Regardless of your political leanings, no one can look at the current state of our health insurance industry and say that it is working at peak efficiency. If my recent experience is any indication, there will be a lot of people very confused and concerned about their health coverage in 2017. I am a one-person company and buy health insurance on the open market. For 2016, my coverage has been with Aetna. In November, I received a letter from Aetna saying that my plan will no longer be offered by and I need to select another coverage option. The letter said I could avail myself of the healthcare.gov website or call one of Aetna’s sales specialists who would happily guide me through the process.
When I had a block of time I could devote to this process, I called the number Aetna provided. My expectation was that I would talk with an Aetna representative, they would go over my new options, and assuming I selected from those choices, I would get transferred over to that new plan; after all, I was an active Aetna customer. Moreover, the insurance I had before this coverage was also with Aetna. I have been generally happy with Aetna; my health care providers accept it and their processes and rules are greatly more customer friendly than other providers I have used in the past. Things got off on a bad footing when my attempts to get a human being on the phone failed. I was literally stuck in IVR hell, getting transferred through a non-ending loop of phone options.
Then I realized that I’m an Aetna customer! I could just call them at the member number provided on my card. The first message I heard upon dialing that number was that it was not the correct number to call for responses to Aetna’s letter.
Hmm…I thought I would try their online chat. After I logged into the site, I went to see what my actual coverage was so I would have that information handy when asked. I noticed there was an option to see what Aetna’s coverage was for my state in 2017, so I clicked that link. Lo and behold, I found that my specific coverage was in fact an option for 2017. Why would Aetna be sending me a cancelation letter for coverage that wasn’t being canceled?
I went back to the main member number and waited until I got a real live human on the phone. I went over the situation with her and she apologized for the issue with the number on the letter and said she would transfer me to the sales area immediately. A very nice lady came on the line and started asking me questions about coverage. After a few questions, it was apparent that she didn’t know anything about me. How could this be, couldn’t she just look me up in her system and see everything that Aetna knows about me? I asked why she wasn’t doing exactly that, where upon she shared that she didn’t work for Aetna but for an independent broker.
Besides the fact that I didn’t want to speak to an unknown independent broker (I already have one if I wanted to go that route …), it really torqued me that the Aetna rep told me I would be transferred to an Aetna sales rep and instead sent me to a broker; definitely a violated expectation. I said “no thanks,” to the broker and gave up. Two days later, and with the weight of my impending insurance cancellation heavy upon me, I called Aetna again. I went through the whole story again, and my representative not only transferred me to the AETNA sales department but stayed on the call to make sure I actually reached that department.
I was speaking to a pleasant young man from Aetna. My first question was, “I got a cancellation letter for insurance that I see on your website is available in my area. Why can’t I keep what I have?” It appeared that this question was not part of his script or previous training and he was nonplussed to explain. He quoted me the new policy monthly costs (a 33% increase in the previous year’s premium cost), and asked if I wanted to apply for this policy? Apply? I was already an Aetna customer, why would I need to fill out the same application again? This too seemed to escape a rational response, but again he assured me that the 8-page application would need to be resubmitted to Aetna to sign up for the exact policy I already had. I called my insurance broker and paid a fee for her to navigate this process on my behalf.
Why did this situation have to happen? Are there rules and regulations that force Aetna to fire clients in this manner? Does Aetna not have to worry about offering reasonable customer service since we have few insurance choices and will likely choose them regardless of how poorly we are treated? Aetna’s policy turned out to be $200 cheaper than the other options available to me, so my inconvenience in this instance did not seem to warrant an additional $2400 expense.
Unless your business is in some sector where your customers have to choose you (think utilities, insurance, local hospital, etc.), you need to map out a customer journey. Literally follow the path of the potential new customer or an existing customer that is trying to renew or upgrade; where are the places where the experiences is such that the end user will abandon the process?
Find and fix those things. If you are too close to the forest to see the trees, employ someone outside your company to do this review on your behalf, but do not allow your company to operate with the type of customer experience that Aetna has deployed. That’s a formula for aggravating your best customers and exasperating potential prospects.
David is an international speaker, executive coach, serial entrepreneur, and shipwreck survivor. He is the bestselling author of Grounded (Little River, 2016) . If you’re interested in David’s expertise in the areas of leadership, finance, and public speaking, please get in touch here.