I got an email from my health insurance company, telling me I had an important message I could read if I clicked and got to their website. Here's what happened. While I was on the site, I discovered they were delivering break-through functionality making it easier to pay those annoying doctor bills that appear in the mail long after the visit. Here's the scoop. This post tells what happened next.
One of the best things Anthem did to enhance their customer website experience is to be humble. So many stuck-up website creators are sure they’ve done the best job that can be done, and simply put the site out there. Here it is, visitors, we’re sure you’ll agree that it’s a truly excellent website!
The experienced professionals at Anthem are well past this kind of immature attitude. They worry that the site they’ve build isn’t as good as it could be; how better to find this out than by asking the customers, the actual people who use the site?
Certain modern website designers get this kind of information in a sneaky, underhanded way. They closely monitor each click and keystroke made by visitors, and track the time between each. This method of surreptitious shadowing enables them to discern exactly when and where visitors get stuck, bogged down, get lost or whatever. That way they can enhance the site and run experiments to make everyone’s experience smoother – without telling anyone what they’re doing!
It’s amazing the public puts up with this kind of spy-movie tactics! The folks at Anthem aren’t about to be sneaky or underhanded in any way. They’re committed to open, fair and above-board methods. I experienced this myself. When I was in the middle of experiencing their amazing new billing features, I was presented with this screen:
It’s an offer to give feedback, via a third-party tool. Excellent! I think I’ll say yes, and give them my feedback.
I proceeded to experience the fullness of the new, break-through patient billing feature I’ve described here. Then, when I left the site, sure enough, I had my opportunity to provide feedback. I dove in and first saw this screen with a couple questions to which they “require” the answers.
What’s that about? This is voluntary, remember? I’m helping you guys. You should be glad to get any feedback I care to give. And I’m not starting out in a great mood because the first couple questions are completely generic.
So please forgive me, but I zoomed ahead, getting to here
Question 23! Sorry, I wasn’t able to get it done. I zoom to what looks like the end:
Getting personal with the income, are we? After a whole pile of b.s. questions. I’m outa here. But then this appears:
Yup, 26 questions. ALL OF THEM “REQUIRED.”
I wonder if anyone tracks the completion rate of these surveys. I suspect not.
I bet Anthem gets incredibly useful information from these surveys. And increases customer satisfaction along the way. No wonder their site is clearly top-of-the-line.