Blog : Customer Relationship

imagine.GO helped Dell Healthcare design & launch CRM+

imagine.GO helped Dell Healthcare design & launch CRM+

Dell Healthcare hired imagine.GO to design and launch a CRM solution for health insurance companies.

Dell Healthcare is one of the largest Healthcare Technology Services providers in the world. They provide the people, processes, and technology to help health plans and large health care providers create the healthcare of the future.

The goal of this project was to define the ideal approach for implementing Salesforce.com as a CRM solution for health insurance companies.  We used our 15+ years of implementation experience to not just design and build a technical solution, but also define the best way to implement it for Dell and its health care clients. Our work included how to set client expectations, how to make key design decisions, the best way to set up user roles, and our expert recommendations for customizations to the core Salesforce system.

Our final product produced solutions for health insurance lead management, sales, onboarding, service, and even care management. A high-level view of a few of the features in the solution are shown in the images below.

imagine.GO provides Salesforce CRM implementation services for healthcare companies using our proprietary delivery methodology (Decision Driven CRM Design). We also develop our own Healthcare Applications, currently available on the AppExchange.

to your health,

The Team at imagine.GO

How to Get Started with CX at Your Healthcare Company

How to Get Started with CX at Your Healthcare Company

CX is all the rage these days. It seems that most of it is couched in theoretical theory and “potential” value creation. To be clear, we think it definitely has its purpose. In fact, it is core to our modelH approach. But, we are weary of anything that cannot be implemented in an Agile fashion.

In a McKinsey survey of senior executives, 90% said customer experience (CX) is one of the CEO’s top 3 priorities. This fact is due to increasing customer expectations in an evolving digital marketplace. Customers expect more, better and faster – and they expect you to know and fix your process problems. McKinsey research indicates that for every 10-point up in customer satisfaction, companies increase their revenues by 2 to 3%. Gains come from increasing wallet share (more product purchases) and lower churn rates (fewer customers leave). Satisfaction is correlated to operational or infrastructure-related factors. These include price, transparency, cycle times, product features, and use of digital channels.

distorted-office-hall

We take for granted that the result of a great CX discipline produces customer action (behavior change), satisfaction (customer happiness), and attraction (brand loyalty).  As a result, your employees will be able to understand how their work impacts the member’s experience – and establish a baseline for all future CX endeavors.

Though this seems straightforward, implementing a customer experience discipline within a company is difficult. So how do you begin?

Well, even the longest journey begins with a single first step. Experience is something that can be designed, implemented and measured. In healthcare, favorable experiences can make a difference between healthy/profitable customers and unhealthy/expensive ones. A better experience comes from orchestrating a customer’s journey across channels. Experiential design starts with recognizing and prioritizing your (i.e. your customer’s) most important “touches” so you can optimize the operational factors that drive them. For health plans, the inventory of touches includes your member as well as your providers.

We recommend you start with defining (in a minimally viable way) how the discipline of Customer Experience (CX) will work at your company. Although CX eventually encompasses all of your company’s touchpoints and communications, synchronized across channels to achieve maximum customer activation and brand awareness – we are asking you to just spend a day outlining the basics and assigning responsibility for them. Just do enough to define your most important first CX project(s) and get someone assigned to the task. Then see where it goes from there – and keep it Agile.

As first projects go, we recommend you start with a journey map. A Customer Journey Map is a graphic representation of the journey your prospect/customer takes in relationship to your organization over time and across all touch points.  This tool emphasizes the intersections between your processes, your customer’s jobs-to-be-done, your measures, and your customer’s expectations. If you cannot define the touches, how can you truly prioritize which need fixing first? We recommend you first focus on the “experiences” that move the needle for customers and impact your cost/profit outlook. A few things stand out for prioritization. Digital journeys should be prioritized over manual ones as it easier to “fix” digital than physical. And, McKinsey research shows digital-first journeys produce higher customer-satisfaction scores than traditional journeys. Reducing journey time (the time it takes to complete an individual journey) should be prioritized over adding new features. Customer satisfaction has a higher correlation to “ease-of-use” than “feature rich”. However, keep in mind that there are diminishing payoffs for reducing journey time, so only take it as far as it produces returns.

modelh-consumer-behavior-when-purchasing

imagine.GO specializes in helping companies thrive where consumerism and health care converge. We have helped organizations ranging from fortune-100 companies to startups, quickly define better business models and communicate them to stakeholders. We have implemented our “100 Days to Customer Experience” model for several large health insurance plans and other retail-focused healthcare companies.

Here is the link to the McKinsey article we are referencing (The four pillars of distinctive customer journeys).

To your health,

The Team at imagine.GO

Join me at AHIP’s Consumer Experience Forum, Nov. 19-20

Join me at AHIP’s Consumer Experience Forum, Nov. 19-20

In today’s retail world of health insurance, are you taking advantage of opportunities to engage with and provide exceptional service to your customers and potential customers?

