Build Trust with Customer Engagement in Healthcare
1. BUILD TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This paper discusses the importance of transforming the foundational relationships
with customers for healthcare companies. It is inspired by the results of a
recent Wunderman Data and Insights research, study on consumer attitudes
toward healthcare.
Based on past industry research it’s no surprise that physicians top the list as
consumers’ most trusted source, and insurers lag far behind. However, this gap is
now extreme and appears to be widening.
Source Trust1
Primary Doctor 80%
Specialist 71%
Pharmacist 52%
Organizations specialized in care and disease management 38%
Internet or website 23%
Health Insurer 22%
Should insurers be concerned? We argue they should, for important business
reasons. First, individual consumers are increasingly responsible for their own health
insurance buying decisions, a trend that is likely to continue. At the same time,
population dynamics are making wellness and chronic-condition management more
important to both the overall health of Americans and to the cost structure and
economic well-being of providers.
These trends require healthcare companies to communicate more effectively and
persuasively with both prospects and customers. Communication rooted in trust is
far more likely to be persuasive, particularly regarding personally sensitive issues of
health and finance.
To strengthen trust, we believe all healthcare companies must recalibrate their
customer interactions to be more relevant and engaging: to reflect and respond to
individual concerns, issues, and motivations in truly customer-focused conversations.
1. Percentage of consumers who rate the source 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is “don’t trust at all”
and 5 is “trust completely.”
To strengthen trust,
we believe all
healthcare companies
must recalibrate
their customer
interactions to be
more relevant
and engaging.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
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We identify three broad strategies to
achieve that challenging goal:
1. Insight to create a unified, holistic,
data-driven view of each customer
throughout their journey, serving as the
foundation for individualized, engaging
communications;
2. Connection created by marketing
interactions that focus on personally
relevant messaging delivered through
preferred channels;
3. Experience built and nurtured by
an engaged, personalized relationship,
maintained consistently across each
customer’s journey.
Healthcare companies that are able to
reinvent their customer relationships in
this way will improve their competitive
standing and business results.
THE CASE FOR ENGAGEMENT:
CHALLENGES AHEAD
In virtually every important dimension,
healthcare companies face challenges that
threaten their profitability and success.
Affordable Care Act 2.0: It’s not just
consumers who are confused. Healthcare
companies are trying to plan strategies as
the Affordable Care Act changes markets,
shifts consumer needs, intensifies
competition, and recalibrates value and
vulnerability in their marketing mix.
There is one certainty: Consumers are
in charge, whether they like it or not—a
trend that will continue and grow. Today,
each customer must decode and evaluate
plan benefits, coverages, deductibles,
copays, and other characteristics to
choose an insurer and plan—then take
the lead in ensuring access to healthcare
services obtained under their coverage.
• Take-away: Healthcare companies
must focus on individuals, from
acquisition to activation to retention.
They must engage and educate their
customers to help them navigate
complex decisions, and support them
effectively to build loyalty.
Demographics and population dynamics:
The baby boomers, who have driven
growth in every industry, are now driving
unprecedented growth in the consumption
of healthcare services.
Today, chronic conditions account for $3
of every $4 in the U.S. healthcare bill.
That percentage will only grow in coming
years: 17 million baby boomers will turn
65 by 2018. It adds up to a strong bottom-
line incentive for health insurers to help
their customers manage chronic conditions
more effectively. Evidence-based clinical
practices, predictive outcomes modeling,
pay-for-performance reimbursements,
and multidisciplinary professional
collaboration will assume increased
importance.
• Take-away: These approaches will
not deliver their promised benefits
unless healthcare companies can
engage customers and help them make
informed decisions to improve health
behaviors and condition management.
Marketing and customer retention: Of
course, acquisition will remain essential
to growth—in particular, marketing to
the “right” consumers to support long-
term stability. But as important as it is,
acquiring new customers costs three to
six times more than retaining existing
ones—and as marketing costs continue to
escalate, the differential will increase.
• Take-away: Strengthening retention
means building stronger relationships
with customers. But as all healthcare
companies work toward the same
goal, the first generation of customer
satisfaction tools—responsive service,
competitive pricing, and proactive
engagement for transactions—will
become table stakes in the battle to
retain customers.
