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Twenty-four-hour customer support with zero hold time, infinite personalization, customized care, and behavior-based response are all aspects of the customer experience that will be expected sooner rather than later from every one of your customers. All of this is becoming reality, thanks to agentic artificial intelligence. Agentic AI is the most advanced form of artificial intelligence to date. It works autonomously, can understand natural language, sets goals and plans workflows, and makes decisions in real time based on the data it collects and examines. It learns from results and then teaches itself a new way to satisfy the needs of those that interact with it, immediately. An Expert Answers Every Question Agentic AI agents never need a break, never need vacation, and don’t need benefits or mental health days. They can work without respite for as long as your company exists. This is important because your customers hate waiting. Waiting for a mere two minutes will cause 60% of potential customers to hang up and call a competitor, and if your competitor deploys agentics before you, your customers will become their customers. Youll either want to outsource to a top-end team or to use your more talented in-house programmers to finalize design and create your AI guardrails before deployment. This one implementation will free up revenue dedicated to customer service agents, alleviate time your current team has to spend solving mundane simple questions and issues, and leave your top talent free to solve customer challenges that actually require a creative solution. AI-Powered Personalization at Scale People will become increasingly accustomed to advertising and products tailored to feel exclusive to them. A staggering 91% of people will shop with a company that provides personalized, relevant offers and recommendations, and 68% of people have increased brand affinity due to personalization. On the flip side, 62% of customers will abandon a brand if they are not delivered a personalized experience. The days you could rely on simple generic offers in an ad or subject line are dead. Remember, youre not sending an email to an inbox; youre sending it to a person. Think of your inbox every morning, filled with dozens of emails you’ve been meaning to unsubscribe from that dont speak to you. Every email you send is being seen exactly as the ones you receive. What Employees Will Fear The surface level fear around agentic AI centers around loss of jobs, but a deeper dive shows employee fears are far more complex. A recent survey revealed that 47% of employees feel AI lacks emotional intelligence, 40% are not comfortable submitting AI-generated work, and 34% dont think AI-produced work will be as good as theirs. Involve your most trusted employees throughout the duration of your AI development. This will make them a part of the process, giving them a sense of ownership. Additionally, the better they understand the process from start to finish, the more likely they are to trust itand trust that your use of the technology isnt just to save costs or cut jobs, but for their benefit as well. They will become the ones that can sell the rest of your workforce on your new processes and technology. The message must be that this technology is being used to better serve customers, stay ahead of the competition, and grow the business. With that growth comes opportunity for current employees to grow and advance. Preparing Your Business for Ethical AI Integration Stricter audits and bias-free practices need to come first for any AI system implementation. All components that enter the system need careful planning, such that each instruction and training parameter reflects focused ethical direction. Assemble a cross-functional advisory groupcomprised of trusted leaders and high-performing team membersto collaboratively design, test, and evaluate your AI tools. This internal coalition acts as a safeguard, ensuring that your deployment adheres to both ethical standards and your companys values. A Human-Centric Approach to AI Deployment The adoption of AI should always be in service of your workforce, not in place of it. Before rolling out any system, ask: Does this enhance or hinder the employee experience? AI systems deliver their best results when organizations prioritize human needs at the start of their integration efforts. From the outset, align your AI strategies with your organizational culture and principles. Transparent Communication is Equally Crucial Engage your team in open conversations about the role of AI, and how it will enhance the customer experience and lighten the load on the workforce. Present clear background information while scheduling question-and-answer discussions, or an open office hour, accepting feedback from the team. Reinforce that AI is not a replacement but a reinforcementdesigned to improve working conditions and to elevate team performance and customer satisfaction. The use of agentics will only increase across industries in the months and years to come. As its prevalence grows, any end user that interacts with it will become accustomed to the experience. They will start to expect quicker complaint resolution, zero wait times, personalized communication, and tailored product and service recommendations, and they will reject any generic approaches from companies. Ultimately, as business leaders, we bear a collective responsibility to uphold excellencenot only in our products and services but also in the systems we use to build and support our teams. Your willingness to embrace this technology for the benefit of your clients, your employees, and ultimately your business are what will keep you ahead of your competition and on a clear path to growth and increased relevancy.