made so that you cannot use your PTO how you’d like or how you normally would at any other employer. It is difficult to schedule time off and have to use “unscheduled” PTO time when the days are closed (max amount of people have called off for that day) and the “unscheduled” time can’t be more than 80 hours in a year otherwise you will be barred for the rest of the year and 6 months into the next year from any raises or promotions. Leads love to tell you to trust your gut when answering customer questions, but the problem is that you are reprimanded and coached when you give a wrong answer. Management does not personally care about you or anything you are going through when you’re not on the clock. As if your personal life is not going to tie into or affect the place you dedicate 40+ hours of your week to. They will also fire you without any prior instances for miniscule things. Save your time and effort and work somewhere that values a good employee and helps them grow. 

This company seems fantastic when reading the job descriptions and what not, but it’s not. The training is not the greatest, although my instructor was ok. Most of the training does not prepare you for this job at all, in my honest opinion. Communication and building relationships are tough when you don’t even know anybody in person. Constantly made aware of how terrible they think you’re doing, but never any good feedback. My lead was kind of useless, never spoke that much and never got what I needed. I felt as if I couldn’t ask a question without being told to look up a document- when the answer wasn’t even there most times after you do your own research. The morale is poor and I wish it was better, but who knows when that will happen. This job is VERY stressful, because once again, you’re not made aware of what it is TRULY like, you only know once you deal with the providers and members. They expect you to be on the phone the entire shift you work, god forbid you need to use the restroom... as it all counts against your stats- which those stats never make sense and are not explained either. I feel as if you’re being setup for failure. Although, it seems that you’ll succeed in this job if you either lay low or be a suck up to everyone above you. It’s not worth the stress or your mental health, honestly. If you choose to apply and work here, best of luck to you, as you will need it. 

A typical day ay work - Stressful, Frustrating, Pressured,      
Micromanaged, Confused, Anxious.

People have actually had panics attacks and had to be taken out on a stretcher!  Or having to go to the nurse's office to calm down, etc.

What I learned - That working HARD for this company does not matter. So don't do it!!!   No recognition! Just Production, Production, Production. That is all they care about!

Co-workers - They ALWAYS complained about how much they HATE it there.  But they stay because it is a pain to go through looking for another job!

Hardest part of the job - Keeping up with the miscommunication and unorganized information. Trying not to fall asleep at the computer when you finally do figure out what is going on.

The most enjoyable part of the job - listening to music when entering claims.  (When you finally figure out what you are suppose to be doing anyway.)

**** United Concordia is also part of Highmark, so watch out for that name also.  I heard it was the same scenario over there too!!!

A typical day was to print out the Director's calendar for the day and include any necessary attachments; address many and continuous emails; order supplies for several departments, fill supply request and maintain supply room; reserve conference rooms throughout the day; process expense reports and make travel arrangements for the Director and her direct reports; keep up-to-date and accurate information in the binders for cost centers (budgets), update org charts; assist coworkers with their requests for supplies/facility issues or schedule appointments for them to meet with their Supervisor or Director; welcome new hires and develop packets for same.  The hardest part of the job was the location as it was not convenient to get to and from, but once in the office I enjoyed the trust and integrity bestowed upon me to perform my job duties and task with little or no supervision.  In this position, I learned that anything can change when it comes to transformation and it is very important to not just be diverse, but to adapt very quickly

They preach about listening to their employees and submitting updates to improve procedures and they do neither. Boss had her favorites.  When an update was suggested they took it as a personal attack. 
Managers don't understand how anything works beyond their limited scope of duties and don't care to learn. Training was a joke. They spent more time teaching things unrelated to your job than they did your actual work, and would actually teach you incorrectly on occasion. When mentioned to management they either tell you that you misunderstood (even if it was pre-printed instructions by the trainer) or they would act all hush hush about it like they didn't want to ruin her reputation?  Who knows? 
There were multiple times I told them things were gravely wrong with the way some customers were handled or not handled at all and not one person acted as if it mattered. You just would get an excuse if you got a reply at all. If this wasn't health insurance I would say they wouldn't exist in a year from now, but we know no one cares how health insurance operates so this is what we're left with.
Don't work here. Work anywhere else. 

Worked from home, responsible for managing all providers in network for OH and KY Gateway Medicare, later new manager on board added WV to my territories and also added all commercial line of business for all three states as my responsibility.

Worked from home majority of the time, when assigned to visit providers I was away from home for weeks at a time in all three states. With new management my responsibilities changed immediately and became hard to balance and it was difficult to obtain training  residing in Ohio and not having access to a hands on training environment in PA without  traveling back and forth often with expenses paid up front and later reimbursed for each trip..

I enjoyed the first year and a half under the original manager, I learned a lot about the Dental side of the health care industry within Provider Relations, learned claims process, fee neg, credentialing etc.

First things was cover the apartment with lighting.  Check all office copy, fax and printers were on and working.  Supply paper where needed.  
Check emails for priorities, check phone messages.  Make sure stock room was stocked and available.
Process request in order as received.
Check and stamp mail when received.  Route to proper departments or managements
Support all six analysts.  Support Vice President and two Project Managers.
Provider requested information to providers as requested.
Perform administrative duties such as ordering supplies, booking conference rooms and coordinating training sessions as requested.
Entered data as requested.  
Copied, faxed and communicated information as requested.
Opening mail and delivering to addressee.  
Mailings for recruitments, updates and brochures as requested.
Typing, reviewing and proof reading as requested.

United Concordia definitely made working for them a great place to work due to the team atmosphere, open environment, a chance to learn something new everyday and aso to push yourself to strive to be the best. It was a call center environment to help he military obtain and maintain dental insurance so it was a stressful job at times but management gave opportunities through classes, webinars and breaks to de stress. I enjoyd my co workers the most because we were such a diverse group of people who bonded and was there to teach each other not only about our jobs but to help us think outside our own individual boxes. A typical day was taking anywhere from 60-110 phone calls a day helping military members and their families maintain and obtain insurance, as well as fix any contract malfunctions due to computer updates from the military's systems.

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