Press the magic (benefits) button
Customers now view great service as being almost indistinguishable from not having to have service at all.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
When Arthur C. Clarke wrote those words in 1962, he very accurately described how today’s technology is allowing customer service to change so radically that customers now view great service as being almost indistinguishable from not having to have service at all.
Related: Customer service: Delight or disgust?
A perfect example is my recent experience of trading my ancient (by today’s standards) iPhone 6 for an iPhone 13. My old phone was rapidly fading; I had to charge it twice a day and constantly received messages that I had insufficient storage. The new phone was ordered and mailed to my home and, not being a techie, I knew the next steps would be stressful: I would need to try to transfer my contacts, text and call history, apps, personal data, music, etc. and then would face the terrifying experience of going to a provider store to have my line transferred onto the new phone.
The process of transferring data was simple. All I had to do was put the new phone in proximity to the old phone and, by some voodoo technology I didn’t understand, everything showed up in my new phone. I couldn’t believe it. MAGIC!
By way of comparison, how does the employee benefits business stack up on the “magic scale”? We all know the answer. Surveys consistently show that employees do not understand their employee benefits as well as they would like. They show that employers believe employees understand and appreciate their benefits better than they actually do. They show that neither employers nor employees think the process supporting employee benefits is as easy to work with as it should be.
A major part of the problem is coordination of different benefits from different providers. Employers rarely have all their employee benefits serviced through a single insurance company. This results in wide variances in eligibility rules, underwriting requirements, and enrollment processes. The complexity of needs in today’s world are exacerbated by interest in areas that hardly existed 20 years ago like coverage for cyber risk, ID theft products, and services like wellness programs, mental health benefits, college loan repayment, etc.
Here are a few of the processes that can make up our customer magic:
- Coordination of enrollment, eligibility management and service for all product vendors through coordinated service/communication portals—one for employers, one for employees.
- Employees will be aided in product enrollment purchases by an AI-driven virtual assistant that understands their needs based on a complete, year-round understanding of the employee’s situation.
- Auto-fulfillment of coverage—when an employer purchases a group plan or an employee makes a voluntary purchase and provides the necessary information, all documents are immediately available including the contract, the initial bill and any employee-related communications.
- When an employee has a position change and qualifies for new benefits based on the employer’s eligibility rules—auto-processing and fulfillment of the update.
- When an employee has a claim—a one-stop portal for filing, status checks and payment data.
- When an employee has a life event change – auto-opportunities based on the change and available products and services.
- When an employee wants more coverage, for example, on a voluntary life plan—simple processes and immediate, touch-free approvals/denials and fulfillment.
- When an employee changes jobs or retires—auto portability processes to support continuing portable coverages.
There is good news. We are already close to this kind of magic today in many respects. With leadership from LIMRA and a consortium of insurance companies and employee benefit administration systems, data feeds between employers, their payroll, benefit administration, HR tech providers, and insurance companies are being standardized. Better yet, these data feeds are being connected via APIs that allow coordination of processes. Every transaction takes place in real time.
There is light at the end of the tunnel. Contrary to a commercial from a few years ago, today’s technology is increasingly making “magic pixie dust” a reality—and our customers are going to love it!
Read more: