AICEX: Valido per tutti i servizi che devono “funzionare al momento del bisogno”.

Originally published by Don Peppers on LinkedIn: Delivering a Frictionless Customer Experience in Healthcare Insurance

Healthcare definitely isn’t what it used to be.

In previous posts I’ve talked a great deal about the importance of ensuring that your customer experience is as frictionless as possible. And when I use the term “frictionless” I’m talking specifically about an experience a customer would find to bereliable (working well, with no flaws), valuable (not overpriced, easy to understand),relevant (specific to that customer), and trustable (designed to operate in the customer’s interest, proactively).

But friction is different in different business categories, and recently I was asked by a healthcare company in the “payer” category (i.e., a health insurance provider) to discuss some of the types of friction that might plague a customer’s experience in this category. If your company sells health insurance, then your offering to customers is already quite complex, but from the customer’s own perspective, the experience can often be cumbersome to the point of overwhelming.

Healthcare is a particularly demanding business these days, so without further ado here’s my own list of features that every healthcare insurer should aspire to at a bare minimum, if it wants its own customer experience to be absolutely as frictionless as possible:

Reliability

• Web site should be mobile-friendly, with proactive chat, co-browsing, and an intelligent answer engine
• ID cards on mobile devices as well as wallet cards
• Easy to access via online, phone, email, chat, or in-app channels, 24-7
• Problems with claims identified with specificity, when notifying a member
• Seamless connections between prescriptions and provider claims (anything a payer is responsible for available with little or no trouble)
• Ready-to-go partner network for dealing proactively with data breaches or other peak loads and crises

Value

• Price comparisons and choices should be easily obtained
• Complex plan details should be simplified, with walk-through modules and examples
• Reduced gobbledygook in explaining complicated pricing system for deductibles, co-pays, and other issues
• Payer-oriented language (“co-pay”) eliminated, customer-oriented language (“you pay”) used
• Flexible, agile staffing and augmentation capabilities to handle peaks in call demand
• Digitally targeted campaigns, with “warm” leads passed through to sales

Relevance

• Recognize the phone a member calls in from
• Seamless, contextual connection between automated web or in-app session and the most-relevant expert human interaction
• Provide faster access to most recently accessed forms and information on the website
• Pull up claims based on a unified view of the member, including HSAs, etc
• Remember a member’s previous plan choices, and make comparisons during the sign-up period to how his or her expenses would have been covered with new or different plans
• Proactive, contextually relevant reminders and follow-ups

Trustability

• Warn a member when reimbursement on a claim is being reduced, and provide information on how to avoid similar reductions in the future
• Provide objective advice on the best type of plan to choose, based on criteria such as a member’s risk tolerance, general health, chronic diseases, and history of usage
• Allow members to review the payer’s services, including promptness, explanatory proficiency, and complexity of pricing – on the payer’s website (moderated)
• Video chat to reinforce empathetic connection, improving compliance and outcomes