HSM E-briefing Series
on Customer Retention and Loyalty

"HOLDING ONTO YOUR CUSTOMERS"

October 2002

One of the many challenges facing health care organizations today is member retention and loyalty. "HOLDING ONTO YOUR CUSTOMERS" is an ongoing series of e-briefings developed by The HSM Group, Ltd., a longtime leader in health care marketing, to provide you with tips to help in your customer retention and loyalty efforts.

We hope the following information helps you, our valued clients and friends, in your efforts to build better relationships with your customers.

IMPROVE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH TOUCH-POINT MANAGEMENT™

As health care costs continue to rise, employers are passing more of these costs on to employees, providing members with a reason to leave their plan. Health plans that can demonstrate more value for the cost through exceptional service to their members are more likely to keep those members. Many plans focus on improving services from an operational standpoint, but it is just as important to consider service delivery from the customer's point of view.

Every customer touch-point must be treated as an opportunity to deliver great service and build member loyalty.

With this goal in mind, and with funding from Bayer Corporation's Pharmaceutical Division, HSM developed Touch-Point Management™, a process improvement tool that helps health plans look at service encounters and delivery processes from the customer's perspective. Each touch-point has the potential to produce a service failure or a service success. Are you aware of your plan's strengths and weaknesses at each customer touch-point? This tool helps plan employees understand and identify the service delivery steps customer's encounter that contribute to a dissatisfying service experience.

There are five key activities involved in the Touch-Point Management™ process:

• Creating a service sketch (or map) to visualize a service delivery system.
  
• Assessing customer touch-points based on what research shows is important to customers.
  
• Identifying points where service failures are occurring or could occur.
  
• Brainstorming ways to improve the customer experience.
  
• Planning for continued use of Touch-Point Management™.

When thinking of customers, it is important to recognize your plan's internal customers, as well as external customers. The enrollment process, for example, could include everyone from front-line employees such as customer service or call center representatives to backstage and support employees responsible for the development and production of enrollment materials and the enrollment process itself. Employees from all departments involved in the service delivery process should be included in Touch-Point Management™.

An HSM consultant facilitates either a half-day or full-day Touch-Point Management™ workshop with a group of health plan employees representing all departments involved in a service area. Prior to the workshop, participating employees complete a survey to rate and comment on the plan's member contacts, organizational processes, and customer relationship-building efforts. The workshop then uses the key activities noted above to focus on a specific member experience, such as claims inquiries or enrollment. One of the goals of the workshop is to equip key plan employees to implement the tool to map other service activities.

What can you expect to see following a Touch-Point Management™ workshop?

• Better handoffs across functional and departmental lines.
  
• Employees talking about their work in terms of value delivered to customers.
  
• Cooperation rather than competition, particularly across departmental lines.

We've also seen employees:

• Feel an increased sense of responsibility to help fellow employees do their jobs well.
  
• Ask to participate in ongoing efforts to monitor and improve how employees communicate with each other, make decisions, express emotions, handle conflicts, and identify and solve problems.
  
• Create service experiences that customers want to repeat!

If you would like to learn more about Touch-Point Management™, please contact Sharon Flanagan-Hyde at hyde@hsmgroup.com. For more information on customer retention and loyalty, visit http://www.hsmgroup.com/. If you would like for us to address a specific customer loyalty challenge in "Holding Onto Your Customers," email ebriefing@hsmgroup.com with your suggestion. If you would prefer not to continue receiving the e-briefing, please email ebriefing@hsmgroup.com.

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