Brexit and Its Impact on Customer Communications

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By Chris Murphy, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Smart Communications

The political and economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit – the UK’s exit from the European Union – is leaving thousands of organizations with a plethora of unanswered questions surrounding the possibility of significant commercial impact as well as an inability to adequately to prepare for the unknown. Companies are not only having to effectively react to the impact of leaving the EU in and of itself, but open questions remain as to the exact conditions of that exit. Many large UK-based companies have already sunk a combined $1.1 billion dollars preparing for GDPR, a future of similar of operational upheaval stemming from Brexit looks ominous.

Yet, despite so many unanswered questions, forward-thinking companies can respond to the uncertainty around Brexit by preparing for the one thing that they know will definitely come – change. This change is going to manifest itself in a variety of methods — the way that companies communicate with their customers, regulatory and compliance standards changes, as well as significant shifts in governing body oversight.

With many companies in the midst of significant digital transformation efforts and a renewed focus being firmly placed on customer experience, interruptions caused by Brexit have the potential to destabilize a lot of the stellar work that has gone into improving companies’ relationships with their customers. Customers will look to the brands that they do business with to provide them with a clear path detailing how Brexit will impact their ongoing relationship and require a clear communication strategy via their preferred channels of choice.

Even before Brexit, a Thomson Reuters study shows that financial institutions in the EU need to implement 44,000 regulatory changes per year; that’s one every 12 seconds.

It’s clear that Brexit will provide both challenges and opportunities to leading insurance and financial services organizations – both regulated and non-regulated – regarding their relationships with customers, internal stakeholders and regulators. As forward-looking organizations prepare for the upcoming raft of changes, leveraging a modern customer communications platform can empower businesses to move with both speed and agility – helping them to better navigate the uncertainty that lies ahead. Below are a couple of questions organizations should ask to help understand if it’s time to rethink your customer communications strategy.

How do I remain compliant and maintain consistency across communications?

As a result of Brexit, some organizations will be impacted by legal entity changes requiring updates across thousands of different communication documents. A modern customer communications platform equipped with a centralized relationship map with shared content will identify exactly where each content asset is currently being used and allows updates to be made once and shared across all dependent communication templates.

For existing communications, do I have to rely on IT to make any changes?

With a heavy reliance on IT, many legacy communication platforms require a large investment and long lead times in order to update their mission-critical documents. A platform that is designed to leverage shared content and can be used by business users across various departments can not only speed up the efforts of these critical updates but will allow IT to dedicate more time and resources toward other strategic projects.

Can I work collaboratively on communications across multiple stakeholders?

Depending on Brexit’s outcome, customers could become subject to existing British laws or will remain part of current European laws and protections – all of which will need to be communicated to customers in a timely and consistent manner. Collaboration across IT, legal and compliance, marketing, CX, and line-of-business owners will be imperative to achieving the required alterations to communications.

One insurance company is saving thousands of hours a year through business user ownership of their templates.

Do I have the speed and agility to perform required changes?

Speed and agility are the hallmarks of a successful digital business. But they will also be required to ensure compliance with mandated changes to avoid financial penalties. The ability to elastically scale on a modern cloud-based communication platform will afford organizations the speed and agility required to not only respond to required changes brought about by Brexit but will also effectively launch new products and services in a fraction of the time that legacy communications platforms allow for.

It’s clear Brexit will introduce a multitude of organizational, economic, political, and jurisdictional changes for organizations. Being able to effectively navigate these changes in an agile fashion to maintain transparency and trust with your customers through this period is going to be a strategic imperative for every organization.

Smart Communications is the leading cloud-based customer communications platform. Contact us to learn how we can help you navigate Brexit and the impact it will have on your customer communications strategy.

Achieving Digital Agility in the Age of COVID-19

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Ayla

By Neal Keene, Field CTO of Smart Communications

The coronavirus pandemic hit businesses quickly and unexpectedly and introduced significant challenges and a need for rapid response. While no one expected the massive impact of this crisis and the speed at which it happened, one thing is certain – we must adjust to the new “normal.” Experts predict that even when the crisis is under control, its effects will last far longer than a few weeks or months.

Below we highlight a few of the challenges businesses are facing in the age of COVID-19 and ways to improve digital agility in order to overcome this disruption and lead meaningful conversations with customers at a time when it is more important than ever.

Need for Speed

Businesses are quickly adjusting their processes and operations to meet a new set of customer demands and employee needs, while continuing to meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Even before this crisis, KPMG found that 80 percent of revenue growth will be reliant on digital offerings and operations by 2022. COVID-19 has undeniably accelerated the need for digital transformation, making it imperative for businesses to transform the way they operate. So, how do businesses continue to provide the high-level digital experience customers need and expect during this now “all-digital world”?

Especially during a time of crisis, the cloud needs to be in your arsenal. This pandemic has further increased the demand for digital capabilities including self-service portals, mobile communications, eCommerce portals, and more. Moving to a cloud-first, scalable solution where digital, adaptive engagement and process automation enable customer-driven interactions, guided conversations, and personalized communications provides the infrastructure needed to support convenient, compliant, accessible communications that can be quickly delivered through the customer’s preferred channel.

With the vast majority of people now working from home and an increased desire for “hands-off” approaches, reducing reliance on print communications is key. Those companies that have invested in cloud-based technologies focused on digital delivery are better positioned to quickly shift their focus to all-digital or nearly all-digital communications more quickly and can rest assured that these communications are timely, personalized, and interactive.

Quickly Adjusting to New Policies and Changes

While face-to-face meetings are at least temporarily a thing of the past, how do you reach those customers that relied on in-person interactions? With the speed at which new policies and changes are coming, companies who were caught off guard are realizing the urgent need for a solution to quickly replace those transactions that were historically done in person.

Take the recent launch of the US Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) as an example. In response to the new Small Business Administration (SBA) relief effort, businesses began flooding lenders with applications to take advantage of newly available funding, which offered federally backed loans on a first-come, first-serve basis. With the initial $349 billion in funds depleted in less than two weeks, small businesses are now anticipating the next wave of funding to be approved by the House, which would add an additional $310 billion to the government-backed program.

If you’ve seen people standing in line on the news or the flood of complaint articles appearing online, that’s because the PDF form was released before banks were ready to process the influx of applications, let alone provide a digital way to accept them from borrowers. This could have been prevented via a completely mobile guided process to apply and file for essential relief. Companies that never want to experience this frustration again, will certainly now be encouraged to transform their forms process.

Improving Business Continuity

Brian Solis, a world-renowned digital analyst, anthropologist, futurist, and now global innovation evangelist at Salesforce, recently stated: “One thing I’m sure of: we’re not going back to business as usual. We need a new perspective to see problems and opportunities in a new light. What’s happening now is a tremendous exposure to weaknesses in digital transformation and innovation initiatives. Beyond infrastructure modernization, organizations need to invest in systems and operations that learn from shifts in behavior, preferences, and aspirations.”

Businesses of all shapes and sizes are adjusting to operational risks and searching for new ways to reshape their business continuity plans. Specifically related to communications, EY emphasizes that “clear, transparent and timely communications are necessary when creating a platform to reshape the business and to secure ongoing support from customers, employees, suppliers, creditors, investors and regulatory authorities.”

As communication volume continues to surge, at the same time as internal operations are far from business as usual, successful companies need to be in a position in which business users are in control and can quickly implement changes and manage processes quickly and easily, without the reliance of IT.

Where do you go from here?

It’s more important now than ever before for businesses to be equipped with the tools and capabilities needed to be more digital-focused, agile and customer-centric. In fact, digital agility will be a key factor in determining who continues to struggle and who perseveres and emerges stronger once the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided.

