Putting the member first: Developing an actionable journey map for a new market

The challenge

A payer client enlisted the help of Vynamic to capitalize on growth in the Medicare Advantage market to enter a new geography. Their objective was to review and revamp their existing member communication strategies and to enhance member engagement. Vynamic collaborated with the client to achieve the dual objectives of reducing costs and minimizing member touchpoints, while simultaneously improving the member experience by creating a customer journey map that would serve as a blueprint for entering the new market.

The approach

With a deep understanding of the Medicare business and extensive customer experience work, Vynamic was brought on to support the payer in mapping out member engagement within the identified growth market. Understanding the critical elements needed for success in year one was key to building out the ideal customer journey map along with analyzing existing campaigns.

Vynamic took a four-step approach to mapping out the journey:

1. Identify guiding principles
Vynamic started by developing four guiding principles, in alignment with the client, to be used as a “north star” in creating the ideal customer journey:

• Expedite and facilitate primary care provider engagement
• Maximize quality ratings
• Improve member experience
• Ensure federal & state compliance

2. Inventory and segment existing member touchpoints
In collaboration with the Marketing team, Vynamic worked with departmental leadership within Clinical Operations, Quality, and Regulatory Compliance to perform a comprehensive review of all existing member campaigns and touchpoints.

In doing so, Vynamic developed a detailed inventory that organized each communication campaign into three categories: Member Retention, Stars/Risk Adjustment/Clinical, and Mandatory/Operational. From a member point of view, these materials either aimed to explain their benefits, improve their health, or were legal requirements that they needed to receive.

3. Streamline and reduce
Through conversations with the Marketing, Stars, and Regulatory teams, Vynamic reviewed the existing inventory and made recommendations for which campaigns to bring into the new plan.

Vynamic was able to identify a number of communications that were duplicative and advised on removing these messages in order to streamline messaging and provide a more cohesive and coherent member experience.

4. Map the journey
Vynamic mapped out the journey in two distinct customer journey maps – an all-member journey map designed to facilitate messaging for every new enrollee, as well as a condition-specific journey map that is more tailored to the individual health needs of the client’s membership.

The all-member journey laid out the campaigns that all members would receive at specific points in time starting from time of enrollment to the end of the first year. The condition-specific journey laid out the campaigns that those with specific medical conditions (i.e., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.) would receive throughout the year. Both journey maps included specific messages and calls to action aligned to the guiding principles.

The result

Vynamic’s thorough and detailed approach led to a comprehensive customer journey map with targeted messages and calls to action. The maps detailed when and how to engage members with an overall 45% reduction in member touchpoints for the first year. With the updated customer journey map, the goal is that members will engage with PCPs early on and have a clear understanding of the benefits available to them. By focusing on the guiding principles, Vynamic set the client up for success to understand their new members as soon as possible and be well positioned to support this population. Due to the successful reduction and streamlining, the goal is to apply similar lessons learned to member communications in the other markets.