Broker Experience
Ideating and designing a broker customer experience for the future.
Setting the stage
Setting the stage
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is a health insurance provider serving 3.5 million individuals and groups in Maryland, Virginia, and the Washington metropolitan area. CareFirst offers the widest coverage and the largest network for medical, dental and vision insurance in the region. With its far reach and brand recognition, CareFirst seeks to identify areas of opportunity to improve the broker experience in and increase sales in the 51+ market.
Phase 1: Discovery
Phase 1: Discovery
Getting to know stakeholders & brokers
1 On-site visioning workshop with CareFirst
17 Broker interviews with general producers and wholesalers
15 Stakeholder interviews detailing processes from sales, implementation, underwriting, and support teams
Understanding CareFirst backstage processes
After our interviews we wanted to better understand CareFirst internal processes and how this can affect the broker experience. The process maps below depict the different stages of the CareFirst broker backstage processes.
Phase 2: Service Design
Phase 2: Service Design
Mapping the full broker experience
With the back end processes mapped, I started to create a singular service blueprint that would highlight typical stages that brokers go through when from sales, implementation, plan administration, to possible renewal. This blueprint helped identify where the experience was lacking for brokers and whether CareFirst internal processes were to blame.
Moments of truth
What does the future look like?
The service blueprint highlighted gaps in the broker experience and provided a clear vision for what the future could look like for CareFirst. While not all recommendations may yield immediate financial impact, they are crucial for maintaining strong, long-term broker relationships.
Prioritizing customer needs with business objectives
This deck below outlines our complete strategy and recommendations based on our assessments. We present our initial findings from our interviews, service blueprint, micro-journey maps, and actionable recommendations that are prioritized based on business need and level of effort.
Phase 3: Solution Demo
Phase 3: Solution Demo
Issue submission tracking
Based on our prioritization exercise and previous research, we identified the need for an issue submission and tracking system as a vital solution to not only the broker experience but also the CareFirst broker experience. This was the one area in our service blueprint where delays in issue handling were evident to customers and caused lag in service for brokers. CareFirst employees also mentioned their inboxes being flooded by service requests.
Impact
Impact
What is the impact of this solution?
Ability to prioritize and organize issues based on urgency and severity.
Reporting and tracking activity to optimize business operations.
Increased transparency for brokers and ticket status updates.
Empowering customer success representatives to resolve issues and transfer tickets to next available resources.
Faster issue resolution times and increased customer satisfaction.
Ability for brokers to self-service through a new support center in the broker portal.