I encourage you to join me in Phoenix next month at AHIP’s  Consumer Experience Forum, Nov. 19-20 (www.ahip.org/Conferences/CEFThreeNov2014) to discuss this and more. The Forum brings together thought leaders from plans, researchers, consultants and leading companies to help you optimize your strategy for converting consumers into customers for life. I’m pleased to be moderating this conference, and I can tell you from experience that it will be a highly engaging and informative event.

I hope to see you there. Use promo code LK14KR  to receive a discounted rate. You can learn more and register here: www.ahip.org/Conferences/CEFThreeNov2014.

 

To your health,

The Team at imagine.GO

p.s. the code gets you $50 off – I make nothing on it – I just want to see you there.

 

Learnings on Customer Relationships on modelH

Learnings on Customer Relationships on modelH

We just wrapped up our 9th business building block sprint on Customer Relationships. In summary, the sprint for Project 1.9 completed 3 objectives:

  • What questions to ask about Customer Relationships on the modelH canvas
  • Defining how to build Customer Relationships for healthcare companies
  • A look at how to measure Customer Relationships for healthcare companies

Customer Relationship

1st – Questions to Ask on the Canvas for the Customer Relationships Block

We defined the questions that should be added to our business model canvas for helping practitioners define their Customer Relationships.

  1. Which Healthcare Customer Relationship Dimensions do you use in your business model?
  2. What type of Customer Relationships do your customers expect you to maintain with them?
  3. How costly are your various Customer Relationships models to maintain?
  4. What is your plan to market your Value Proposition to consumers?
  5. When a consumer uses your Value Proposition and has a positive Experience, how do you imagine them sharing this experience with their friends/colleagues?
  6. How will you receive consumer feedback and what is your plan to act on it?
  7. Who is the greatest Key Influencer for your Customer Segments and how will you use them?
  8. How will you get, keep and grow customers?

modelH Canvas 9 Customer-Relationship Highlight

2nd – How to Define Healthcare Customer Relationships

We also built a model for helping practitioners define and build their healthcare Customer Relationships. We reviewed seven different dimensions of healthcare customer relationships.  We added seven Dimensions of Healthcare Customer Relationships to the standard BMC: Information, Navigation, Coordination, Connection, Transition, Motivation, and Monetization.

If my tax adviser can explain healthcare reform to me in simple terms, how come my health insurance company cannot?  Worse yet, when they try, they just make me more confused and mad!

If my phone company can send me a personalized video bill, how come my doctor and insurer are still sending me those unreadable explanations of benefits?

These are simple questions to ask, with a profound underlying sentiment. With each touch, business models can improve, maintain, or deter a customer relationship. WIKI says that customer relationship management (CRM) is a model for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. In healthcare, the customer relationship must be around more than just your Value Proposition. Good business models must take into account both the Buyer and User in regards to their presence, trajectory, and destination within the healthcare ecosystem.  modelH advocates there are 7 fundamental dimensions of healthcare Customer Relationships that exists in healthcare.  They can be employed in various degrees and in various combinations to yield the best outcome for a particular Customer Segment.
Customer Relationships Dimensions of Healthcare Customer Relationships

In each of these dimensions, customers have preferences for both channel and message.  It usually requires some form of both emotional support and physical comfort that can also be tracked and measured for progress and completeness.

Dimension

Definition

Information

Provides value to the customer often in the form of news, articles, Q and A, keyword search entries, videos, and/or pictures and assists in both help solve their job-to-be-done and in manifesting your value proposition to your customers.

Navigation

Moves people in a new and positive directions and helps customers ultimately solve their jobs-to-be-done.  Navigational guides can help  shape and influence new choices and behaviors for people. Other examples of navigational guides could include providing customers with personalized action plans with expert suggestions (products, services or other activities) regarding their Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD).

Coordination

Simplifies the logistics associated with your customers’ jobs-to-be-done.  Effective coordination should enhance your value proposition.  Examples of coordination could include helping people with their health To/Do’s, scheduling appointments, health records management (PHR), monitoring & alerting on key health notifications, and streamlining support to service providers.

Connection

Interpersonal relationships with others, which positively benefit relationships with your customers and further enhances your value proposition. Do the channels through which you interact with your customers also seek to connect your customers to other individuals or other complementary solutions?

Transition

Over time – meeting your customers jobs-to-be-done will require maintaining relationships with them across multiple channels and potentially multiple key partners and key suppliers.  What principles of effective transitioning have you considered in continuously strengthening relationships with your customers?

Motivation

Critical for creating change and sustaining new behaviors. What role do principles of motivation play in building relationships with your customers? Depending on your value proposition – one example of motivation in regards to strengthening customer relationships may be providing customers/users the ability to earn points when they accomplish an incentivized goal or task. Incentive providers such as employers, plan, and family can contribute to encouraging change for a customer/user. Points earned by a customer/user can be converted into buying power that can be spent on products in the marketplace. Points can also be donated to charities tapping into a person’s motivation for promoting goodwill.  You can even reward your most passionate consumers for becoming evangelists.

Monetization

Knowing what customers value, what customers experience are both critical to any successful business. Knowing how to monetize both your Value Proposition and your Customer Relationships is foundational to sustaining any business model.

