AIQ : Medicare Onboarding
Medicare-eligible seniors are assailed by communications, and too many of them scream of phishing and scam attempts. Assurance IQ's own Medicare onboarding journey was utilitarian and lacked a welcoming, trusting feel. I began improving the customer journey by elevating the design and content architecture to build customer trust.
ART DIRECTIONEMAIL DESIGN
2 min read
Assurance IQ: Medicare onboarding journey
Medicare-eligible seniors are assailed by communications, and too many of them scream of phishing and scam attempts. Assurance IQ's own Medicare onboarding journey was utilitarian and lacked a welcoming, trusting feel. I began improving the customer journey by elevating the design and content architecture to build customer trust.
Designing for Clarity and Calm
The most critical first impression was the email header, which needed to signal warmth and legitimacy. I leaned on a top image banner, informed by AIQ survey data showing customers perceive themselves 5-10 years younger than they are. This prompted a photography refresh featuring younger mature adults in more caring life moments to cement trust in the first scroll. Medicare customers need plan details and dates clearly shown, so I designed simple, clean data visualizations. To support this, I established a consistent contact banner across email communications, letting customers know help is always close by. Close collaboration with the Senior Copywriter across email and SMS messages provided connective tissue between these updates, ensuring a short, descriptive main headline and refining content to plain, understandable language. Together, the updates reduced cognitive load for an already overwhelmed audience.
proving the hypothesis
The creative and lifecycle teams partnered to pitch improvements across internal workflows and external communications as part of a greater push for better year-over-year customer retention in the Medicare customer base. I pushed heavily to have more cross-functional oversight on projects involving multiple departments. This multi-phase project spanned two years and began by proving the concept through A/B testing. During the first year’s enrollment period, 23,000 policies received the updated email and SMS comms, and that test group averaged an effectuation rate of 89%, surging customer retention by 23% and saving the company $2.6M for Q4 2023. The test results prompted full implementation the following year, along with a co-branded Cigna opportunity. The ability to garner trust in an external partner this way further proved the flexibility and impact of the refreshed onboarding journey. In the second year, we achieved a 38% open rate, a 6% inbound call rate, and a 12.6% increase in retention, valued at $16.6M in retained customer lifetime value (LTV).
outcomes & reflections
I steered an organizational design change by taking a macro view of the team and project and listening to what it meant for everyone along the process pipeline. By acknowledging the lifecycle team's concerns, connecting with engineers to understand their workflow, and workshopping solutions instead of merely highlighting flaws, I kept efforts moving toward the same goal. I prioritize advocating for the end-user by bringing people into the effort, not fighting them, which shapes every project I work on.