The good news is, there are solutions that can empower businesses to succeed. Need help navigating your next steps toward achieving digital agility in the age of COVID-19 and sustaining it moving forward? Connect with us and one of our experts will be in touch.

A Scalable Approach to Claims Correspondence for Insurance

Posted on March 27, 2023 by Mary Featherstone

By: Ruth Fisk, VP Insurance Marketing at Smart Communications

With customer expectations higher than ever and climate change and other environmental factors intensifying the likelihood of losses – and subsequently claims – there is no better time for insurers to rethink their claims correspondence solutions.

Many insurers, unfortunately, have built siloed solutions to produce claims communications – ultimately leading to internal inefficiencies, compliance risks and an inconsistent, disjointed customer experience. However, every interaction an insurer has with a customer is an opportunity to shape the overall experience – and the multiple touchpoints throughout the claims process can make a customer’s experience a smooth one. This puts pressure on insurers to effectively orchestrate interactive, personalized two-way conversations, as opposed to the disjointed, one-way communications of the past.

In the infographic below, we provide insurers with one view of all of the unique customer interactions that span across the entire claims process. We also highlight how a modern customer communications platform like the Smart Communications Conversation Cloud^TMcan enable insurers to seamlessly work throughout the claims process – key to digital transformation in the insurance industry and much more efficient than maintaining several disparate technology systems.

Infographic illustrating the claims correspondence process for insurance industries:

To learn more about how Smart Communications enables insurers to engage in SMARTER customer conversations, visit https://www.smartcommunications.com/industry-solutions/insurance/.

5 Key Trends Impacting the Insurance Industry

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Industry Marketing, Insurance at Smart Communications

The insurance industry has been under pressure to innovate for quite some time. However, the implications of the global pandemic have only accelerated the need to be more agile and responsive to customer demands. And as we enter a post-pandemic world, insurers are continuing to pivot to new ways of working and engaging with customers.

As a result, carriers are increasingly investing in digital transformation initiatives to meet the needs of both employees and their end customers. In this post, we dive into how the ongoing impact of the pandemic, changing customer expectations, and digital transformation will continue to impact the insurance industry, plus strategies for success in the months and years ahead. Read on to learn more about key insurance industry trends customers expect from their insurance carrier.

Work from Home (WFH) impacts employees and policies

Over the past 12+ months, massive shifts in where people work have forced insurers to figure out how to make their own workforce productive while simultaneously maintaining a positive customer experience. While digital solutions enabled the shift to WFH, they also exposed inefficiencies in existing processes.

According to Tom King, Director of Insurance at Salesforce, “In the insurance industry…there are a tremendous amount of manual processes and workarounds. Employees want to do the right thing and as a result, have been able to get work done despite cumbersome systems. The pandemic has forced business leaders to look in the mirror and address these issues once and for all.”

Business leaders must ensure they make the remote work experience as seamless and efficient as possible, and employees must be able to collaborate across systems and teams while ensuring security and compliance standards. This means continuing to implement processes that allow employees to be successful from home and investing in the necessary technology to support a digital-first approach.

Rising customer expectations highlight digital deficiencies

Anything consumers want is now only a few taps or clicks away. With COVID-19 forcing many to rely solely on digital means to meet even their most basic needs, the world has seen a seismic shift. Now customers have heightened expectations for anything and everything to be digital, including insurance.

This puts digitally deficient insurers in a bind, as customers increasingly expect everything to be easy and transparent. Today, when customers purchase new policies or make claims, they expect clear communications at every stage of the journey, including self-service tools they can use to monitor progress themselves. Today’s consumers want digital solutions that can provide the right answer, quickly.

Personalization matters more than ever

In addition to ease and convenience, consumer apps also excel at personalizing experiences and making processes simple. Salesforce’s Tom King suggested, “Insurers specifically will be measured by how well they know their customers. Experiences need to be tailored to the individual, and for this to happen the business needs to have better visibility into the customer.”

But personalization is easier said than done. It depends on great data—collecting it in a way that is frictionless for the customer, and then leveraging a technology platform that can put it to use. For business leaders to achieve the agility and flexibility that today’s market landscape requires, they need to move to a cloud model and leverage open APIs. This will allow data from core systems, third-party solutions and more to be incorporated into tailored, personalized customer experiences.

Launch new insurance products that showcase best-in-class technology

Insurers are looking to capitalize on the “next normal” by developing and launching new products that meet the needs of the post-pandemic consumer. Insurers are piloting new types of coverage, services and distribution options to address a more volatile marketplace. This year, many young drivers will hit the roads for the first time, and homeownership will become a reality for many in the midst of a red-hot real estate market. SMART insurers will tailor their offerings to gain market share among this tech-savvy crowd.

Brian Vannoni, Director of Market Insights at Guidewire Software, shared his thoughts on this trend, “There will be a next normal for society and for insurance. It will include digital-first, omnichannel engagement, a remote work environment that requires internal digital processing and closed-loop analytics and a new way of engaging with customers and employees.”

The trick is that new products require a robust technical infrastructure. New offerings will need processes for collecting information, connecting with core systems and communicating with clients for everything from issuing a quote, to onboarding and providing ongoing customer support. To accelerate innovation and decrease time to market, insurers will invest in low-code, flexible technologies that support this greater agility.

Investments in digital communication technologies empower human connection

One of the big lessons to come out of the pandemic is the importance of embracing the human side of the business. Ultimately, customers want to feel like a name, not a number. But traditionally, insurers have been a bit distant when thinking and even talking about their customers. “In the insurance industry, when you buy a policy, you are a ‘policyholder.’ When you make a claim, you are a ‘claimant.’ You are never a ‘customer.’ The language we use reflects a mindset, and this mindset needs to shift to be more customer-centered,” noted Seth Rachlin, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer at Capgemini.

Even in a world gone digital, insurers have an opportunity to truly connect with their customers as people, wherever they are and however they choose to interact. The right technology platform is crucial in enabling these experiences – one that enables two-way, interactive conversations with customers at any time on any device.

Interested in learning more? Smart Communications recently collected insights from industry thought leaders to uncover major insurance industry trends that will impact how businesses communicate with their customers. Check out the full eBook today!

4 Steps to Prepare for a Pain-Free Legacy CCM Migration

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: Chris Murphy, VP Product Marketing at Smart Communications

Adapting to the always-connected customer has become a catalyst for digital transformation – especially now as we adjust to the new norms brought forth by COVID-19. When it comes to customer communications management software (CCM), more organizations are finding that their legacy print system models and applications are turning into roadblocks and preventing agility. These fragmented systems are unable to communicate efficiently across business units and company divisions. Nor can they easily integrate with marketing, eCommerce, and CRM systems to coordinate data and messaging, which leads to a disjointed customer experience.

The good news is, you don’t have to become victim to an outdated legacy system. Here are four key steps to follow to prepare for a seamless CCM migration and ensure you are well-equipped to digitally transform your customer communications.

1. Understand the goal of the CCM migration

Gaining consensus on the why of the migration of your CCM platform is a crucial, but sometimes overlooked part of obtaining organizational buy-in and the successful fruition of any digital transformation project. Is the impetus of considering a new customer communications management strategy driven by compliance reasons, core system modernization, to reduce risk, to centralize communications across lines of business, to reduce costs, to instill more agility into communications strategy, to better empower business users, or maybe to provide an overall better customer experience? While all these may be realized benefits of moving to a modern CCM solution, the primary driving reason will help to dictate not only the core buying and evaluation group that you’ll need to work with but also the key performance indicators and success metrics that you’ll use to quantify the success of the project.

