Concerns With Insurance Company Websites
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act has changed the scope of health coverage for millions upon millions of Americans. However, with changes coming so quickly the insurance industry may not be ready to handle customer service during the enrollment process. Let’s examine how customer service can be improved during enrollment.
Implementation of the Affordable Care Act
The insurance industry will not be equipped to handle the vast number of confused consumers who go to the internet to seek answers to their questions. About 4 out of every 10 Americans are not aware that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is actually being implemented. Of those Americans aware of the implementation of PPACA, approximately 50% of those individuals do not have adequate information to understand how PPACA will affect their family. If you’re a consumer make sure that you have the right information before choosing a health care plan.
Trends of American Consumers
Approximately 39% of people visit websites to get their insurance information while 24% of Americans call the insurance providers call center for information. Nearly 20% of Americans speak with an insurance agent.
Most Americans seek information via an insurance website; however, websites are doing an extremely poor job educating potential customers about available health care plans. Since, insurance websites are the weakest in research help, product information, and site search, changes must be made accordingly in order to get more prospective customers to purchase their health care plan.
Do you think health insurance websites are prepared to deal with the estimated 45 million prospective consumers that will be shopping for health insurance plans starting January 1, 2014? Are you in fact ready for PPACA? Look at 5 things you need to consider regarding accessibility and availability, relevancy, findability, escalation, and feedback.
Assisting Consumers
Is it easy to find your insurance company’s online self-service? If not, then it is essential that you make it accessible and available to even the less technologically savvy Americans. Make sure the information on your website is both relevant and informative. Keep in mind that prospective consumers and current customers must be able to quickly and easily find all the information their looking for in a timely fashion. Remember that customers should be able to escalate their calls from a self-service channel to other channels without a glitch. All insurance websites need to ensure that there’s a customer feedback mechanism that is easy to use to guarantee a great online customer service experience.
Since customer service specifically self-service will either make or break the success that PPACA has on millions of Americans, online self-service must be easily accessible for everyone. Insurance websites must ensure that adequate information about available insurance plan options is displayed on the website. Customer service representatives and insurance agents need to be available to answer any questions to aid in insurance provider rollout and consumer adoption.