The Hiser Group recently studied the customer experience when using the phone and the Web to choose a health fund. The study, which was not supported by any fund or other organisation, looked at Australian Unity, HBA and Medibank Private.
The scenario given to participants was that they were about to turn 30 and wanted to take out health insurance in order to avoid government penalties. They were at work, during their lunch hour, and wanted to do some research to choose a health fund. Participants were given access to a telephone, a desktop PC with Internet connection and printer, and were asked to find an appropriate policy and obtain a quotation.
Only four out of 11 participants felt ready to make a decision after 90 minutes.
In the evaluation stage, each fund received at least one 'best' and 'worst' vote for Web and phone, although HBA received the highest number of 'best' votes in both categories.
HBA was favoured as its Web site has relatively few links (so participants required less time to make a decision and moved forward quickly) and a table allowing quick comparisons of products and prices, as well as phone agents that tended to adapt their approach to suit the participant and balanced being helpful and persuasive without being pushy.
The variation in response was greater for phone than for the Web, due to the differences between agents. -You're at the mercy of your customer service staff," said Susan Wolfe, managing director of The Hiser Group. Waiting time and being left on hold while the agent seeks information were also problems.
Although Web sites deliver the same experience each time, the participants' reactions still varied. They were likely to abandon the process at the quotation stage, due to poor layout, confusing questions or terminology, incomplete information (eg, whether premiums are weekly or monthly), and difficulty in comparing alternatives.
Five out of 11 users abandoned one Web site because of a single flaw in the design of the quote form.
-From the companies' perspective, if they're trying to use the Web as a less expensive channel, it's not working for them," said Wolfe, even though -the Web is often people's first port of call for getting information."
The problem is partly due to organisational structures that mean the nominal 'owners' of the Web site may be disconnected from the mainstream of the business, Wolfe suggested. It is important to think of the company as one entity, to provide customers with multiple ways of getting the same information, and to integrate those channels.
-No one channel is sufficient for doing this task, and companies need to recognise that," she added.