2. Determine which deployment option is best

As more organizations begin to adopt and develop a cloud-first strategy, it’s likely that your organization has already discussed the option of leveraging an enterprise application in the cloud. Before jumping head-first into a migration, it’s important to ensure everyone has a basic understanding of not only the options available but also the benefits of each approach in order to determine on the best approach for your company.

Software as a Service (SaaS): A method of software delivery in which software is licensed and then accessed online via a subscription, rather than being purchased for installation.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): A cloud computing model in which a provider delivers hardware and software (typically those needed for application development). The provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure, rather than requiring users to install in-house.
Cloud: Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet. These services are offered as either public or private cloud. With public clouds, all hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure are owned and operated by a third-party service provider and users share those resources with other organizations or “tenants”. With a private cloud, resources are exclusively used by one organization either via an on-site data center, or a hosted data center. Either way, the services, and infrastructure are on a private network with hardware and software dedicated solely to one organization.
Hybrid Cloud: A combination of on-premise and public/private cloud, each performing distinct functions, with orchestration between the platforms.
Managed Service: A deployment model in which a third party manages a customer’s IT infrastructure and/ or end-user systems remotely, requiring hosting, management, and staffing costs.

3. Assess your digital readiness

This might be your most important step in the process because it will show you exactly how ready your organization is to make the leap to a more modern, cloud-based service. As part of any CCM migration, it’s important to consider whether or not to add digital channel production to your existing print operations. First, you’ll want to evaluate your print operations to see which document types can most easily be digitized. Begin by measuring print volume by department, categorizing types of printed collateral, and identifying types of customers receiving print documents. Start creating a content inventory list that covers basic metrics surrounding the total number of communication documents and templates you have, the total number or percentage of reusable content, volumes by document, and which department owns the content. It’s also important to start thinking about the complexity of the documents – are they easily converted to digital channels or are they very complex – these may up end up being prioritized later in the migration process. This process allows you to trace and quantify your current reliance on printed collateral while recognizing any knowledge gaps that exist so you can perform a CCM migration efficiently and effectively.

4. Know your existing cost model

Cost is always one of the biggest issues when it comes to justifying a migration strategy business case. When starting the cost evaluation process, most businesses realize they know a lot less about their full cost model than they thought they did. Depending on how many communication documents, forms, and templates need to migrate, and how they’re currently being generated, it can be confusing to put a figure on it. If you don’t have a comprehensive view of the current cost model, it can be hard to make a migration strategy business case look positive to key stakeholders. While some of us are lucky to have a corporate decision that’s driving migration out to the cloud, having a clear picture of your all-in costs (don’t forget on-premise maintenance and operational costs, print and mail delivery costs, etc.) will only benefit you in the long run by setting realistic expectations upfront. Working with a vendor to establish a solid ROI calculation or looking at similar total cost of ownership (TCO) studies can also be an invaluable input into any evaluation decision criteria.

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Let’s face it, change is hard. But, remember that your customers’ lives are changing, so to stay ahead of the game, your organization must be willing to change too. Are you ready for a more simplified, pain-free legacy migration? Discover how our Migration Studio reduces the cost, time, and complexity inherent with CCM software migrations.

3 Ways to Build Trust With a Customer Communications Management Strategy

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By James Brown, CEO of Smart Communications

Did you see the following quote in my recent blog, How GDPR Affects the Customer Communications Experience?

“Fostering trust through pull tactics to facilitate opt-ins will prove to be the most effective tactic for scaling customer communications post-GDPR.”

A key phrase in this quote is “fostering trust.” Building trust among customers is a significant goal for companies today, and so is avoiding any factor that could erode it. Trust has always been an important driver of the relationship between a company and its key stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, business partners, and others. But, earning and preserving this trust has become a precarious effort.

What Affects Consumer Trust?

A myriad of events can undermine consumer trust in a company or brand, whether from outside threats like data breaches and hacking or by the company’s own actions. In the age of big data, consumers are even more on edge. Recent studies have shown how trust factors into the customer experience and drives decisions about whether to engage with a brand or pull back from it.

88% of consumers agree the extent of their willingness to share personal information depends on how much they trust a given company. (PwC, 2017)
87% of consumers will take their business elsewhere if they don’t trust how a company handles their data. (PwC)
77% of consumers say company privacy policies are too difficult to understand. (PwC)
78% of U.S. consumers are likely to share personal information when they retain control over how a brand communicates with them (Janrain, 2017)

Three Ways to Build Trust With CCM

“Any interaction is a chance to build trust, to sustain it, or dilute it.” — Tom Champion, Forrester senior analyst, on the podcast The Decline Of Consumer Trust And What To Do About It.

Your company’s customer communications strategy can play a significant role in that effort. Is it doing everything possible to build and enhance trust in your brand and the people behind it? The trust-building process goes hand in hand with both customer acquisition and retention. The digital agency Wunderman calls this “Wantedness,” or “the degree to which a brand proves their commitment to earning a customer’s business across every touchpoint and throughout the entire path to purchase.”

Marketing, advertising and PR have traditionally been tasked with trust-building and improving the customer experience. However, today’s customers no longer solely depend on those mass-communications to get information and form opinions about a brand.

As Forrester’s CMO Victor Milligan says in the podcast, “Trust really is an operational competency. It’s not a brand message.”

Today, companies must dig deeper and examine every interaction, including those from departments not previously a part of the customer communications conversation. That’s why a CCM strategy centered on positive customer experiences through trust-building can strengthen both customer relationships and retention. These three CCM strategies will build trust and win over skeptical customers:

1. Let Customers Control Communications.

Now that we are living in a multichannel digital age, companies are discovering that consumers are more in control of how they want to communicate with your brand.

Phone? Direct mail? Website? Email? Text? Chatbot? Or a combination? Letting customers match the channel to the need gives them the control they seek. It also increases your timeliness of message response, which is another trust factor.

2. Be Transparent.

“Trust” isn’t the only “T” word in the CCM lexicon. Transparency means that you are giving your customers as much information as you can, using a language they can understand, while complying with regulations and compliance issues.

If your brand represents transparency and authenticity but communicates in legalese and bureaucratic language, that disconnect can result in a big trust gap and damage the overall customer experience.

Transparency uses “plain language.” CIGNA created a downloadable guide explaining how and why the company simplified the language it uses to communicate with customers and employees about insurance coverage. It includes a “Words We Use” list that replaces common industry terms, like “formulary” and “network savings,” with their plain-language equivalents.

Supply-chain transparency is becoming a common trust-building method for companies that import materials or finished products. For example, Whole Foods uses a verification system to assure customers that products labeled as non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) are labeled correctly. Delivering more transparent communications gives your customers more reasons to trust you and might send fewer customers to your call centers seeking more information.

3. Be Consistent Across all Customer Communication Channels.

This one might be the hardest to achieve if you rely on a legacy, CCM platform, especially an on-premises system that can’t be updated from a central operator.

The look and tone of your communications are major trust drivers, whether on paper, websites, in emails or texts, or in automated or voice conversations. Messages that don’t match up with your current brand can make customers distrust you. This is especially crucial in email communications, specifically for brands susceptible to spamming, phishing and malware. But, even paper communications using outdated logos and design will erode trust.

Solving Modern-Day Trust Issues With CCM

Just having a CCM strategy isn’t enough to earn or rebuild customer trust. Today’s time-pressed, easily distracted customers want answers quickly via the channels they prefer and in the formats that they expect. An integrated, multichannel CCM platform provides a seamless experience in which communications are timely and relevant and reflect the customer’s previous interactions with your company. Trust us on this!

