Building Customer Loyalty Can Make Open Enrollment More Profitable

As health plans and PBMS look towards next fall’s open enrollment period, connecting with current customers in personalized ways enhances the likelihood that they will be returning as a loyal customer. While the open enrollment process itself is mandated and becoming somewhat easier to manage, truly understanding the health insurance benefit plan options available can be difficult for most consumers. Health plans that consider creative and personalized ways to explain the selection process can help support current members in making better benefit plan choices, thereby building better customer loyalty and reducing the “churn” of people who change plans, which ultimately reduces member acquisition costs.

 

Here are some ways to help build customer loyalty.

 

Engage Members with Personalized Messaging

 

Since the general population doesn’t go anywhere without their smartphones, your best bet for improved engagement with your members is through a personal, secure and relevant mobile messaging strategy and a configurable messaging platform to customize messages and campaigns

 

Earning the trust of your members, which is the foundation of better loyalty, starts with messaging during the year that encourages the member to consider health plan and PBM resources that offer them ways to improve their health and reduce their out-of-pocket costs.  As these messages are delivered in personalized ways, it’s highly likely that the member will begin to pay attention and respond to early fall messages regarding open enrollment, answers to FAQs and enrollment milestone dates.

 

Personalized messages have been shown to:

 

• Add value to members, including giving them concise and accessible information
• Increase member reach and faster response rates
• Enhance member experience and satisfaction

 

Develop Rapport Through Social Media

 

Building a relationship with consumers year-round through all of the social media outlets that a health plan supports will not only help retain current customers, but it could begin to attract new ones as satisfied members tell others of their better experiences with their health plan and its health care resources. Here are some basics for getting the most out of your social media platforms:

 

• Talk about open enrollment – Social media gives you natural distribution points for enrollment-related information. For example, it can be used to disseminate information about the process that consumers might not see in other ways. Online insurance information and tools, educational information and even customer service contact numbers will engage and inform consumers.

 

• Respond quickly to customer needs – Even though there might be some challenges to responding quickly to a member complaint or request, a health plan or PBM’s ability to respond rapidly is crucial. For example, MetLife has a 2-hour response time for customer complaints, a policy that shows how companies can prioritize answering their customers’ needs.

 

• Coordinate online content teams – Having a master narrative that drives content teams will create a cohesive approach in your social media communicating strategy. Bring together the online content teams regularly to review, compare and discuss healthcare messaging content so that your company is telling a unified story.

 

There are many ways to let consumers know you’re committed to helping them take control of their health care. The health plans that grow their memberships and reduce churn will be those that don’t wait until open enrollment gets underway to communicate to their members. Be a health plan known for building better member loyalty through creative and personalized messaging that is in the context of the member’s care preferences, and it will lead to better health and well-being for both the member and the health plan.