 

3rd – How to Measure Healthcare Customer Relationships

We also built a model for helping practitioners measure their healthcare Customer Relationships by outlining various options for metrics in the strategy, process, people, brand, financial, customer and culture domains.

It seems plausible that you should identify and know your Customer Segments before you create products for them.  Once you have products selected specifically for them, you then create winning Experiences through various Channels and Customer Relationships. The flow can be seen visually here.

modelH - Consumer Measurement

  • Customer Segment Development – know your customers, who they are, and what they want, and (most importantly) what they value.
  • Value Proposition Management – create value that your customers can perceive because it effectively solves their jobs-to-be-done.
  • Customer Behavior Management – understand your customers health needs and comprehension so you can directly and indirectly mange them.
  • Customer Experience Management – know how your customers want to experience your products and services and create great engagements for them as they discover, consider, buy and use them.

This section is about measuring Customer Relationship as a business function. In as much, it should be well past the standard call volumes and issue resolutions, and look to something deeper. We must add revenue and cost element into Customer Relationship measures because it is 1) prudent to do for all business functions, and 2) feasible to identify how Customer Relationship both drives revenue and lowers costs.

When Customer Relationships are designed into a business model, they produce these results:

  • A clear alignment of Customer Relationship to the business model and its implementation.
  • A set of Customer Relationships standards incorporated into all Value Propositions and Channels.
  • A defined set of Key Resources organized for consistent execution of the Customer Relationship.
  • A Platform that organizes, automates, and synchronizes Customer Relationships across the model.
  • A set of metrics to measure Revenue generation and Cost containment, as well as health outcomes.

 Customer Relationship Success Indicators

The following measures are across the key dimensions of a company and its business model.

Strategy

A measure indicating how well Customer Relationships are embedded into the corporate strategy.

  • A clearly defined Customer Relationship Management strategy
  • A clearly defined Customer Relationship plan of implementation (change agenda)
  • A defined maturity curve for how Customer Relationship will create value for the company and for the customer
Culture

A measure indicating how much Customer Relationships are emphasized as a critical area of focus by all employees/internal stakeholders.

  • A measure for the organizational effectiveness of Customer Relationship focus
  • A shared executive measure for collaboration on Customer Relationship initiatives
    • Shared measure (connection) with Consumer Experience group
    • Shared measure (connection) with Customer Development/Sales group
    • Shared measure (connection) with Channel Owners
    • A single corporate-wide Customer Relationship measure in the annual company performance group of measures
    • A Customer Relationship dashboard with agreed upon metrics by the senior team and understood by internal stakeholders
Brand

A measure indicating the alignment of Customer Relationships with your company’s brand promise.

  • This needs to be developed after conversation with leadership
People

A measure indicating the development of the roles that lead and drive continuous improvement for the Customer Relationships function.

  • This needs to be developed after conversation with leadership
Process

A measure indicating how clearly understood and utilized the Customer Relationship process is.

  • Feedback loops from providers in place
  • Feedback loops from customers in place
  • This needs to be further developed after conversation with leadership
Financial

A measure indicating the effect that Customer Relationship has on corporate financial performance.
Revenue (attributable to Customer Relationship)

  • This needs to be developed after conversation with leadership

Costs (attributable to Customer Relationship)

  • Cost to Serve Customers (total service and support costs) to meet their job-to-be-done
  • Cost to Satisfy Customers by channel (email, chat, online, telephone, in person)
  • Ratio of Cost to Serve / Total Revenue
Customer

A measure indicating the Customer Relationship and its affect across the customer lifecycle.

Single Measures

  • Customer Satisfaction score (CSAT) score
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) score
  • Customer Effort Score CES score
  • Reach to Lead Conversion
  • Lead to Customer Conversion
  • Retention Rate
  • Referral Rate

How well do customers listen to you?

  • Call center data (if applicable)
  • Customer Compliance
  • Customer Comprehension of Your Communications

How easy is it for customers to work with you?

  • Speed of application/entry process
  • Speed of issue resolution process
  • Number of Customer Complaints
  • Number of Customer Kudos
  • Customer Satisfaction with Touchpoints

How do customers feel about you?

  • Quality Scores
  • Likelihood to Recommend

What is Next?

Next up, we are going to look at Project 1.11, 12, and 13 – Key Activities, Resources, and Partners.

Interested in what we are doing? Step up to the plate an get involved.

 

To your health,

The Team at imagine.Go

 

What Can Health Plans Learn from Retail?

What Can Health Plans Learn from Retail?

Podcast on Retail Health and Its Future

Listen to a podcast I gave where I discussed why health plans have a lot to learn from retailers. In this discussion, we cover many topics related to retail health, its evolution and its trajectory. We also discuss some upcoming talks I am giving.

What You Will Learn

  • This drive towards consumerism is spanning all industries – how are health plans reacting?
  • How can plans continue to attract and retain members in a competitive marketplace?
  • What are some of the key takeaways that attendees can look forward to this March?

Sketch Video

To your health

The Team at imagine.GO