We invite you to download a free copy of Smart Communications’ recent report, “The State of Meaningful Conversations: Consumer Perspectives on What they Expect, What They’re Currently Receiving and Why it Matters.” You’ll get up-to-the-minute statistics and an analysis that you can use right away to guide your own customer communications strategy.

3 Ways a Better Digital Forms Experience Helps Health Payers Increase Star Ratings

Posted on March 27, 2023 by SmartComm

By: John Zimmerer, Vice President of Healthcare Marketing at Smart Communications

Star Ratings are a critical aspect for customers when evaluating health insurance plans as they help consumers make informed decisions about their health coverage. To increase enrollments, insurers should strive to keep their Star Rating above a 4.0, but they also need to think about the existing customers they serve. That means enhancing the overall customer experience and increasing customer loyalty, sometimes a tough ask with constantly shifting regulations and the need to accelerate digital transformation weighing on organizations.

In this article, we talk about how insurers can increase their Star Ratings by focusing on one of the top contributors to the overall customer experience: communications. To provide excellent communications across all channels where members interact with the business, health insurers need to help members feel seen and known as individuals. This starts with developing a strong customer communications strategy, made possible by leveraging pure cloud CCM solutions. As part of that communications strategy, insurers also need the proper forms solutions to gather member data and put it into action while ensuring they’re compliant and secure. Keep reading to learn the three ways a better digital forms experience helps to increase Star Ratings and customer loyalty, but first, we’ll touch on why Star Ratings matter.

Why are Star Ratings Important for Health Insurers?

Measures quality of care: Based on various factors—such as preventive care, patient experience and medical outcomes—Star Ratings give consumers a comprehensive picture of the plan’s performance. This information can help consumers choose the best plan for their needs and ensure they receive quality care.

Promotes competition: Star Ratings create competition among health insurance providers, encouraging them to improve their services and invest in the systems and processes that help them support their members. As a result, members benefit from a wider range of high-quality options and can choose the plan that best fits their needs.

Improves transparency: The ratings provide a clear, unbiased assessment of the quality of benefits and services offered by health insurance plans, which can help consumers compare plans and make better-informed decisions about their health coverage.

Supports evidence-based decision making: Star Ratings are based on data, including patient surveys and medical records, which helps to ensure that the ratings are accurate and factual. This data-driven approach supports evidence-based decision making and helps consumers choose the best plan for their needs, an especially important factor considering the growing digital native cohort who’ve become accustomed to making decisions quickly.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE | ‘4 Ways Forms Automation Can Enhance the Healthcare Member Experience‘

1. Digital Forms Can Help Address This Customer Driver Behind CX and Loyalty

As of 2023, Star Ratings have become more impacted by customer experience (CX) with member experience metrics making up 57% of Star Ratings for Medicare Advantage plans. Considering 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience, it’s critical to avoid situations that can lead to this. With that said, effective customer communications management is key to providing a positive customer experience. Health insurers should aim to provide clear and concise information about their plans, including claim-related communications. The requirement to provide personalized communications, tailored to the individual member’s needs, also extends to forms processes.

For example, claims appeals can become tricky when using traditional methods of communicating between a member and the payer. When questions arise, members are typically instructed to contact a call center and find, fill out and submit a generic appeal form to request redetermination. This multi-step approach increases the customer effort (another factor that impacts Star Ratings) and ultimately leads to frustration. However, this form is an important piece of information during the redetermination process and can’t be overlooked.

Using a digital forms solution, on the other hand, allows members to engage in an intelligent interview that provides a guided experience. A link to the interview can be embedded directly into the Explanation of Benefits (EOB). After submitting their responses to the interview, members can download a copy of the appeal form for their records. By integrating the interview with core systems, an Appeals and Grievances staff member can be notified of the submission and start the review process. This allows insurers to provide members with a self-service option and save time and money by removing steps related to receiving, scanning and routing paper forms.

2. Build Loyalty by Helping Customers Understand Their Plans

Health insurance can be a confusing and complicated topic for many consumers. With many different plans and options available, it can be difficult to understand exactly what is covered under a particular policy and what out-of-pocket costs might be incurred. However, health insurers can build loyalty by helping their customers understand their health plans and making the process of navigating the healthcare system easier.

One way to do so is by providing clear and concise information about the different aspects of a health plan. This might include easy-to-understand descriptions of coverage options, deductibles, copays and other terms that are commonly used in the healthcare industry. By providing this information in a format that is easy to understand, payers can help customers feel more confident in their decision-making and more comfortable with the choices they have made. This enhances the overall member experience, thus, increasing loyalty and customer retention.

In addition to providing clear information about the details of a health plan, health insurers can also help their customers understand the broader healthcare system. For example, they can offer resources and tools that explain how to find a doctor, how to schedule appointments and how to access other benefits. By offering this type of support, customers will feel more empowered and in control of their healthcare experience, including having more options to easily self-serve when necessary.

Offering personalized support and guidance will require the right systems and processes in place, like SmartIQ, a sophisticated digital forms solution. Providing this type of personalization, health insurers ensure customers feel heard and valued, and can establish a deeper connection with their members. Straightforward information about the costs of healthcare services, and clear explanations about any restrictions or limits on coverage, will help build trust and establish a strong relationship with their customers.

3. Create a User-Friendly, Digital Forms Experience

The member’s experience with forms is measured by the CAHPS surveys and translates to the customer service metric in the Stars Rating. When providing interacting with a health-related form, everything from which colors are used to font sizes and the information architecture influence a member’s perception of the brand. All are also key factors in creating user-friendly forms experience. But, how do health insurers know what to look for when creating responsive and user-friendly digital forms that elicit a positive response from members? The good news is, a pure cloud forms solution enables organizations to create a truly responsive forms experience, meaning it will look and operate the same across all platforms and channels. A few things to keep in mind:

Use what you know. Leverage integrations with core systems and single sign-on to pull data into forms so that members can review and revise rather than rekey this information. This will reduce the member’s effort as well as the opportunity for data entry errors.
Make the form visually appealing. Use a clean and organized layout, including clear headings/subheadings, helping customers quickly find the information they need. Consider using colors and images to make the form more appealing and easier to navigate.
Keep it simple and straightforward. Avoid using technical terms/jargon that may be confusing or misleading to customers. If specific terminology must be used, be sure to provide clear explanations of any terms that may be unfamiliar to customers. This includes using help text in the form.
Make the form accessible. Ensure all digital forms are accessible to customers with disabilities; this isn’t simply a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have, given 508 compliance mandates. Use appropriate formatting, like larger text/high-contrast colors, and include alternative text descriptions for images. We offer a guide to help make SmartIQ interviews WCAG-compliant.
Validate information in real-time. Use real-time validation to alert customers of any errors or missing information as they complete the form. This helps reduce the risk of errors and ensure that the form is completed correctly the first time, diminishing the chance for customer frustration and/or eliminate delays.

The above list is not exhaustive by any means but it’s important not to overlook this key point to enhancing star ratings and customer loyalty. In fact, 60% of customers will abandon a form if the process is too difficult—something that could be mitigated by deploying modern forms that are easy to engage with. The right vendor partnership will help insurers optimize the systems and processes they use to interact with customers, including the user-friendliness of their forms experiences.

**If you’d like more information on Star Ratings, customer experience and how to enhance member loyalty, watch the webinar recording of ‘Latest Benchmarks & Top Priorities for Health Payers’ featuring Judy Weader from Forrester Research. If you’re ready to take your health insurance organization to the next level.**

Work SMARTER, Not Harder: Enhancing CCM Efforts with Forms Automation

Posted on December 12, 2022 by SmartComm

By: Sally Schulte, Product Marketing Director at Smart Communications

Consumers today expect to do just about everything digitally — from filing an insurance claim and managing personal finances to making medical appointments. That’s why the move to digital-first customer interactions was happening even before the global pandemic, which threw digital transformation initiatives, like forms automation, into overdrive. In fact, a March 2022 IDC survey found that 71% of business are implementing a digital-first strategy due to the pandemic’s lasting impacts.

