Prioritizing customer service and the member experience: A conversation with Lynn Bowman

October 2024 | Leadership Perspectives

Joining Point32Health in summer 2024, Lynn Bowman brings over 25 years of experience in customer service and operations. Her expertise in both the public and nonprofit sectors, as well as health plans across all lines of business, will serve her well in her new role as senior vice president of service and experience. We recently sat down with Lynn to learn more about her perspective on the member experience and how she will help Point32Health and our family of companies take our service enterprise to the next level.

Q: What do you feel consumers want from their insurance carrier from an experience standpoint?

Lynn Bowman: I think consumers don’t really want to even interact with their insurance company. If you think about it, when you call customer service, no one is calling up to say ‘hey, I hope you’re having a great day,’ they’re calling up to say there is a defect somewhere in our system and they’re hoping we can solve for that. In general, consumers don’t want to interact with us at all, but if they have to, they want issue resolution, they want trust and they want to have confidence that we’ve heard them.

Q: With that understanding of our members in mind, what are your short and long-term goals when it comes to the customer experience?

LB: The end-state goal is to create a world-class service experience and world-class member experiences. That’s where we want to be, and for me, my approach to that is fairly formulaic – starting with making sure that we’re focusing on our staffing models and we’re hiring the right people.

At Point32Health, we’ve been focusing on efficiency metrics, things like how fast do you answer the phone, how long do callers wait to talk to a human being, or how much time are members actually spending with an agent? What we haven’t been doing is focusing keenly on the quality of the interaction, but I am trying to shift the focus from efficiency to quality, because if we focus on quality, efficiencies will follow.

We’re also going to be shifting to a coaching model for quality and really focus on the things that are important to our members. Do we think consumers care if someone answers the call in 45 seconds instead of 55 seconds, or if they use the official greeting? No – what they care about is whether the issue was resolved, if they were treated with courtesy and respect and if they received clear and accurate information from their representative.

I would say that the most challenging role in the entire company is a frontline service representative.  The service representative are our brand ambassadors and represent the voice of the customer internally.  Service Representatives need to lead with empathy, think critically, resolve issues and support members as they navigate through the complexities of the health care system. The level of emotional intelligence that folks need to do this job is absolutely amazing. One minute you may be on simple straightforward call about selecting a PCP and the next call you may need to support a member that was recently diagnosed with a significant medical illness.

Q: We hear a lot about the current climate in our industry, so from your perspective, what are the challenges and opportunities that we have to excel in the new dynamic that we’re finding in healthcare?

 LB: If I think about this through the member lens, it’s just the complexity of health care. So, we have an opportunity to really simplify things as much as possible for the member and create the advocacy and the navigation support that members really need. It’s also the ever-changing dynamics around out of pocket cost, particularly when it comes to prescription drugs. I know that at Point32Health, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that we have a formulary that meets our member’s needs.

Q: You have deep experience in service and customer experience – what do you think you are able to bring to this role that will help Point32Health take the next step when it comes to member service?

 LB: I do think that what I bring to the table is a deep passion for improving the member experience and unwavering commitment to support the member service representatives that work tirelessly to delight our members.  I will go to the wall to make sure that member service representatives are treated in a respectful way, have the tools to do their job and ensure that folks understand the integral role that the service reps play in Point32Health’s success.

In addition to my passion for our frontline member service reps, I bring a broad understanding of what we need to do to create a world-class service center and reduce the friction that exists today within our member experience. We need to work towards an omnichannel environment, communicate with members leveraging their preferred communication method, off load simple transactions to self-service channels, utilize AI/bots to conduct repeatable processes and create member engagement opportunities that will drive member retention.

Most importantly, we need to become a member centric organization. We need to listen to our members, ask for feedback and bring the member voice into day-to-day business operations. We need to view all decisions through the member lens to be sure we fully understand the impact to the member and how we will support members as a result of that business decision.