Annual Healthcare Benchmark Indicates Customer Satisfaction with Health Insurance Websites is Dismal

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ForeSee today released its fourth annual healthcare benchmark, showing that health insurance websites vastly underperform other kinds of healthcare sites. ForeSee is a customer experience analytics firm with nearly 100 benchmarks that clients use to track and measure performance relative to a given industry.

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Health insurance companies receive an aggregate satisfaction score of 51 on the report's 100-point scale, placing the industry far behind other healthcare categories measured in the benchmark, including health information websites (78) and hospital and health system websites (78). In fact, health insurance is among the lowest of the nearly 100 benchmark categories that ForeSee tracks. Only websites for cable companies, telephone utilities, and cell phone companies have aggregate scores lower than health insurance companies.

"Because the nature of health insurance products and services is so strongly suited to a self-service web presence, insurance companies with low online customer satisfaction scores are leaving money on the table," said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee and author of Managing Forward: How to Move from Measuring the Past to Managing the Future. "The industry's low aggregate score indicates that health insurance providers need to better understand how to meet the needs and expectations of their online customers so that customers choose the website instead of costlier channels."

Many individual health insurance websites score in the 70s, which would be considered excellent in comparison with this industry's average, but the lower-scoring websites bring the aggregate score down. The measured health insurance websites range from 30 to 79, a large 49-point gap that indicates an industry without a clear set of online best practices.

The other healthcare categories measured in ForeSee's healthcare benchmark did considerably better and include public-sector health information sites (78), private-sector health information sites (79), pharmaceutical sites (76), healthcare product sites (76), and hospital and health system sites (78).

"Many private companies have more resources and flexibility than the government, so it's not surprising that private-sector sites outperform public-sector sites," added Freed. "What is surprising is the small gap between them. The fact that government health sites trail private sector sites by only one point tells me that the government has by-in-large been able to keep pace with the expectations of the public, which are shaped by sites like Amazon.com and even other high-scoring healthcare websites."  

ForeSee applies a trusted, proven methodology to help organizations understand how improvements to customer satisfaction will lead to profitable behaviors such as future loyalty, recommendations, and likelihood to purchase additional products or services. When compared to less satisfied visitors, highly satisfied visitors to a healthcare websites report being:

• 139% more likely to return to a website and increase potential revenue.
• 149% more likely to recommend the website to draw in new customers.
• 127% more likely to use the website as their primary resource for interacting with a healthcare organization, instead of using more costly channels like call centers or office locations.

Among the more than 50 websites included in ForeSee's healthcare benchmarks are 1800Contacts, the American Cancer Society, Anthem, Bausch and Lomb, the Centers for Disease Control, Cleveland Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Medline Plus (in English and Spanish), the National Institutes of Health, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Proctor and Gamble, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, TRICARE, and University of Michigan Health Systems, among others.

Today's published healthcare benchmark includes more than 100,000 customer surveys completed during August and September of 2011.

About ForeSee

As a pioneer in customer experience analytics, ForeSee continuously measures satisfaction across customer touch points and delivers critical insights on where to prioritize improvements for maximum impact. Because ForeSee's superior technology and proven methodology connect the customer experience to the bottom line, executives and managers are able to drive future success by confidently optimizing the efforts that will achieve business and brand objectives. The result is better business for companies and a better experience for consumers. Visit us at www.foresee.com for customer experience solutions and original research.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Sarah Allen-Short, 734-327-3852
[email protected]

SOURCE ForeSee

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