As a result of this widespread digitization, enterprises must rethink customer engagement. The days of companies only offering one way for customers to communicate with them, usually involving paper, are long gone. Today, customers expect more. They want to be able to initiate interactions with a business, start and stop at their convenience and even switch between channels and devices without having to start over. That means enterprises need to make interactions two-way, digital and conversational.

To meet customer expectations, many organizations have already adopted customer communications management (CCM) platforms. But one category of customer “communications” that companies often overlook, and under-optimize, is the form processes required to interact with them. Adding a forms automation solution enhances CCM efforts and fully optimizes the end-to-end customer experience (CX) by turning static, one-way processes into dynamic digital conversations.

Investing in a smart forms automation solution can make a huge difference to CX. Digitizing forms-based processes is not just converting paper forms to fillable PDFs and putting them on a website. True form process automation creates interactive, personalized experiences that consider known information, such as the customer’s personal details, medical history, insurance policy information and more. The digital journey should accommodate the end user’s timeline and device preference, letting them start on one device, leave, and pick up right where they left off on another.

Most importantly, a strong forms automation solution ensures that enterprises collect the most accurate data from every interaction. When paired with a cloud based CCM solution, this allows businesses to deliver the most tailored, personalized interactions in real time. Let’s look at some of the ways web forms automation and forms management software can benefit CCM efforts and the business at large.

Mitigate Risks for Data Breaches and Errors

Many industries have long relied on paper forms for key operational processes — things like loan applications, insurance claims documentation and reimbursement for medical expenses. But paper forms bring inherent risks that can be avoided with digitization. Paper forms that are mailed in or scanned and attached to an email are much less secure than digital forms – running the risk of unauthorized access that exposes PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and can result in hefty fines and damage a company’s reputation. Paper forms, or electronic forms that are stored in a database or on a hard drive, can easily become compromised, lost or breached by hackers. And when completing forms manually, even minor clerical errors can significantly slow down customer service processes or, worse, prevent a needed service from being provided to a customer.

Automated enterprise forms management helps businesses mitigate these risks. The data from digital forms can be easily transferred, stored and managed by existing core systems – aligning with any corporate data strategy. Choosing a cloud-first solution provides the added benefit of scale, reducing ongoing dependencies on internal IT resources. Process automation, including pre-population of forms with personal information pulled from existing core systems, minimizes the risk of errors, accelerating resolution and improving the overall customer experience.

Regarding risk, it’s also important to discuss compliance regulations. With digital form content, business owned form processes can be quickly and easily updated with content that is impacted by changes to local or federal regulations—securing compliance. And overall efforts related to risk mitigation closely align with broader CCM initiatives by making sure businesses have the data they need to optimize CX, such as customer preferences. Partnering with a vendor that offers both CCM and forms automation software makes it possible to stay one step ahead, especially when regulations vary by region. Again, it’s about working SMARTER — not harder.

Save Time and Money with Forms Automation

It’s a simple fact that manual processes can be slow and time-consuming, and can be especially cumbersome when it comes to gathering and acting on customer data. With remote and hybrid work here to stay, digital forms increase workplace efficiency by eliminating the need for employees to re-key information from paper forms or, worse, take data entered in one system and have to manually enter it into another. A fully integrated, cloud-based solution means that team members across departments and locations are all working from the same information — no need to worry about someone making a decision based on outdated information by mistake.

Automating forms-based processes is a win-win for both customers and business users. Transforming things like intake questionnaires, claims filing or loan applications into intuitive, guided digital experiences is faster, easier and much more secure. And it improves the employee experience because they’re not spending hours on the repeat tasks associated with manual, paper-based processes. Business users can get new projects to market faster and maintain existing projects quickly and easily. With the added flexibility forms automation provides, enterprises can reallocate and reduce the need for IT resources. Increased efficiency can even lower the cost of overtime, additional employees and other expenses related to manual forms management.

Forms Automation Can Enhance Enterprise Customer Communications

The goal for enterprises today is to deliver digital, omnichannel communications at scale. Customers want to be able to get things done on their own time and their own terms. By combining a cloud-first CCM solution with a sophisticated forms automation solution, enterprises can empower customers to self-serve — when, where and how they prefer. Incorporating data from core systems in real time allows enterprises to deliver communications on the customer’s preferred channel quickly and efficiently. Plus, taking an adaptive interview approach lets businesses confirm previously known information while also collecting new data.

This type of dynamic, two-way interaction leads to more personalized conversations that can be tailored to individual customer needs, making their lives easier. At the same time, it enables businesses to make data actionable and scalable, enhance communications and support faster resolution and decision making.

Purpose-Built for Today’s Enterprise Needs

At Smart Communications, we understand the importance of automating everything from basic tasks to sophisticated and complex processes. Our integrated solutions, including SmartIQ forms automation and SmartCOMM customer communications management, work together and connect to existing systems to deliver intuitive customer experiences and dynamic communications. By bringing data together, enterprises can gain a complete, contextual view of customers and remove friction with a single, powerful CX ecosystem.

Get in touch today to find out how SmartIQ enables enterprises to improve forms-based processes and empower interactive, two-way conversations.

Provide the Ultimate Healthcare Customer Experience

Posted on September 14, 2022 by SmartComm

Provide the Ultimate Healthcare Customer Experience: The Guide to Member Engagement Strategies

By: John Zimmerer, VP of Healthcare Marketing at Smart Communications

In a world where everyone is always on the go and as technology becomes smarter, faster and more intuitive, consumers increasingly prefer—and expect—digital-first experiences.

For highly regulated industries like healthcare, the stakes are even higher. Everyday customer interactions can be stressful, making the experience that health insurers provide at every touch point more important than ever. Recent benchmark data confirms this – with 81% of consumers indicating that communications are important to their overall experience with a company.

Unfortunately for healthcare payers, the industry lags in digital adoption, which has led to both internal inefficiencies and poor customer experience. As they interact with other non-healthcare industries that have set the customer experience bar high, healthcare members may begin looking to competitors to fulfill their needs. According to the Forrester Customer Experience Index, healthcare tracks well below the averages of most, ranking tenth out of the 13 U.S. industries analyzed.

In Provide the Ultimate Healthcare Customer Experience, we will walk through:

Key customer experience trends in healthcare
How healthcare payers can increase member engagement via cloud-based technology
The importance of omnichannel customer communications
Why Smart Communications offers the most complete platform on the market to support leading health insurers’ business strategies

Changing Customer Expectations and Regulations Drive Trends in Healthcare

The past few years have amplified the need for improved customer interactions. Globally, businesses have faced—and in many ways continue to endure—disruptions on multiple fronts. Many employers have moved their entire workforce to function as fully remote teams while continuing to navigate what the “next new normal” of work might look like. While all of these macro forces were influencing organizations to rethink how to do business, customer demands for digital-first experiences continued to increase.

Compounding to this digital transformation, the healthcare industry saw new regulations put in place, including:

Interoperability, which is “the ability of different information systems, devices and applications (systems) to access, exchange, integrate and cooperatively use data in a coordinated manner,” according to HIMSS
Price transparency, which allows healthcare patients to know the cost of a medical service before receiving it
Value-based care, where healthcare providers and hospitals are paid based on patient health outcomes
Shift to Medicare Advantage and ACA plans, providing individuals with more choices of health plans to purchase

As a result of these ever-changing market conditions, even the U.S. Federal Government has come to understand the importance of how much the customer experience matters to consumers when choosing a healthcare plan: for the 2023 plan year, member experience metrics make up the largest percentage (57%) of star ratings for Medicare Advantage plans.

