Investing in the right health insurance solution can help insurers take their customer experience management to the next level, making them stand out and become more competitive in the increasingly crowded insurance space.
Generally, customers these days have very different expectations from just a few generations ago. For instance, recent reports on customer behavior have consistently found that customer experience (CX) is just as—or more important—than the actual performance of the product. Surprisingly, this tends to hold true whether the customer is an individual or an organization.
The same shifts in expectations have also occurred throughout the health insurance industry. Where insurers used to be able to compete solely on the specific features of insurance policies, today they need to compete to deliver satisfying CX at every interaction or customer touch point.
This is especially critical given that health insurance products are often abstract and not easy for laypeople to understand. Customers usually don’t welcome having to regularly pay premiums, and it’s only when they’ve fully paid for their policy or cash out claims that they can have any positive emotions attached to their insurance.
Thankfully, contemporary health insurance software suites can facilitate customer experience improvements at virtually every point of the customer journey. Here are some ways insurance software will help create a friendlier, more transparent, and more hassle-free customer experience.
1.) Removes Perceivable Bottlenecks in CX
Using an updated health insurance solution won’t necessarily remove the bottlenecks — but they can make them imperceptible to customers. A better online system with good artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities can dramatically speed up verifying and cross-checking all the most common customer interactions, from premium payments to claims filing. The result is almost certainly going to be much happier customers.
2.) Gathers Accurate Data for Future Improvements
Another benefit of having better software is that it could gather data on customer interactions across the entirety of the system. This can help insurers gain insights into the kinds of things customers like and dislike about their experiences. This information can be used to optimize processes such as payments, claims, customer support, and other areas where there are direct customer interactions.
3.) Delivers New Products Faster
All the data gathered from a properly designed insurance platform could be used to deliver new insurance products. If the different components of the insurance solution are properly integrated and hosted on the cloud, it then becomes possible to identify different patterns that could be used to develop and bring more competitive policies and packages to the market. You can even set up the system to identify specific customers who are good candidates for upgrades and other exclusive packages that could further increase loyalty.
4.) Improves Data Quality and Transparency
The insurance industry is all about risk reduction, for both the customers and themselves. In the US, insurance fraud costs insurance companies up to 80 billion USD a year, the cost of which is largely borne by ordinary customers.
The first step to reducing fraud and helping deliver insurance products is often improving the quality and transparency of the data. Using updated cloud-based solutions not only removes perceived bottlenecks as discussed earlier, but it also makes it easier to trust the data you do get. This ultimately helps both insurers and their customers make better decisions.
One way this improved transparency could help CX is by allowing insurers and healthcare providers to immediately access pertinent patient data from multiple geographic locations. What was once a fairly involved process could now easily be resolved in a few minutes on a secure cloud-based insurance platform.
5.) Allows Year-Round Engagement
Part of the stress customers might have with insurance companies is the fact that customer service can sometimes be inconsistent. When a customer or healthcare provider can’t get hold of someone to process their healthcare claims, a negative CX is sure to follow. Fortunately, better software can help reduce problems with getting immediate access to quality customer care.
Healthcare insurance systems could easily be configured to have a customer service component that could be accessed by customers at any time. They could even have a machine learning component that could answer frequent inquiries and dramatically reduce wait times. Human customer service agents could then focus on more urgent cases, allowing them to deliver higher levels of satisfaction overall.
Additionally, these systems could be used to run email and social media campaigns that may help your brand. You can even send specific customers different promos and incentives to AB test different promotions approaches and to encourage them to take additional insurance policies.
Is it Time for a Better Online Health Insurance Solution?
Health insurance platforms could be more than just a way to look at their policies and claims remotely. When configured properly, they can create a superior customer experience which, in turn, translates to more loyal customers. Additionally, these systems create more transparency which reduces fraud, ultimately allowing the insurer to deliver better products and improve profitability.
