The Engagement Welcome Mat

First impressions are powerful. Research consistently shows that they’re both lasting and difficult to reverse. In fact, one study reveals that it takes just a tenth of a second to start forming judgements about traits like trustworthiness.

For insurers, quickly gaining the confidence and trust of new plan members has become increasingly important. As highlighted in a previous post, more members are shopping around and switching plans duirng open enrollment periods.

While easier plan-switching raises concerns for payers, investing in strategies to retain members can lead to significant gains. Bain & Company reports that a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by more than 25%.

Given the stakes, establishing and reinforcing positive relationships with new enrollees is more critical than ever.

Building the Engagement-Retention Cycle

Member engagement is key to fostering retention. Research from McKinsey on healthcare consumerism emphasizes that consumer engagement has become increasingly important for all healthcare industry stakeholders. Both payers and providers are now evaluated through customer satisfaction ratings, creating strong incentives to enhance the consumer experience.

Engagement and retention create a self-reinforcing cycle. Positive experiences build trust and loyalty, encouraging re-enrollment. This, in turn, offers more opportunities for engagement. However, this cycle starts with successful onboarding—a pivotal step requiring thoughtfulness and personalization.

The Golden Hour of Onboarding

The first interaction between a health plan and a new member is critical. The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) refers to this as the “golden hour” of onboarding—a brief but crucial window to make a lasting impression.

Relay Network notes, “When a member enrolls in a new healthcare plan, they are naturally the most engaged and open to learning about their coverage.” Thus, this is the best time for health plans to establish effective communication, drive adoption of digital tools, and make a strong first impression.

As Groove, a customer support software company, points out,”Onbarding isn’t just about your product or service. It’s about the entire experience of doing business with you.” It sets the stage for a successful relationship by achieving two key milestones: the moment a customer signs up and the moment they experience their first success.

For may payers, the health insurance ID card is the first tangible touchpoint. Even this small item, along with its accompanying materials, provides an opportunity to make a positive impression and deliver an initial success for the member. Personalization is essential to achieving this.

The Power of Personalization

Generic communication, such as mail addressed to “Occupant,” fails to connect. In healthcare, personalization is especially critical. For instance, simply having lungs doesn’t make someone a candidate for asthma treatment.

Receiving irrelevant or overly general information is a red flag for consumers. McKinsey advises that payers and providers should better meet the needs of specific consumer segments through personalized information, delivered when, how, and where consumers need it.

Even small personal touches can have a big impact. Dale Carnegie famously stated, “A person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” This belief is not backed by evidence across disciplines.

Consumers increasingly value personalized content. A 2020 Statista survey found that 42% of respondents considered personalized recommendations, offers, and experiences to be important. Gartner research also shows that personalized messages perceived as “helpful” are the most impactful. Additionally, Accenture found that 83% of consumers are willing to share their data for a personalized experience.

Personalized outreach positions health plans as true partners in improving members’ health. For example, a personalized health insurance ID card with interactive features like QR codes or stickers, paired with a customized welcome guide, signals to members that their needs are understood and valued.

Marketers are applying this maxim and consumers are taking notice. Statistica reports that 42% of consumers surveyed in 2020 see personalized content such as recommendations, offers or experiences as very or somewhat important to them. Gartner research revealed that of all the different types of personalized messages received by customers, messages that are fundamentally perceived to be “helpful” are the most impactful, and Accenture found that 83% of consumers are willing to share their data to enable a personalized experience.

Personalization can even shift a member’s attitude about the role health plans play in their care. The Healthcare Financial Management Association advises that “Personalized outreach helps a health plan build a deeper bond by positioning itself as a true partner in improving the member’s health.”

The ability to introduce your plan and brand via a full-color health insurance ID card affixed with stickers, labels or interactive QR codes that speak to the member’s specific needs, and that are accompanied by a personalized letter or welcome guide, immediately communicates that you know who they are, and are already interested in working with them one-on-one as a health partner.

Keep It Simple

When most people think about their experiences with health plans, the first words that come to mind are typically not easy, friendly, or straightforward. Establishing your plan as being committed to helping the member navigate the complexities of healthcare will boost their satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately, retention.

Even in the first mailing of the health insurance ID card, plans can showcase the benefits of the plan and how easy it is to do business with the company. You can provide mobile delivery of ID cards and plan benefit information through a mobile app so that even if the member doesn’t have the card in hand, they can receive services and review health plan information anytime and anywhere.

Offering personalized versions of health plan communications can even help members with plan benefit comprehension. This is important because Forbes reports that “Two-thirds of Americans can’t correctly define concepts such as healthcare insurance premiums, co-payments and deductibles.

According to the study published by Hubspot “another reason we prefer personalized experiences is because they help reduce information overload. Or, more precisely, personalization can help reduce our perception of information overload…you aren’t presented with thousands of resources to sort through and consume. Instead, you are — ideally — presented with exactly the information you were looking for. Hence, you never feel “overloaded” with information.”

State Your Preference

Another opportunity plans have to secure future retention during onboarding is to identify the member’s communication preferences. Managed Care Magazine notes, “Some prefer an email or a phone call. Others respond better to a traditional mailing. Knowing the communication preferences of members is akin to speaking to them in a language they understand and can be crucial to making a genuine connection and facilitating the desired clinical outcome.”

Alerting the member to the availability of a plan health portal during onboarding can delight the growing percentage of enrollees that prefer to communicate digitally. According to digital customer experience intelligence company Fullstory, “40% of customers won’t do business with a company if they can’t use their preferred channels” and “55% of customers (68% of Millennials / Gen Z) prefer digital channels over traditional channels.”

Most importantly, member satisfaction and retention is tied to having a choice of channel to use. A Keypoint study “Annual State of Transactional Communications,” found that 74% of customers want to be able to choose the channel that a brand uses to communicate with them. When companies ask for, and then honor channel preferences it improves customer loyalty.

Most importantly, member satisfaction is improved when they are given a choice of channel to use. According to an IDC survey on customer channel expectations and preferences, 71% of respondents indicated that it is important to communicate with a company using their preferred channel.

Retention Starts Early

Putting in the effort upfront to ensure plan loyalty for a renewal decision a year away is a solid strategy. Accenture’s 2020 Payer Consumer Experience Benchmark Survey revealed that 70% of consumers left their healthcare payer based on their experience. Relay found that members who went through a personalized onboarding experience are 30% more engaged and 21% less costly than those who did not.

Optum sums it up, “As health plan competition heats up, so too are consumers’ demands for convenience and value. Innovative health plans are therefore focusing on the consumer experience to keep costs low and differentiate themselves in the marketplace with these types of strategies.” If your focus is on improving member retention, putting out the engagement welcome mat during onboarding with an enhanced health insurance ID card is the smart play.