When you think of customer/member support, you likely think of a kind and courteous employee wearing a headset assisting a member over the phone. While human interactions are great for member support, the reality is that your health plan likely doesn’t always have the hands or time to give a thorough, five-star member support experience to every request you receive. In fact, long wait times, short calls, and multiple transfers can make a member’s experience go from bad to worse. And let’s be honest, most people calling in are already not happy. This is a recipe for poor member satisfaction ratings and retention. It certainly doesn’t help employee morale either.

So what can you do to fix these problems? Implement technology-based solutions that:

• Improve member support and satisfaction,
• And give your employees an extra set of hands.

Technological solutions for member support are great for improving your current capabilities, and can also give you the ability to help members in ways you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. With so many options out there, we'd like to introduce you to two that are easy to implement, highly effective, and cost-efficient.

Chatbots.

Not necessarily a groundbreaking or new digital innovation, but an important one. Especially to your members. In fact, 69% of people surveyed prefer chatbots because of their ability to provide quick replies to simple questions. Plus, many people (84% of people surveyed) also prefer to digitally interact with their health plan. Chatbots not only meet member needs (and therefore improve member satisfaction) but also reduce costs for you. One study found that chatbots can help businesses save as much as 30% on customer support costs. Another benefit is that many chatbots can record a member’s information, so if the member returns for more help they won’t have to start over from scratch. And of course, having a chatbot to take care of a portion of member requests allows your member support team to answer more critical calls and/or dedicate more time to complex member problems.

Self-service tools.

The demand for digital is rising. 

• 57.5% of Americans surveyed believe it’s important for their health plan to have digital self-service features.
• 30% said the availability of digital services affects which health plan they choose. 

By meeting this demand, your health plan can improve its member satisfaction ratings. Plus, when you’re offering what other health plans won’t, you decrease the likelihood of losing members to competitors. Which means better member retention for you. Some self-service features members want that you can add are:

• A shop-and-compare app for medical services.
• Member management portals for checking claims statuses, looking up benefits, etc.
• Rx discount and coupon search.
• Provider matching.

Even though this blog is all about how technology-based solutions can improve support and member satisfaction, we would be remiss to not mention that self-service tools can also save health plans 35-40% on administrative costs. Also, if members are taking care of some of their own needs, you free up more of your member support team’s time. Time that can be used on more complex member issues.

Final thoughts

Technology-based solutions don’t exist to replace your member support team. They exist to work in partnership with your team so your health plan can meet its goals of increased member satisfaction and improved member retention. Not only will you have happier members, but you’ll also have happier employees.