Member services play a crucial role in your health plan’s success. Negative reviews can be harmful to your growth efforts. Poor experiences can lead to high churn. Calls and emails from upset members can be draining on your team’s morale. Every health plan’s member services team wants to improve member satisfaction, but it can feel hopeless when you look at your budget and see limited funds. That's where these tips come in to help. Keep reading to find out how to create a five-star member experience on a three-star budget.

24/7 chat feature.

Did you know that 74% of users prefer chatbots while looking for answers to simple questions? Adding a chatbot to your website can significantly improve member satisfaction. Especially when you consider that 82% of consumers rate an “immediate” response as very important when they have a question. Plus, a chatbot can reduce call and email inquiries for your team by up to 70%. That reduction gives your member services team the freedom to be extra thorough with more complex member service requests.

Self-service options.

More and more, members prefer online and digital self-service features. A Cognizant report found that health plans with digital capabilities outperformed competitors in overall satisfaction by 5%. The same report also found that 57.5% of members, across all ages, believe it’s important for health plans to offer digital self-service features. So, how do you give the people what they want? One option is to offer an app that allows members to search and compare prices for medical care. With a few simple taps on a screen your members can quickly find care that is close to them, affordable, and high quality. Lucky for you, you don’t have to look far for this kind of consumer driven app since we just so happen to offer one! This self-service option also helps you stay within budget by cutting down on claims costs and improving retention (which avoids expensive new member acquisition costs.) 

Be proactive.

Another way to improve your member satisfaction for little to no cost is to be proactive in seeking feedback. Instead of waiting for negative feedback from members, regularly check in with them about their experiences. The best time to do this is right after, or even during, a healthcare experience or an interaction with your team. Members will be more likely to actually give you feedback when they’re asked in the moment or shortly after. Another way to avoid a bad experience before it happens is to guide members to the right healthcare services. If you have in-network options, be clear on which providers are in-network. If you don’t operate on an in-network/out-of-network model, point members to the most affordable options for healthcare services. Easy to understand guides or third-party healthcare navigation services are helpful to members. Making healthcare easy and affordable for members will reduce costs while improving member satisfaction.

If you’re seeing high churn or a lot of negative reviews, all hope is not lost. Following the tips mentioned in this blog can improve member satisfaction significantly, all while keeping you within budget.