Customer Experience Trends in Healthcare

On the bright side, insurers are beginning to realize the importance of making the healthcare customer experience a strategic priority. Recent findings include:

More focus on improving customer interactions. A Forrester report revealed that 15 out of the top 17 health insurers have experienced as much as a 5% year-over-year increase of their CX index scores – in large part due to these concentrated CX investments.
Higher investments in “total experience solutions.” These “consumer engagement” solutions improve the experience for both the employee and the member and are one of the top investment targets for health payers, according to Gartner.
Stagnant budgets. The same Gartner survey revealed that healthcare payers are seeing the lowest technology budget increases of any other industry. Health insurers therefore must invest wisely, strategically selecting key areas to improve that maximize the impact on the customer experience while minimizing disruption to both their members and their own organizations.

So, how can health insurers set themselves up for success?

A cloud-based platform that optimizes the end-to-end healthcare customer experience provides the agility, flexibility and innovation that homegrown or legacy, on-premise systems cannot. Below, we will dive into the benefits of cloud for nearly every touch point in the member journey, plus how optimized member communications provide health payers with the competitive edge they’re seeking.

Convert One-way Customer Communications to Two-way Conversations

To positively impact the healthcare customer experience, payers need to focus their investments in transforming their member communications. Leading analyst firms like Forrester confirm this, with recent research indicating that one of the top drivers of delivering a better customer experience is related to improved member communications.

Forrester also cites consumer preferences like “respects me as a customer” and “effective website and mobile apps” as factors that positively impact health payers’ experience scores.

To do this, health insurers must keep member preference in mind – at every step of the experience. Members should be able to start and stop interactions across channels and devices without having to re-key information. Delivering communications based on channel preference is also a must, as 61% of consumers indicated that receiving messages on the wrong channel leads to frustration with a company. At the end of the day, effective member conversations require an efficient and accessible digital experience at every step of the process.

Unfortunately, traditional ways of communicating with members aren’t as effective as they once were. So, as insurers rethink the healthcare customer experience, that means reimagining how members interact at every touch point. A big part of this is shifting from one-way, transactional communications to two-way, interactive conversations.

Delivering personalized, relevant and compliant conversations at scale can feel daunting, but the health insurers that invest in pure cloud solutions that are purpose-built to optimize member conversations will be set up for success. Cloud platforms, like the Conversation Cloud^TM, enable quick innovation, agility, scalability – and most importantly allow health insurers to evolve and scale as members expectations change over time.

RELATED READING | INFOGRAPHIC: Optimize Member Engagement at Every Point of the Health Insurance Journey

The Conversation Cloud^TM for Health Insurers

The Conversation Cloud^TM from Smart Communications empowers insurers to maximize their investments in the healthcare customer experience. Whether transforming a micro moment, such as a member-submitted claim form; to improving the access to and readability of critical communications like an Explanation of Benefits; or to orchestrate an entire customer journey such as a claim redetermination, look to the Smart Communications Conversation Cloud.

To better understand how the Conversation Cloud provides improves and transforms one-way communications into two-way, interactive conversations that positively impact the customer experience, this article focuses on four key areas where health insurers can enhance processes today:

Collect: Improve Data Gathering
Communicate: Increase Member Engagement with Content
Collaborate: Redefine Stakeholder Engagement
Coordinate: Reimagine the End-to-End Healthcare Customer Experience

Each section of this article provides examples and information to help insurers identify possible areas of investment, and in the process convert traditional communications into real-time, two-way conversations.

Collect: Improve Data Gathering

As health insurance executives start to invest more heavily in digital, they want to ensure that their investments are making a difference.

In a survey of more than 100 health insurance and provider executives, respondents cited what their organizations are currently doing and where opportunities still exist for improvement. When examining these leading indicators that impact the overall strategy for digitization investments, it’s no wonder that “customer satisfaction” is at the top of the list.

Despite more priority and effort going into customer satisfaction, this ongoing goal is simultaneously an ongoing challenge. Several points of friction are still holding digital projects back from making consumers happy. As companies expand their investment footprint across online and offline touchpoints, removing those frustrations is even more essential.

The Impact of Forms Automation on the Healthcare Customer Experience

Forms are a great example of one important aspect of a larger member journey. At some point, insurers will need to collect personally identifiable and protected health information (PII and PHI, respectively) from members. Most of the time, it’s done via a form—like web “name, address, location” fields, a PDF document, or just simply a piece of paper.

RELATED READING: Optimize Digital Forms for COVID-19 Claims

One of the greatest points of friction for members is having to provide the same data—name, address, age, etc.—repeatedly within and across forms. Consumers have a simple request: ‘Show me you know me’. Healthcare companies most often already have the data through direct engagement, an employer, provider, insurer or relationships with third-party providers.

The first trick is in making the digital connection to existing data; the next is to use this data intelligently. That means using available information and logic to hide or show subsequent questions or input fields. It also means leveraging integrations with other third-party services (for example, autocompleting address information, scanning a barcode, validating bank or other account information, etc.) to significantly reduce customer effort and enhance the customer experience.

Challenge

Static forms and similar tools can be cold and off-putting, therefore becoming a barrier to good data collection. To state it bluntly: customers just won’t fill them out.

Solution

The Conversation Cloud allows health insurers to seamlessly collect customer information by transforming static forms-based processes into intelligent, conversational user experiences. SmartIQ^TM powers:

Adaptive interviews
Experience-driven interactions
Omni-device availability
Real-time data validation

How can insurers use forms automation to enhance the healthcare customer experience?

Submit/appeal a claim
Disclosure and consent forms
Prior authorization requests
Personal representative appointment

Interested in learning more? Check out four ways forms automation can enhance the healthcare member experience.

Communicate: Increase Engagement with Tailored, Omnichannel Content

Personalization is a prevailing tactic for healthcare’s move toward digital excellence, and it’s easy to see why: When consumers receive relevant (customized) content on the right channel at the right time, they’re more likely to act and respond.

The two most frequently used digital communications tactics in insurance and health organizations are personalized messaging and multiple format options to support delivery across channels.

Supporting omnichannel engagement can also help organizations make the transition to a self-service model. Customers overwhelmingly prefer a digital-first approach including apps or online portals that give them more autonomy.

RELATED READING: How enterprises can orchestrate effective omnichannel conversations, creating consistent, customer-driven experiences across channels.

As a result, healthcare members want options: mobile phones, tablets and wearables have created an “always-on” environment where they can get things done with a click of a button. Access to multiple channels—plus ever-increasing expectations—puts more pressure on customer communications.

Successful conversations require content that is readable and easy for the user to comprehend. To keep customers engaged throughout the process, communications must be tailored as much as possible to the individual reader. These all must happen in real-time and must be able to reference context from previous interactions.

Getting these conversations done correctly and with ease is crucial for successful interactions. As insurers are looking to align their business priorities with member expectations, it’s important to keep in mind that 60% of healthcare consumers recently surveyed indicated that improving relevance and personalization is a top priority.

Challenge

Though these interactions are often mission critical, delivering personalized, real-time, contextual communications usually requires the creation and management of complex IT processes.

