How Bupa is lifting customer satisfaction to new heights

Since the 1940s, the purpose of the country’s largest health insurer Bupa, has been to help people live longer, healthier and happier lives.

It’s a purpose statement that the organisation holds dear, and one that informs every aspect of their company culture, including their approach to customer service.

But as Godfrey Boyd, Program Director at Bupa explains, upon closer inspection, this goal was one that they could improve upon.

He explains, “Like any business, it costs us a lot more when we lose a customer than when we acquire one.”

“When we began to look more closely at how our customers felt about us, we identified significant opportunities to improve customer satisfaction directly impacting on our ability to meet our customers’ needs.”

What came next was an almost ‘existential’ realisation as Godfrey explains it, culminating in a values- driven decision to work with partner UXC Eclipse, a CSC company, to move to Dynamics 365.

“I firmly believe that if we can’t keep our customers happy, then we can’t meet the goal we’ve had in place for many years. We had to do something about it.”

Outlining one of the more pivotal moments in the organisation’s journey to improve customer experience, Godfrey outlines, “When I speak with Dwayne Crombie, our Managing Director of Health Insurance, he makes the point that technology changes can be positive, but if we don’t get the culture right, none of it is going to work. The culture of the business was non-negotiable as far as he was concerned.”

In many ways, it was the culture that drove Bupa’s transformation, and the culture that has made it the success it is today.

“It’s much easier to rally the project team behind you and rally the organisation as a leader when your own vision is so closely aligned to that common, core goal, that everyone works towards.”

To deliver on the organisation’s purpose and enhance the customer experience in the process, Bupa implemented Dynamics for their customer relationship management software.

“When we’re talking about the Dynamics suite, we’re talking about flexibility. And what our customers demand of us nowadays is greater flexibility. They expect us to be abreast of new trends and assist them in new ways that they want to interact.”

“Customers expectations on how we engage with them has changed radically over the last few years. The omni-channel is far more varied, and Dynamics is giving us the ability to not only create new services for our digital channel, but deliver them with ease.”

It’s also enabling the business to capture customer feedback and sentiment from multiple touch-points, including social media and address concerns in a far more personalized and appropriate way.

Looking back, the need for a streamlined, single view CRM came also because the organisation’s previous mix of technology and processes weren’t truly speaking to each other. Like many organisations, several acquisitions over time had created a disparate technology suite.  

A shift to the cloud however, presented a solution that could not only meet evolving customer needs and scale to support business growth in new fields, it also matched up with security and data safety requirements.

Godfrey explains, “Our intention is ultimately to serve our customers, so by moving to the cloud it not only gave us the flexibility that we need to scale in the future but also remain focused on their privacy and security too.”

One of the most significant recent changes for the business has been the roll out of a module in which to capture customer feedback.

“Dynamics has allowed us to collect far more customer insights because data is now categorised and understood in a way that is far more transparent and effective”.  

After the initial introduction of the module, the number of feedback points tripled.

The cultural impact of which has been a change in mindset from feedback viewed as a complaints capturing system, to something that can drive better outcomes and customer service.

Only one month after its implementation, Bupa saw an increase in customer satisfaction as front line staff were able to resolve customers’ issues on the first, initial call in a more informed and effective manner.

Staff also feel much more empowered to do their jobs.

“Microsoft Dynamics has enabled us to make incremental changes in processes quicker than we had before. As learning is simple and self-paced, it’s also empowered staff on the front line to make decisions so they can be more engaged in their roles”.

“From a cultural perspective, it also makes staff more proactive if they have the tools at hand to actually make choices and decisions. As a result, they also start to think of new and innovative ways that they can work better with the customer.”  

Looking to the future, Godfrey explains, “Our intention is to continue to use the Dynamics Suite to build out all of our services across Bupa. Ultimately, it’s about creating an integrated experience for our customers and their families because health insurance is not just purchase for Bupa – it’s about delivering on our purpose to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.”