The constant customer

Dennis Bolin, Health Plan Alliance

10/12/2017

 

If your health plan ceased to exist, without warning, what would be the reaction among your members?

How would your employees respond? 

Would your members be distraught—not just because they lost their insurance but because they feel they have a bond with your plan, they lost someone on their side? 

Would your employees be devastated because they lost the best job they ever had? 

Or would members and employees simply shrug and move on?  “Oh well, there are plenty of other insurance choices.”  “ Oh well, I always wanted to work somewhere else.”

This scenario was at the heart of the discussion David Neeleman, former CEO and President of JetBlue and currently at Azul Airlines in Brazil, held with more than 50 executives from Health Plan Alliance member plans during our Fall Leadership  Meeting.  David was joined by his brother Steve, founder of HealthEquity and an expert resource to the Alliance for more than 13 years in adapting to a consumer-driven retail market.

What about David’s question: Would your customers miss you?  Do they feel a connection with you that is so strong it is as much an emotional attachment as it is a business transaction?  The question is at the center of the landmark article “The Constant Customer” by Alec Appelbaum (Gallup).  Study after study by Gallup shows that people stay faithful to brands that earn both their rational trust and their deeply felt affection.  Factors relating to loyalty and emotion combined are “better predictor of behavior than consumer satisfaction measures alone.”

3 strategic levers

So, how do you build both rational loyalty and emotional attachment?  David pointed to three strategic levers covered in the Appelbaum article:

1. Ensure every employee is invested in your brand promise to your customer and is your ambassador.
   Are your employees proud to work at your plan?  Do they brag to people about their work?  Do they wear you logo in public?  Building an emotional connection starts with your employees.  You want to make sure every employee can say, “This is the best job I have ever had and I believe in my health plan.”
   
   
2. Execute flawlessly every time. 
   Do you monitor the key metrics that truly measure the “heart beat" of the company?  Do you measure the factors that help you anticipate member sentiment?  Does every employee see every metric?  Does everyone in the plan feel accountable?
   
   
3. Expect problems to be solved quickly. 
   Are employees given the accountability and ability to take responsibility for quickly solving problems for members with no excuses.  

 

Building loyalty

Loyal members are a competitive advantage especially for community-based health plans with regional markets and thin margins impacted by turnover in even a small number of accounts.  Loyalty is measured by how your members answer these questions from Gallup:

CONFIDENCE

• My health plan is a name I can always trust.
• My health plan always delivers on what they promise.

INTEGRITY

• My health plan always treats me fairly.
•  If a problem arises, I can always count on my health plan to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution.

PRIDE

• I feel proud to be a health plan customer.
• My health plan always treats me with respect.

PASSION

• My health plan is the perfect company for people like me.
• I can’t imagine a world with my health plan.
• When we wake up tomorrow, chances are your health plan will still be here.  Will your customers and employees care?

 

When we wake up tomorrow, chances are your health plan will still be here. The question is, will your customers and employees care?

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To access the presentations and podcasts from the 2017 Fall Leadership Meeting, visit the document tab on the event page.

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