Health insurers have identified customer loyalty as a key leverage to enable business growth. When we look at how easily customers can search online for the best option, it’s not surprising that they often jump from one provider to another. Yet customers don’t really want to deal with multiple care providers: what they want is a seamless experience. If this can be delivered by a single care partner, they are more likely to stick with them.
To be perceived as real care partners, insurers can’t work in silos. They need to engage with all stakeholders to offer a holistic customer experience. Individually, digital solutions can help by enabling health insurers to focus on their customers’ needs; cohesively, digital health platforms deliver connectivity and valuable data insights.
In this article, we will explore how digital health platforms help insurers gain a true understanding of the customer journey, so that they may engage with consumers in innovative ways and establish collaborative, lasting relationships with all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem.
Let’s look at these key aspects:
- Help insurers better understand the customer journey
Insurers need access to data from the beginning to the end of their customers’ journeys: from quotation to policy consultation, from claims management to reimbursement and beyond. Visibility over the right data at the right time can help insurers make that journey as smooth as possible, so that data can become information and, ultimately, competitive advantage.
It is key for insurers to identify all the necessary components required to digitise their operations. They might strive to provide more services in a more productive way, and rightly so. However, it is not just about the quantity of services: quality is critical. Insurers need to design services that meet customer needs and deliver them through the most appropriate platforms in a timely manner.
Today’s consumers want excellent service - and they want it now. Fortunately for insurers, solutions to meet those expectations are available. For example, e-signatures can replace paper-intensive processes for electronic records while maintaining regulatory compliance. That way, the insurer receives signed documents faster and healthcare decisions can be executed in less time for a lower cost. Everybody wins - not least the policyholder.
By empowering customers to access service at their own convenience, insurers drive greater satisfaction. With digital health platforms enabling this through connectivity and data sharing across all relevant stakeholders and portals, insurers can finally truly understand their customers’ touchpoints along the lifecycle.
- Promote new, intuitive interactions
Businesses are increasingly challenged to develop an omnichannel approach: and health insurers are no exception. They must provide quality assistance across multiple platforms, multiple languages and complying with multiple regulations. Many businesses have found a solution to this challenge by integrating conversational commerce into their strategies.
“Conversational commerce” includes the use of chats, messaging platforms and other natural language interfaces designed to interact with users and customers. Chatbots have proven their popularity: a survey of 6,000 consumers around the world found that nine out of ten consumers would like to be able to use messenger apps to talk to businesses.
What is a chatbot - and how can it help?
A chatbot is a digital service programmed to simulate a natural conversation with humans to accomplish specific tasks, such as enabling purchases and answering queries. In the world of healthcare insurance, chatbots have been increasingly used both internally and externally - a trend that’s set to continue.
Chatbots can help customers access information more easily, get support faster and undertake tasks at their own convenience. This results in an enhanced customer experience and satisfaction. Conversations can take place via messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Telegram.
Not only do consumers want quick and easy access to information: they also expect the interaction to be engaging and personalized. This is where chatbots deliver value by engaging in a human-like, proactive way.
A true digital health platform allows a seamless integration with conversational platforms, helping insurers overcome any technology barriers and improve customer retention.
- Work collaboratively with your healthcare ecosystem
Insurers need to be able to easily collect, store and share data within their organization, but also with their healthcare ecosystem partners (e.g. policyholders, agents and healthcare providers) - always, of course, in a compliant manner. Digital health platforms ensure the availability of such data along the customer lifecycle, facilitating decision-making and ensuring it is informed by customer needs. Insurers can then leverage that information to adapt their services, better address existing needs and predict future ones.
A key goal for insurers is to encourage customer autonomy by providing a seamless experience. Self-service makes customers more proactive, helping contain costs. As an example along the claims management journey, the insured can request a prescription, the provider can issue it and invoice the insurer, who will then validate the pre-authorization requests and process payment. Such seemingly simple changes can go a long way in ensuring clients perceive value when all so often they only notice things that go wrong and invoices that need settling.
A Digital Health Platform unites existing and new systems, filling any process gaps through which value is often lost. Insurers don’t need to worry about technology barriers or making collaboration feasible, and focus on what truly matters: providing better services.
Key takeaways:
- To build customer loyalty, insurers must provide a holistic, seamless experience. Digital health platforms help them gain a competitive advantage and work collaboratively with multiple agents and users via interoperable, personalized portals that connect with both existing IT systems and new services.
- In health, the customer journey is complex, and involves multiple touchpoints. It is by understanding the customers and their journeys that health insurers can shape strategies to deliver greater value throughout their ecosystem.
- In digital, Interaction and engagement are key in the customer experience. By embracing conversational commerce solutions (messaging platforms, chatbots, etc.) and leveraging them across all channels, healthcare insurers can provide the seamless experience today’s consumers expect.
If you are interested in this topic, the Cegedim Insurance Solutions team is at your disposal to answer to all your questions.