Solution

The Conversation Cloud empowers health insurers to create and deliver personalized, contextual and compliant communications across preferred channels to improve healthcare customer experience and deepen loyalty with:

Omnichannel approach for customer-preferred devices
Templates and reusable objects for consistency and compliance
Integrations with systems of record to pull in data for personalization
AI to improve readability and provide engagement insights

Ultimately health insurers can leverage these Communicate features across use cases, including:

Enrollment (ANOC, EOC, SBC, etc.)
Onboarding (ID card, provider/pharmacy directories, etc.)
Utilization (notifications/reminders, care management plans, etc.)
Claims (EOB, EOP, letters, etc.)

RELATED READING | Exploring CCM solutions? The Ultimate Guide to CCM Software provides a high-level overview of CCM software, poses questions to ask when selecting a vendor and more.

Collaborate: Change Stakeholder Engagement

Customer conversations sometimes require interacting with multiple stakeholders in a nonlinear process. Often, interactions occur outside the company altogether, e.g., with partners or regulators. Unfortunately, many businesses do not have a way for stakeholders to collaborate on business processes, which leads to a disjointed, frustrating customer or employee experience.

As a result, many fail to provide a holistic view of who made changes to critical documents, including what and when these changes were made. Requesting signatures or additional information from relevant parties can be difficult and these outdated processes can make sharing confidential information a security concern as well.

Challenge

When multiple stakeholders are involved in a process, there is increased risk of error – or worse – compliance issues. Siloed systems and inefficient processes are also time consuming, open up room for version control issues and create poor member and employee experiences.

Solution

Not only can the Conversation Cloud help speed things up, but it can also make these multi-step processes easy and simple, which results in a more efficient and effective interaction for all parties involved.

Working in a secure, online environment eliminates version control issues and also helps ensure compliance standards are met. With the Conversation Cloud, health payers can negotiate and execute processes by negotiating and providing business-critical agreements across internal and external stakeholders using experience-driven workflow including:

Developing Plan Documents
Coordinating Plan Selection for Group Enrollment
Internal Review and Approval of Content or Communications
Regulator Review of Plan Documents
Negotiating Provider or Supplier Contracts

RELATED READING | Healthcare member communications are ripe for transformation – are you prepared?

Coordinate: Reimagine the End-to-End Healthcare Customer Experience

Health insurers must focus on orchestrated, omnichannel interactions that guide customers through critical processes and provide richer, deeper and more engaging experiences. By interacting with customers via their preferred channels, health payers can improve their overall experience and increase brand loyalty.

Smart Communications partnered with Forrester Research to examine the current state of customer experience in healthcare. This research found that although 63% of consumers want better-connected journey touchpoints to improve the member experience, 57% of health insurers are struggling with the ability to provide a seamless digital experience throughout a given customer journey. The research also found that payers provide poor personalization and that journeys involving forms are as troublesome for insurers as they are for members and partners:

By creating self-service workflows and connecting across organizational silos, insurers can help their customers get easy questions answered, or simple steps completed—such as benefit or claim inquiries—in as few (or preferably single) interactions as possible. Although this compression of customer journeys can cut out unnecessary steps or to remove delays, the underlying and greater emphasis is on removing friction that leads to a lowering of effort on the member’s part (i.e., the ease and effectiveness factors most favorably into the overall customer experience).

Members focus on moments that matter—the interactions and processes which are valuable or necessary to achieving a goal. As insurers are looking to make the healthcare customer experience more omnichannel, some key questions they should ask themselves include:

Are the required steps to achieve common goals clear?
Are we maximizing integrations to minimize customer effort?
Are there steps in critical customer journeys where customers are falling off or feeling frustrated?

Challenge

The business (and the customer experience) can be negatively impacted when processes break down or a deadline passes.

Solution

Orchestrate interactions to optimize the customer experience across devices and channels with:

Facilitated two-way conversations
Failover from preferred to fallback channels
Analytics and insight into member engagement

Enterprises should invest in and prioritize technology solutions that evolve and scale as customer expectations change over time, delivering interactive, two-way conversations that encourage engagement and brand loyalty.

Conclusion

Changing the Conversation in Healthcare

Health insurers can improve customer experience by removing friction and delivering personalized communications in real-time, via any channel, and at scale that are:

Customer-driven
Digital-first
Two-way
Relevant and contextual
Cloud-centric
Highly scalable
Omnichannel

At Smart Communications, we have the products, professional services and partner network to help insurers improve the healthcare customer experience, whether it’s to coordinate an entire member journey or to improve how customer information is collected. Contact us today to discuss where to begin.

Smart Communications for Healthcare

Certifications

The Conversation Cloud is the only secure customer conversation management platform to have achieved an independent third-party validation of HIPAA, PCI-DSS, ISO and SOC compliance.

Customers

Our healthcare customers choose Smart Communications because they want to improve their customer experience, or they want to improve their operational efficiency. As a result, SMART customers see CX improvements reflected in higher NPS, CSAT and CX Index scores.

Additionally, SMART customers are seeing operational improvements driven by hard and soft cost savings by moving to a centralized cloud-native platform.

Partners

How to Access and Use the 2022 Aspire CCM-CXM Leaderboard

Posted on July 29, 2022 by SmartComm

By: Chris Murphy, VP of Product Marketing, Smart Communications

Analysts agree that there’s been a major shift to the cloud in the customer communications management (CCM) space – driven by customers’ increasing preference for digital, plus unprecedented levels of innovation in the technology space. As the first CCM provider to fully embrace and harness the benefits of cloud technology, we’re pretty excited (not to mention proud) that the market is following our lead. But this strategic sea-change makes it all the more critical for companies looking to invest in new technology to find resources they can trust to help them make an informed decision. And when it comes to trusted resources in the CCM marketplace, the Aspire CCM-CXM Leaderboard provides in-depth analysis and advice for leading enterprises to make the most informed decisions about their technology investments.

Customer experience (CX) expert, Kaspar Roos, and his global team of market research analysts are highly respected in the CCM and CX industries. Since 2015, the firm has been providing highly specialized independent insights, evaluation and advice to empower enterprises, software providers and business advisories to better understand this evolving market. In fact, Aspire established the Leaderboard to help capture this evolution—and to help businesses understand how various CCM-CXM providers compare on a range of capabilities and strategic direction.

A Dynamic CCM-CXM Assessment Tool that Delivers Deep Insight

The Leaderboard’s interactive capabilities make it easy to visualize where various CCM vendors rank in the market. Users have the added ability to customize that ranking based on a range of factors including business model, CCM maturity, strategic focus, cloud maturity and more. Results can be further filtered based on specific categories and use cases, such as industry, target market and company size, for fine-tuned analysis.

The 2022 Leaderboard has been updated to reflect the changing market. Whereas previous Leaderboards ranked vendors on a single grid, this year’s tool allows users to select from several different grids depending on their organizational needs. In this post, we’ll focus on two of the grids where CCM is the primary focus: AnyPrem and Vendor-hosted SaaS.

At Smart Communications, we believe there is no one-size fits all approach. However, we’ve helped countless customers over the years to evolve from a more traditional, on-premise or hosted model to fully realize and harness the myriad of benefits of a vendor-hosted SaaS CCM solution.

“Cloud is a strong differentiator for Smart Communications. The company was one of the first in the industry to move toward SaaS and it has embraced a cloud-native, DevOps way of working since the mid-2010s” – Aspire Leaderboard 2022

Follow These Steps to Get Started

While the 2022 Aspire CCM-CXM Leaderboard is designed to remove complexity and provide clear analysis to support CCM-CXM decision-making, it does require a few more steps to access than your average static analyst report. Here are some tips to help you navigate the updated Leaderboard and find the optimal CCM solution for your organization.

