National Alliance has a long history of innovating to meet the complex and varied needs of our employer group customers, our members, and our Partner Plans. Our team isn’t shy about exploring new ways to cook up the extraordinary. Read on for an example of our responsive innovation – and a look into how we operate.
It’s just like ordering a pizza!
If you’re like us, you track a lot of things on your phone – whether it is your latest Prime package or dinner delivery. These consumer experiences were the model for converting critical Voice of the Customer data into a new digital feature that supports our member journey.
The situation: Doctors submit prior authorization requests to the health plan so members can be approved for important services. But members are often in the dark as they wait to get results, and that can be frustrating – creating anxiety for members waiting on approvals.
Members spoke, and we listened: Members wanted to be able to track the status of their Prior Authorization requests without having to call Customer Service or their doctor. We responded by building a live tracker for our app and web portal that was modeled on popular pizza trackers – so members have an easy way to stay on top of this important piece of their health care journey.
What’s our secret recipe?
Our Advisory Board-recognized PA Tracker is just one example of how National Alliance innovates. Our team is focused on making improvements to the member, group, and partner experience every day. What’s our secret for staying on the constant edge?
We listen to our Partner Plans.
A key differentiator of the National Alliance model is our willingness and flexibility to adapt to the needs of our Partner Plans’ local markets. Whether it’s integrating with a particular vendor or developing custom digital solutions – we serve as a strategic partner to grow and retain ASO business.
We listen to employer group customers.
In the ever-changing group benefit market, we pride ourselves on working side-by-side with employer group customers to help them offer the best options to their employees. We build custom solutions for the most complex benefits and integrate with a wide variety of third-party vendors to deliver a comprehensive member experience. In addition, we routinely solicit and collect feedback from our employer clients via our account teams, as well as through surveys delivered via email and within the employer portal.
We listen to members.
Voice of the Customer (VoC) member feedback is integral to our innovation approach. We capture VoC data associated with 26 key moments that matter most to our members when interacting with us, then monitor the data for pain points and patterns in our telephonic, web and app channels. This helps us understand what impacts our service, where friction occurs and where to focus as we seek to improve the experience.
We do our research.
Our team conducts ongoing industry research to uncover new approaches and solutions that will differentiate the experience we offer.
This research includes examining market insights and trends to better understand our client and member needs. We also review unique vendor solutions as we develop our offerings – if we’re not building it ourselves, we are passionate about partnering with the best vendors to create an outstanding experience.
We prioritize, build and test.
Customer experience insights feed the digital experience strategy and roadmap. Our prioritization model helps us identify opportunities with the highest reward for both member satisfaction and business value.
Our experience design process allows us to ideate, create, and iterate experiences alongside members and key stakeholders. This includes a feedback panel of more than 1,100 members, and access to an array of internal experts who have extensive customer service, design, technical and marketing experience.
Our approach includes piloting solutions with selected employer groups to ensure the experience is in line with their expectations before wider release. This group involvement with innovation helps ensure we’re knocking it out of the park.
We launch new solutions to stay on the constant edge.