In sum, healthcare companies will be
operating in an uncertain marketplace
ruled by individual consumers, where
escalating marketing costs make customer
retention a vital business priority, and an
WHITE PAPER
The baby boomers,
who have driven
growth in every
industry, are now
driving unprecedented
growth in the
consumption of
healthcare services.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
3. 3
aging population makes effective health
management a matter of business survival.
These interrelated trends intensify
the need for persuasive, effective
communication with prospects and
customers, covering everything from
plan features and benefits to individual
health behavior. To prosper, healthcare
companies must:
• Focus on interactions, not
simply transactions;
• Recognize and leverage individual
motivations as well as emotional and
rational drivers;
• Build and maintain an individualized
dialogue with each customer through
their journey.
Changing behaviors on a broad range
of health-related concerns, including
personal health habits, requires a
stronger relationship between insurers
and their customers, based on trust and
characterized by mutual engagement.
WHERE WE STAND TODAY:
THE CONSUMER VIEW
An in-depth survey of consumer attitudes
conducted by Wunderman Data and
Insights reveals the healthcare industry has
a long way to go to achieve relationships of
trusted engagement with customers.
1. Private insurance companies play
a central role in providing
healthcare services.
More than half of all consumers (50.8%)
purchase private insurance, making private
insurers the largest providers of health
and medical insurance. The majority
purchase their policies through a group
such as an employer, union, or professional
association. But almost 20% purchase their
coverage directly.
Slightly more than one in three
respondents has a Medicare plan.
2. Insurers are NOT doing a good job of
influencing and engaging customers.
How bad is it? Only 12% of consumers say
they rely on insurers as a source for health
advice or information about health issues.
The results on trust are almost as bad:
Only 22% of consumers trust their health
insurance provider to guide them to a path
or plan that is good for their health. One-
third (33%) are likely to NOT trust them,
leaving 45% “neutral.”
That’s a sobering statistic for healthcare
companies; information they provide
about health behavior is likely to be
discounted or disregarded by the majority
of their own customers.
3. Who do consumers turn to? Primary
care doctors.
Primary care providers have the highest
rate of influence and engagement of all
healthcare entities in the survey; 74% of
consumers rely on their primary doctors
for health advice and information, and
80% trust the advice and information
they receive. Specialist providers and
nurses are close behind—underlining
the importance of front-line healthcare
providers in influencing consumers.
4. Where else do consumers go for health
advice and information?
The second most cited source for health
advice and information—cited by 30% of
consumers—is the Internet or a website.
This reflects ease of access rather than
reliability, as just 23% trust the advice and
information they find there. Still,that’s
higher level of trust than for insurance
providers!
The least sought-after source for health
information is the most ubiquitous:
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Fewer than 2%
of consumers seek
healthcare advice from
advertising, and 70%
do not trust the
information presented.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
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When asked to rank
6 different channels
over which providers
could contact them,
39% of consumers
ranked email as the
most preferred, and
86% included it in
their top three.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
advertising. Fewer than 2% of consumers
seek healthcare advice from advertising,
and 70% do not trust the information
presented. Although consumers typically
underestimate how much they are
influenced by advertising, these results
suggest that ad campaigns are not the
best answer for improving customer
engagement.
5. Turning to health behavior, the survey
found that personal responsibility is
the most important factor in reaching a
decision to improve quality of
life or health.
For health issues that consumers can
control—such as diet, exercise, and
weight—53% reported that their own
decision to change was the most important
factor in modifying their behavior. Advice
from a healthcare provider was the second
most important factor, cited by 28% of
consumers.
Importantly, a large majority of
consumers—73%—seek as much information
as possible from doctors, websites,
books, and other sources en route to their
decisions to improve their health.
6. Email is the winner among contact
channels, but it’s not unanimous.
When asked to rank 6 different channels
over which providers could contact them,
39% of consumers ranked email as the
most preferred, and 86% included it
in their top three.
Mail ranked second, preferred by 22% and
among the top three for 74%. Landline
telephone was the third most popular
choice, followed by cell phone and
website. Text messaging was the least
popular option.
The good news for healthcare companies
is that email is inexpensive, and can
be customized by automated systems
utilizing consumer data. Still, healthcare
companies that put a premium on building
trust and engagement will give their
customers a choice of channels, and
maintain capabilities across multiple
channels.
CHANGING THE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP:
THREE ACTIONABLE STRATEGIES
Healthcare companies stand to reap
significant benefits from stronger,
individualized relationships grounded
in trust.
• They will better identify the kinds
of consumers who will support their
strategy and goals, and market to them
more effectively and persuasively,
gaining a better return on marketing
investments;
• They will improve their customer
relationships and strengthen customer
retention, helping to limit marketing
costs while improving profitability;
• They can more effectively promote
healthy behavior and improve
management of chronic conditions,
improving the lives and health of their
customers and helping to contain the
increased costs associated with an aging
population.
34,000 Consumers Speak
These days, you find sweeping
recommendations based on “industry
surveys” that may involve as few as
several hundred self-selected recipients.
The study summarized in this paper, by
contrast, involved careful analysis of
34,000 completed consumer surveys.
The study was solely focused on
healthcare—specifically, on consumers’
relationship with and attitudes toward
healthcare companies. The study gathered
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Every company can
do a better job of
gathering, analyzing
and utilizing
consumer data to
understand their
customers better.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
and analyzed:
• Demographic data such as age, gender,
income, and wealth;
• Responses to questions about health
insurance sources and coverage;
• Attitudes toward healthcare providers
such as levels of trust;
• Causes and influences of behavior
change.
The findings are drawn from a statistically
significant, representative population that
accurately captures consumer attitudes.
It may seem a daunting task, given that
one-third of consumers do not trust
insurers. But the glass is also half-full:
two-thirds of consumers are either neutral
or do trust their health insurers—a solid
base to begin building more engaging
relationships.
Here are three sequential and interrelated
strategies to begin turning the tide and
strengthening customer engagement.
1. INSIGHT
Create a unified, holistic, data-driven
view of each customer over their lifecycle
to serve as the foundation for building
trust through engaging, individualized
communications.
Trusted relationships are personal and
individual. While it’s not possible to
have truly personal relationships with
tens of thousand of customers, every
company can do a better job of gathering,
analyzing, and utilizing consumer data to
understand their customers better and
more completely, and drive individualized
communications throughout their
lifecycle.
• Recognize that different people—even
those who are demographically similar—
can have different interests, concerns,
and motivations. The most effective
communication, for acquisition and
retention as well as health and wellness,
will speak to consumers about issues
that are relevant to them, with content
and through a channel that is meaningful
to them.
• Your own customer data is your starting
point. Enrich it with the addition of
trusted third-party data and additional
sources of insights (such as the study
summarized in this paper). Adding
behavioral and attitudinal data will
enable data analysts to develop insights
into each member’s lifestage, healthcare
attitudes preferences and even
behavioral characteristics.
• Use data on your most valuable
customers to develop look-alike models
to identify and market effectively
to prospects who will support your
business.
Having identified your customer’s
motivating concerns and issues, your
company will be able to incorporate these
insights into the complete range of your
marketing and customer communications,
driving better results in marketing and
retention as well as improvements in trust
and engagement—and from there,
improvements in health outcomes.
2. CONNECTION
Build on the foundation of insights to
strengthen your connections with each
prospect and customer, structuring
interactions on their terms by focusing on
relevant content and reaching them through
preferred channels.
Use the demographic and attitudinal
insights you gain to create predictive
analytic models that will drive highly
individualized communication throughout
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Your customer data
can and will affect
more than the tone
and messaging of your
marketing efforts.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
the acquisition funnel, from initial
contacts through customer activation
to retention.
For an example, consider the insights to
be gained using data that ranks consumer
propensity to engage with a healthcare
company and to be influenced toward
a healthier lifestyle—and how that
data could inform and refine customer
interactions at multiple touchpoints
throughout their lifecycle:
• Acquisition marketing: Identify and
prioritize prospective customers,
who are most likely to engage and be
successfully influenced;
• Activation: Query new customers
to establish dialogue and channel
preferences, and triage them
with specific health concerns for
individualized communications regarding
appropriate services and support
programs;
• Retention marketing: Prioritize
for retention efforts those current
customers who are more likely to be
successfully influenced toward adopting
healthier behavior and improved medical
management.
