Accountable Care Organizations and Medicare Advantage plans have created a new era of consumerism as informed prospects seek out lower costs, higher quality and greater convenience.
With these changes comes the necessity for call centers to evolve as well.
Think of how scripted onboarding calls are received by informed consumers:
ACO Example:
After weeks of research, the patient selects your ACO based on your renowned provider network, high outcomes and unwavering emphasis on a patient-centric approach.
During onboarding, the call center agent lists dozens of scripted features that the patient already researched. The agent then proudly introduces the ACO’s renowned provider network, high outcomes and unwavering patient-centric approach.
….All unremarkable for the new patient.
Medicare Advantage Example:
The consumer selects your Medicare Advantage plan because of your ZERO DOLLAR in-network copays, strong vision benefits and worldwide medical coverage.
During the call center’s scripted onboarding call the plan’s 14 benefits and 21 supplemental benefits are presented in rapid succession. The enrollee learns nothing new. They’d spent the last three weeks comparing health plans.
These new customers end their onboarding calls thinking the same thing, “I don’t plan on talking to them again”.
Increasingly, scripted onboarding calls are introducing benefits
to informed customers who signed up, based on those same benefits.
It’s time to rethink call center engagement. Consumerism ushers in stunning new opportunities to increase satisfaction and loyalty.
Reinventing Onboarding in an Informed Era:
Consumerism allows the call center to get to know the new customer as a person. Onboarding can then reinforce how your ACO or health plan personally supports them.
PlanAllies™ is call center technology that generates interactive scripts based on conversational inputs. Technology prompts the agent with open-ended questions enabling the new customer to introduce themselves. Cognizant of the conversation, PlanAllies™ constantly updates the script, relating the ACO/health plan’s benefits to the customers’ lifestyles and aspirations.
Rather than reading a long list of benefits,
the agent celebrates how the benefits uniquely support the new customer.
Let’s return to the onboarding examples listed above, using a reinvented approach:
ACO Onboarding:
After getting to know them, the call center agent celebrates the new patient’s busy days of soccer games, school drop-offs and baking lessons with her eight nearby grandchildren. The ACO’s mission is to maximize these cherished moments. Eliminating repetitive forms and preventing redundant tests result in less time spent at Dr. offices. And because the integrated provider network communicates between themselves, visits are more productive.
The ACO’s “Healthy Chief” program features a diabetic group that is sure to thrill the patient’s husband with bold flavors while helping to stabilize his blood sugar.
And the patient can look forward to years of happy, healthy family time as the ACO ‘s convenient health screenings are proven to increase outcomes while lowering costs.
Medicare Advantage Onboarding:
After getting to know the new enrollee the call center agent celebrates with them: Zero copays leave more money for the enrollee to invest in their nephew’s college fund.
The member’s first new set of glasses in nine years means they will get back to enjoying their weekly book club, instead of being teased because they can’t read fuzzy words.
And the plan’s worldwide walk-in clinic/emergency coverage means that the new enrollee can be confident about their upcoming trip to Israel.
Celebrating how the ACO/Medicare Advantage plan supports the customer dramatically increases satisfaction (our average onboarding NPS is 9.2). It’s not about introducing your product. We are validating the customer’s smart decision to join your family. The resulting confidence yields double-digit increases in retention. And engagement rates increase by 30% to 50%, because customers look forward to the conversations.
Results are the same for new customers who haven’t done any prior research: Call center agents get to know the customer and introduce benefits in the context of how they support their lifestyle and aspirations.
Pilot Campaigns are Simple:
There is no downtime, no software to install, and no hit to efficiency. Select an agent or two, choose the new customers, and watch your team increase satisfaction. Consistent with the culture of your call center, PlanAllies™ will coach these agents through the pilot. Our job is to help them master the tactics that are proven to increase satisfaction and retention.
Your customers are more informed than ever. Let’s impress them by being more human and more supportive than ever.