When we conducted external interviews as part of our work developing the Zelis Healthcare brand, one thing became clear: the healthcare payer and healthcare provider clients who worked with Zelis were obsessed. Not with the healthcare payments technology that got doctors and other providers paid more quickly. Not with the healthcare-claims integrity services that ensured insurance companies were paying the right amount on every claim, every time. Clients did think these products and services were the best in the industry. But that wasn’t what made the people we spoke to such fanatics.
What really wowed them – what made them customers for life – was the experience they had as customers: the lengths Zelis employees went to to meet their needs, the way they felt when Zelis said “we can make it work,” no matter the request, and the peace of mind they had when they got an email from Zelis with the company’s take on healthcare legislation changes and how clients should prepare for them (whether or not this was directly related to their Zelis products and services).
This experience was the crux of the new brand, founded on an invitation to “Experience Zelis.” It was also the source of our next challenge: how to translate this distinct feeling – something based on in-person, first-hand interactions – into a healthcare technology brand that resonated throughout each touchpoint along the B2B customer journey. Specifically, we were charged with bringing this experience-based brand to life online, immersing prospects in the brand even before they interacted with a Zelis employee. Here are a few approaches we took to make this happen:
You wouldn’t start a new business meeting by bombarding the prospective client with a laundry list of products and detailed technical specs, regardless of their ultimate relevance and value.
This, however, was the experience of anyone visiting the predecessor sites of the four companies that came together to form Zelis. As with many technology companies built through heavy investment in product development, these websites had become shrines for products, giving them top billing on the homepage and forming the basis for site navigation.
Approaching the Zelis Healthcare website through the lens of the new brand required leading not with the products, but with the people who use the products. We built landing pages for each of Zelis’s customer segments – payers, providers and individuals. This gave Zelis a platform on which to demonstrate to each client that the company understood their pain points, and to frame its products as solutions that address these pain points. Making the first digital interaction feel personalized, relevant and thoughtful was critical to bringing the “Zelis experience” online.
Another finding from our research was the role clients saw Zelis playing in helping them navigate uncertainty in the healthcare industry. We heard things like:
“They see where the industry is going. I think they are very knowledgeable and they help find resources to assist us.”
“We appreciate them looking ahead and always being forward thinking about the healthcare industry.”
These sentiments were the outcome of personal relationships and one-on-one interactions between clients and the Zelis salesforce. To extend this element of the brand to a larger audience, we took advantage of the customized user landing pages, leveraging the market insights content Zelis was producing by targeting it to the specific concerns and interests of payers, providers and individuals. This strengthened the notion not only that Zelis understands its clients, but that the firm is a thought leader and is proactively assessing the future of healthcare technology on behalf of its clients.
Finally, as we knew from our external interviews, there were a lot of Zelis fanatics eager to talk about their exceptional experiences with the company. Many were already sharing their stories as referrals for prospective clients, and we heard things like:
“I’m one of their greatest referrals just because I’ll go out there and sell them all day long and I don’t even get paid for it.”
“I can’t tell you how many references I’ve done for them but it’s not a chore. I’m happy to talk about them and how much they do for our organization and what they can do for other people that are thinking about using them.”
These referrals were important, but their impact remained limited to individual interactions. To leverage these on a larger scale, we turned to the power of film. During Zelis’s annual client conference, we filmed a dozen clients sharing stories about their experience with Zelis. Their passion was evident, and it translated beautifully and genuinely into testimonials for the website. It’s one thing for Zelis to say it offers a great experience, and quite another to hear it directly from the clients who have lived it.
In these ways, we translated an in-person experience into a digital one, bringing the Zelis brand to life for clients and prospects in a whole new way.
In business, growth is more than important – it’s essential. But chasing annual revenue and profit goals, whether by building upon existing relationships or expanding into new markets, can sometimes come at the expense of a company’s core position in the marketplace: its brand.
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