Step 1: Do Your Homework

The ability to customize this tool is what really sets it apart, so start by getting very clear about what you need. Review any information you’ve already collected in a request for information (RFI). Evaluate all the possible criteria, prioritize feature sets and make sure you have a clear strategic vision so you can look for vendors whose trajectory aligns.

If you’re not sure where to start, ask yourself:

What are our key use cases?
Which departments will benefit from this investment?
What technology will help us focus on what we do best?
What does our existing tech ecosystem look like?
What core systems are we looking to extend the value of?

With customer expectations changing daily and the digital landscape continuing to expand, cloud is decidedly the way of the future. By adopting a pure cloud solution, companies can deliver seamless customer experiences with dynamic, two-way conversations—at unmatched speed and scale.

What to Look for in an Enterprise CCM Solution

Every organization has unique challenges and goals, and the best solution will align most closely to those needs. However, the things we know are important to end customers today when it comes to communications are often only achievable with cloud—including channel preference, relevance, frequency and timing. A pure cloud CCM solution provides the ability to manage the complexity of omnichannel communications, a holistic view of the customer, rapid response times and seamless integration with core systems, among other capabilities.

Security is always top of mind, particularly for highly-regulated industries such as insurance, financial services and healthcare. Look for a solution with enterprise-grade security and privacy standards such as role-based access, granular permissions and standard certifications. If you’re replacing a home-grown or legacy communications application, it’s also important to choose a vendor that offers migration support to maintain both communications and brand continuity.

The Aspire Leaderboard (and our very own Cloud Buyer’s Guide) include questions you should ask potential vendors. The bottom line is this: legacy on-premise CCM solutions simply cannot meet the moment for enterprises or their customers.

Step 2: Create Your Aspire profile

Now that you know what you’re looking for, you can set up your Aspire profile using our complimentary link. Start by registering to gain access to the Aspire Portal by entering some basic information and choosing a password.

Next, you’ll get an email from Aspire to activate your registration. From there, you can login to the portal and set up your profile. Simply follow the on-screen steps and fill in the requested information about your organization and role. While this takes a couple of minutes, it helps to personalize the experience so you can get the insights you need to make the best investment for your company.

Step 3: Choose Your Own Adventure

Now comes the fun part. Once you’ve completed your profile, you can access the Leaderboard and customize your view. Look for the Segmentation Grid drop-down menu in the top right corner.

For example, if your organization is focused on a cloud-first, SaaS approach, start by selecting Vendor-hosted SaaS CCM from the drop-down menu. This evaluation looks at vendors, like Smart Communications, who have developed cloud-native software offered “as a service,” either using their own data center or by relying on public infrastructure such as Azure or AWS.

One advantage of choosing a SaaS vendor is that they’re responsible for data security, making things like certification, regulatory compliance and privacy-by-design even more essential. In addition, SaaS solutions typically support continuous deployment, also known as evergreen IT, and use agile or DevOps software development methodologies. This makes it easier for companies to spend more time focused on what really matters—engaging meaningfully with customers—and less time on software (and hardware) maintenance.

For organizations looking to deploy a CCM solution that’s either on-premise or in a hosted, public, virtual private or hybrid cloud configuration due to security requirements, choose AnyPrem CCM Software assessment from the drop-down menu.

Many of the vendors in this grid “have reworked and repackaged their legacy CCM solutions for containerized, serverless environments.” Smart Communications appears in this grid, however, because we have adapted our cloud solution to work in a hybrid fashion – keeping all customer data within an organization’s domain – while still being able to benefit from all that a cloud solution offers. We recognize that customers are all on a cloud journey—and we have multiple options depending on where you are on that journey, and a pathway to get you to the next phase when you’re ready.

“All in all, Smart Communications has had a very good 2021 and continues to align its development with the direction of the market.” – Aspire Leaderboard 2022

As an established thought leader in customer communications, Aspire has identified an additional emerging category that they’re calling Communications Experience Management or Communications Experience Platforms (CXM/CXP). This is another assessment to consider.

According to Aspire, these vendors have combined CCM software with other CX systems—for example, business intelligence dashboards, customer data platforms, marketing automation, journey visualization and orchestration, and multi-variate testing. The CXP grid assesses both technology vendors and service providers who offer these capabilities as part of a single cloud (SaaS or AnyPrem) or hosted managed services platform.

Step 4: Customize. Prioritize. Assess. Repeat.

The best approach for your organization depends entirely on your unique requirements, strategic priorities and cloud maturity. While we’re proud to have paved the way for the shift to cloud in CCM—and that Aspire is recognizing this evolution—the beauty of the Leaderboard is that it dynamically responds to what matters to you.

As a trusted industry advisor, Aspire has analyzed and segmented the capabilities, strategy and market presence of multiple vendors to help you make the best possible decision. You can keep fine-tuning the assessment based on different use cases, priorities and strategies, and then save your filtered view for each grid you create. You can even create customized URLs to share with colleagues and reference as you continue to research technology options. The Leaderboard also includes customer quotes and vendor content, so be sure to check out the vendor profiles as well.

The Power of Dynamic, Specialized Insights for Informed Decisions

Investing in a new technology solution or platform is a big decision—and a challenging one. That’s why we’re excited to share this dynamic tool with organizations at any stage of the CCM journey to help you make an informed decision and achieve your strategic goals.

At Smart Communications, we pride ourselves on delivering business value and innovation to enterprise organizations across industries and borders, so you can have SMARTER two-way conversations with your customers. As the only company enabling enterprises to deliver personalized, omnichannel conversations across the entire customer experience, we believe we are uniquely positioned to help you engage more meaningfully, embrace the digital-first world and achieve your strategic goals. And, we’re thrilled that the most trusted advisor in our industry agrees.

“Smart Communications is an excellent fit for enterprises in the market for a modern and high-quality cloud-based CCM solution, especially for complex interactive use cases in addition to batch.”– Aspire Leaderboard 2022

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1. Understand the goal of the CCM migration

2. Determine which deployment option is best

3. Assess your digital readiness

4. Know your existing cost model

Why are Star Ratings Important for Health Insurers?

1. Digital Forms Can Help Address This Customer Driver Behind CX and Loyalty

2. Build Loyalty by Helping Customers Understand Their Plans

3. Create a User-Friendly, Digital Forms Experience

Mitigate Risks for Data Breaches and Errors

Save Time and Money with Forms Automation

Forms Automation Can Enhance Enterprise Customer Communications

Purpose-Built for Today’s Enterprise Needs

Get in touch today to find out how SmartIQ enables enterprises to improve forms-based processes and empower interactive, two-way conversations.

Provide the Ultimate Healthcare Customer Experience: The Guide to Member Engagement Strategies

Changing Customer Expectations and Regulations Drive Trends in Healthcare

Customer Experience Trends in Healthcare

Convert One-way Customer Communications to Two-way Conversations

The Conversation CloudTM for Health Insurers

Collect: Improve Data Gathering

The Impact of Forms Automation on the Healthcare Customer Experience

Communicate: Increase Engagement with Tailored, Omnichannel Content

Collaborate: Change Stakeholder Engagement

Coordinate: Reimagine the End-to-End Healthcare Customer Experience

Conclusion

Changing the Conversation in Healthcare

Smart Communications for Healthcare

Certifications

Customers

Partners

A Dynamic CCM-CXM Assessment Tool that Delivers Deep Insight

Follow These Steps to Get Started

Step 1: Do Your Homework

What to Look for in an Enterprise CCM Solution

Step 2: Create Your Aspire profile

Step 3: Choose Your Own Adventure

Step 4: Customize. Prioritize. Assess. Repeat.

The Power of Dynamic, Specialized Insights for Informed Decisions

Ready to Start Assessing?

The Conversation Cloud^TM for Health Insurers