You can apply additional insights to tailor
creative elements in additional messaging.
Some customers, for example, will be
more responsive to short, straightforward,
fact-based messages; others will be
more effectively influenced by longer
communications, with more elaboration
and perhaps real-life examples.
The result is highly individualized
communication that resonates more
effectively with each recipient.
Match communication about programs and
services to customer interests and needs.
Your customer data can and will affect
more than the tone and messaging of your
marketing efforts. It should drive your
ongoing customer communications as well,
particularly regarding health and wellness
programs, and services for managing
chronic conditions.
Tone is especially critical in health-related
communications. As revealed by the
Wunderman Data and Insights study, many
customers will distrust their insurer. Both
the communications you use to inform
customers about programs and services
that may be valuable to them and the
design of the programs and services
themselves must work to overcome this
underlying skepticism.
Act on channel insights in the same way.
Strengthen the full range of your customer
communications by using preferred
channels to reach each customer. Your
onboarding process should include the
capability to capture each customer’s
preferences among the channel options
you offer.
For acquisition efforts and other
communication where direct data is
lacking, use predictive analytics to
identify channel preferences based on
demographic and other consumer data.
Keep in mind that channel preferences
can change as customers age, and as
newer technologies such as text messaging
mature and gain broader acceptance.
Test, test, test.
As with any data-driven communication,
testing is invaluable to validate or modify
strategies, and improve and sharpen
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Right now, your
customers are far
more likely to trust
the doctors and
nurses who deliver
their primary care
than your business.
executions. Its importance cannot be
overstated, particularly when the goal of
the overall effort—to lift engagement and
trust—is so fundamental, challenging,
and important.
3. EXPERIENCE
Build and nurture a relationship of trust
throughout the customer experience.
The process of increasing engagement
and building trust cannot be switched
on and off. Remember, distrust—or at
best neutrality—is the baseline for the
majority of your customers. Your business
must demonstrate that you take your
customers’ interests and well-being
seriously, through consistently customer-
focused communications. Lapses in your
approach will only convince skeptical
customers that their doubts were justified.
Therefore, your customer-focused attitude
for relevant, personalized communications
must be evident throughout the customer
journey. For that level of commitment
to be adopted and maintained, your
communications program must be viewed
as a strategic business initiative, with
support from the highest levels of the
organization. C-suite buy-in and support
will be important to your success.
Use customer journey mapping and
touchpoint analysis to understand your
customers’ point of view.
There is no substitute for actually
experiencing the way your organization
interacts with customers.
Customer journey mapping allows you
to walk in their shoes through every
significant touchpoint—from initial contact
and information gathering, through
acceptance and enrollment, to benefit
delivery and retention, to—hopefully—
advocacy. It allows you to look at every
communication by every department that
goes to every customer.
This endeavor provides irreplaceable
insights into the kinds of experiences
every customer-facing part of your
organization delivers. It helps you
understand more clearly both frustrations
and positive experiences, and uncovers
gaps and opportunities to improve
interactions with your customers in both
quality and consistency.
Reinforce positive experiences by building
partnerships and providing resources to
physicians and clinical staff to influence
the influencers.
Right now, your customers are far
more likely to trust the doctors and
nurses who deliver their primary care
than your business. Build on these
existing relationships of trust with your
customers—and reinforce the positive
experience you’re building through direct
communication—by cultivating more
cooperative working partnerships
with clinicians.
• Help physicians and nurses who work
with you by providing support and
education on your policies and practices,
and pursuing other activities that
will assist and support their medical
practice.
•Pay as much attention to physician
communications as you do to your
customer communications. A consistent
commitment to customer interests
across all audiences will inspire greater
levels of trust in clinicians, and through
them among your customers.
BUILDING TRUST WITH CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: THE BUSINESS IMPERATIVE FOR CHANGE
