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Competing against Amazon

Dennis Bolin, Member Engagement/Chief Marketing Officer, Health Plan Alliance

05/12/2015

A repeated phrase became a rallying call when more than 75 executives and managers gathered for our Customer Experience Value Visit May 5 – 8 in San Diego:  “Your customers’ last best experience anywhere becomes their expected experience everywhere.”

If true, it means we compete to be the best in delivering a memorable experience against not just other health plans but every customer experience our members have.  It means our best practices are not good enough for very long because others are always raising the bar.

In San Diego we talked a lot about how a customer’s experience is delivered enterprise-wide not just in our call center.  It begins with marketing and sales, through the purchase decision on into enrollment and welcoming, all the way through care management and claims payment.  In short, the customer experience can be summarized as “How easy are we to do business with from beginning to end?”

And let’s face it:  we are often not easy to do business with.  Our processes and systems were designed for another market – a business to business market – not a direct to consumer market.  As a result, we are struggling with making needed investments and redesigning how we engage with members.  One of our keynote speakers, Gary Thompson, CEO of CLOUD, challenged us to think about “blowing up every process and putting it back together in a new way.”  Another speaker, Paul DePodesta with the New York Mets and a subject of the movie “Moneyball” shared a similar sentiment put forward by what Peter Drucker called the “naïve question”:  If we weren’t doing this the way we are now, would we do it this way?”

It is tough to break out of the status quo – the way we have always done things.  Regulatory and compliance requirements constrain us.  Consumers lack information and knowledge.  And our systems and processes are interconnected so that one change here and dominoes fall somewhere else.

But if we are going to succeed we have to get past these problems.  DePodesta spurred us to be discontent with the status quo, to be willing to try anything, and to debate everything.  We can’t keep up with the large insurance carriers in investments so we have to create our own best practices by setting our own new standards.

Steve Pappas with Alliance business partner Panviva shared 5 points from the Customer Experience Professionals Association that happened to be meeting in San Diego the same week and Alliance members shared some strategies they are pursuing in these areas that can get us started:

  1. Create a corporate culture for customer experience excellence.  It all starts with the CEO and other senior leaders.  As Drucker says “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”  Melissa Cook, CEO of Sharp Health Plan, shared their “Sharp Experience” strategy which has resulted in an increase in market share when other health plans and systems are declining pointing out that it starts at the top.
  2. Anticipate your customers’ experience.  Bring in the “voice of the customer” to anticipate what they need.  Don’t assume you know your customer.  Network Health Plan launched an ambitious campaign to be out in the community talking to hundreds of consumers – not just a couple dozen in a focus group.  Network used reams of data and information direct from consumers to identify ideas for change.
  3. Bring value to every interaction.  SelectHealth has embarked on a multi-year process to evaluate every interaction and touch point to determine how to bring more value to members by looking at their structure, responsibilities and improvement processes.
  4. Continuously evaluate your customer to gain new insight.  Sentara Health Plan has launched a new CRM system to help them monitor response to campaigns and touch points with consumers so they can adjust their strategies in close to real time.
  5. Reach members where and how they want to engage with your plan.  While health care is behind other industries in mobile and web-based applications, consumers are demanding them while still wanting the personal touch of a call center when they need it.  Chinese Community Health Plan and Presbyterian Health Plan point out the importance of tailoring products and communications to meet the interests and needs of specific member populations.

Of course, you don’t compete for business against Amazon.  But your customers’ expectations are shaped by Amazon.  And they hold you to a high standard that is constantly being raised.

Video of our keynote discussions and audio of the other presentations from our Customer Experience Value Visit will be available on our website.

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