The 7 Things Your Health Insurance Customers Are Not Telling You

Insight Driven Health The 7 Things Your Health Insurance Customers Are Not Telling You And What To Do About Them The seismic shift in power to the customer has come at last to the US Health Insurance market. With The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act adding 40 million new customers and with individual and Consumer Directed Health Care (CDHC) plans exploding in popularity, US health insurers will need to invent new healthcare solutions for competitive success. Right at the fore is customer service, the entrée to productive customer relationships that will withstand the test of time. Customers have become more diverse and more demanding, wanting service offerings, experiences and communications increasingly on their own terms. They have also become more technology savvy and less shy in broadcasting their experiences. Technology trends like social media have ignited a new consumer activism whose reverberations have only begun to be felt. Insurers operating in this “new normal” face an unprecedented level of competition, unparalleled opportunities to expand, and the commensurate risks of failure. With customer service emerging as the “X Factor” of high performance, health insurers must understand current customer perceptions, as well as how to shape (and improve) these perceptions for future growth. To help crystallize these factors, Accenture Healthcare conducted a survey of customer attitudes toward the customer service practices of US-based health insurance providers. Using a web-based questionnaire, we surveyed 1,000 customers in the US between late December 2010 and early January 2011. From that research we distilled the surprises and secrets of customer service that together outline the alchemy behind superior customer service performance. Seven Surprises About Customer Service Surprise #1 Being satisfied with high customer satisfaction is a mistake. Overall, customers feel satisfied with their health insurance providers; in fact, our research found that 42 percent of customers have a high degree of satisfaction, while only 7 percent have a high degree of dissatisfaction (Figure 1). However, current satisfaction levels do not translate into loyalty and revenue opportunities. Despite their general satisfaction, customers are divided about equally on their feeling of loyalty to their health insurer. Moreover, few would purchase more services from their health insurer, if offered. 41 percent of customers indicated that if offered additional services, they would be unwilling to buy them, while only 7 percent indicated that they would be willing. Figure 1—Current State of Satisfaction, Loyalty and Advocacy Not at All Extremely How satisfied you are with the Health insurance companies you do business with today? Do you trust Health insurance providers to keep your personal Health information confidential? 7% 42% 14% 39% How loyal you feel to your Health insurance provider? 26% 23% The extent to which you will buy more products/services from your Health insurance provider? 41% 7% % respondents giving top 3 of 10 boxes ratings % respondents giving bottom 3 of 10 boxes ratings Surprise #2 Payers are not keeping up with rising customer expectations. The current tenuous nature of customer loyalty to their health insurers may have its roots in their rapidly rising customer service expectations. We found that 20 percent of customers indicated that their expectations of the customer service function increased, just in the past year. Furthermore, 41 percent stated that their expectations increased in the past five years. They want greater ease and better support: When asked how their expectations increased, 80 percent said that they “expect customer service to be easier/more convenient to obtain” and 75 percent said that they “expect customer service representatives to be more knowledgeable and better trained.” As customers are growing more exacting, their health insurers are struggling to pass service muster. In fact, our research found a large gap between what matters to the customer and the perceived performance of health insurance companies. While “having employees who are knowledgeable and well-informed” ranked as the most important customer service attribute, several other qualities were rated nearly as important, including “the amount of time I have to wait to be served.” Yet for all five of the characteristics rated most important, the gap between customer expectations and insurer performance was significant (Figure 2). Figure 2—Customer Service Characteristic Importance & Satisfaction Having employees who are knowledgeable and well-informed? Having customer service available at convenient times (for example, after work and weekend support availability) The amount of time I have to wait to be served The amount of time it takes to completely resolve my issue or problem 85% 47% 79% 48% 79% 39% 78% 37% Having customer service people who can deal with my issue without having to refer me to another person 41% 39% 76% % respondents rating characteristic as “important” (top 2 of 5 boxes) % respondents rating “satisfied” with characteristic (top 2 of 5 boxes) Surprise #3 Most payers are struggling with service experience basics. While it could be tempting to focus improvement efforts on areas where service expectations are changing, our research suggests that health insurers will need a more balanced approach— one that does not lose sight of service fundamentals. In fact, our research shows that customers get highly frustrated when their basic expectations are not met. When asked to rate their most frustrating customer service experiences, the five that rose to the top are also the most basic building blocks of the service experience (Figure 3). Figure 3 also reveals that these frustrations happen far too often; for example, more than one-third of the people surveyed said they regularly experience long hold times and have to repeat information. Health insurers have no chance of beating the competition in a game of rising expectations if they cannot consistently meet the minimum requirements. Figure 3—Top Five Frustrating Customer Experiences & Frequency of Occurrence Having to contact customer service multiple times for the same reason Dealing with customer service agents who cannot answer my questions Having to repeat the same information to multiple customer service agents Being on-hold for a long time when contacting customer service 77% 30% 76% 28% 74% 35% 74% 38% Dealing with customer service agents who are unfriendly or impolite 41%17% 73% % respondents rating “extremely frustrating” with the situation (top 2 of 5 boxes) % respondents rating “encounter this a lot” with the situation (top 2 of 5 boxes) ... - tailieumienphi.vn