My last blog analyzed how to take the search experience to the next level. In my final blog of this series I outline who truly benefits from an enterprise search implementation.
What if your members, patients, or prospective patients could get answers more quickly, and the most relevant results surfaced faster? What if you could personalize search results for that individual? What if you could delight your audience with an exceptional digital search experience on your website? Would you reduce inbound call inquiries? Solidify your position as a go-to source for information? Enlighten patients with the knowledge to help them be healthier?
End Users
Let’s face it, if users don’t quickly find what they need on your website, they will become frustrated and look elsewhere for the information. It all starts with the consumer – that is, the individual “consuming” all your helpful digital content.
If you use AI-powered intelligent search then you are more likely to provide:
- Better results that allow plan members to find more relevant information. AI bonus: Machine learning technology evaluates the success/failure of each user’s search activity and “learns” which results are most relevant to most users. It automatically elevates the most useful results to the top “on the fly.”
- Faster results that allow plan members to find the information they need quickly and spend less time on your websites. Cloud solution bonus: Cloud-based technology speeds up query retrieval time. Better performance is readily available and particularly useful for larger, enterprise payors with multi-state service locations.
Business Leaders
One of the most significant benefits of intelligent search is also one that is most often misunderstood or discounted in the initial analysis.
The ability to collect and leverage search data across a multitude of digital initiatives often sinks in only after some of the more obvious, consumer-impacting benefits are realized. In fact, it is rare that an organization begins shopping for a search solution because they’re looking to collect customer data that can inform multiple business initiatives. Instead, more often than not, search projects begin with a simple directive to find a better website tool.
The power of surfacing actionable member or customer data is rarely lost on healthcare business leaders; however, if some aren’t up to speed with intelligent search as an effective means to that end at first, it usually doesn’t take long for the “ah-ha!” moment to surface.
Here are some examples of how intelligent search, delivered effectively through cloud-based software as a service (SaaS), can improve enterprise-wide operations.
- Improve Customer Service: Allow service channel and call-center operations to view data collected on consumer websites. The more specific the data is, the better. If an individual’s interaction with a website can be better understood, then that will help with customer service interactions with that individual down the road.
- Call Center Deflection: The ROI on call center deflection is well documented. If a user can leverage relevant data collected through machine learning – or better yet be “served up” possible solutions by an AI-powered search tool – then they are less likely to need to contact a call center. The best search solutions not only offer this capability, but they also collect customer interaction data that can feed directly into key ROI metrics.
- Improve Employee Productivity: How many times have you searched your company’s intranet or portal, or even emailed, messaged, or called your colleagues to find a subject matter expert? Pinpointing that person can often be frustrating. Now imagine locating the person with a search tool that can scour data indexed from disparate databases and serve it up along with profiles of content authors, including pictures, names, job titles, contact information, and other useful details. It takes more than a “federated search” application to accomplish that – the better solution will have an AI-powered engine under the hood.
Website and Content Managers
Website developers and content managers will want to shop for platform solutions that provide access to robust training so managers can fully understand how to use the platform. Additionally, business users should have the flexibility to phase-in machine learning and other components without a prohibitive ramp-up, gather and take advantage of the user information available whether the user is known or anonymous, and track the data provided by the system through clicks and events.
The ideal solution will:
- Improve Data/Analytics: Look for console or dashboard reporting with rich data analytics to help business users see user search patterns and trends. Admin tools should be fully configurable for detailed analysis or high-level summary reporting to leadership.
- Improve Customer Experiences: Look for specific tools to help the business see where users have the most success or failure in finding the answers they need. Desired admin tools give business users the power to adjust search experiences (e.g., boost certain results) or set up A/B test scenarios to surface the ideal search experience.
IT Leaders
Search engine technology continues to evolve, as do the algorithms employed to rank and order the document and page links presented. Search engine optimization (SEO) has become a discipline in and of itself, with healthcare companies competing for better rankings on public web searches.
When deployed as a function of your own web presence, however, you can utilize advances in technology, as well as your own preferences and insights, to determine the optimal order of information presented.
Effective solutions will provide:
- Faster/Easier Implementation: For most enterprise environments, look for pre-packaged programming such as a “connector” method that passes existing target website configuration settings through to a cloud-based administration console.
- Easier Maintenance: An “automated” connector method allows most configuration settings to be controlled via existing CMS tools, which automatically adjusts the settings in the cloud.
To learn more about the role of enterprise search at payer and provider organizations and the highlights from search project that we completed at a top-5 health insurer, you can click here or submit the form below.