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its no secret that when it comes to simplicity and convenience, insurance has lagged behind modern businesses across most industries. While many legacy products have been overturned by newer, intuitive solutions or adapted to meet todays consumers needs, insurance offerings have remained a complex anomalybuilt more for business and regulatory needs rather than real people. We already know that healthcare in America is too expensive, and far too many people simply cant afford to get sick. Health insurance deductibles are at an all-time high, while denied and delayed claims payments persist. Insurance companies have continued making money while a staggering number of people are putting off care because of the cost, or pulling money out of their 401(k) plans early to pay for medical expenses. We also know that there is no shortage of people who are fighting for healthcare policy changes, more accountability around business practices, and broader reform. But consumer patience is running out. And with 100 million American adults in medical debt, incremental regulatory changes wont be quick enough to take on the challenges that so many people face today in affording basic, and sometimes unexpected, costs related to their healthcare. Consumer Sentiment Its time we ask the question: Can we start making progress by rethinking how health insurance products are fundamentally designed? In order to do this, we have to accept some consumer truths about health insurance today. First, more than 50% of Americans dont understand their health insurance. Thats because, unlike most other industries that have embraced simplicity and ease, insurance remains complex, filled with exclusions, jargon, and unnecessary paperwork. So even with the best of educational tools, were looking at a large literacy gap. Second, consumer animosity toward health insurance companies is almost as old as the business itself. Even traditional supplemental health insurance offerings like Accident Insurance and Critical Illness that are intended to provide extra support were not designed to cover very much. And the amount of money that goes back to the insured at the end of the day is low for every dollar of premium paid. So its not surprising that people are tired of frequent claim denials and delays, and dont trust that their coverage will minimize their out-of-pocket exposure as much as they need it to. Its obvious that we have to start with addressing whats covered, and how we pay claims, which is core to any insurance product. We cant just slap technology onto insufficient coverage and hope that itll improve consumer confidence and trust. But there are some things we can do today to help health insurance catch up with other consumer industries through human-centered design. Here are three: 1. We can set up insurance products like subscriptions Digital simplification across industries has been happening since the dawn of Amazon and Uber, and has taught consumers to have certain expectations around their apps and online experiences. Just for the purposes of this exercise, lets think about insurance in terms of the direct-to-consumer fulfillment modeland treat insurance like a subscription where care is the purchase and benefits are refunds. Thinking of benefits as refunds enables us to align insurance innovation with the digital simplicity todays consumers expect. By removing the complexity wrapped around benefits, we can make claims intuitive and the delivery of benefits seamless. We have to eliminate the common limitations and restrictions as well as the excessive paperwork and evidence required for claim approval to enable quicker benefit decisions. People should be able to track the status of their claim in real time, so they can stop chasing their insurance companies for answers. Payment should be electronic, and take days, not weeks. In doing this, we can start to replicate the standards of efficiency and transparency people today are accustomed to when they buy and return products, and build a modern insurance experience that meets digital consumers expectations and needs. Treating health coverage like a subscription also provides clear opportunities for engagement. And insurance companies across sectors are just starting to take note. Beam Technologies tracks teeth-brushing habits through a Wi-Fi-connected toothbrush to tailor dental insurance discounts, while Discovery offers its Vitality Program that rewards customers with points for preventative checkups. By encouraging consumers to engage with their coverage, motivating them to use it by offering rewards and discounts like other consumer businesses, these companies drive utilization and deliver value as a result. 2. We can take an (active) back seat Another school of thought tells us that the best insurance companies are the ones that people dont think about at all. Unlike the previous approach, which assumes consumers will use their coverage like they do their subscriptions, this strategy doesnt expect that the modern consumer wants to interact with their insurance company at all. Instead, it offers a simple promise of value without any participation required. This approach provides obvious opportunities for leveraging data and automation to set up a product experience where the claim end-to-end is managed by the health insurance company, with no necessary intervention from the insured at all. Innovators in the space are just getting started automating several, if not all, aspects of the claims process. Current players like ClaimsMinder, Human API, and Claritev are just beginning to unlock the power of data to streamline the notification, filing, processing, and payment of a claim so that employees can get more out of their benefits. Ansel Health offers medical claims integration, which enables them to determine when individuals have a covered condition and are eligible for a benefit, and pays them directly without requiringthem to ever file a claim. In doing this, we eliminate coverage disputes, delayed claims payments, or even just make someones day a little bit easierand maybe then begin to build some trust. 3. We can become a logical extension of the modern care-delivery revolution When people get sick, they dont see their preventative care or treatment and their health insurance as two separate entities, but rather one experience. Unlike insurance, modern care delivery has evolved at a rapid pace over the past 25 years. Digital and in-person clinics like Wally, Maven, Tia, Omada, Parsley, and One Medical are setting new standards for the way people experience care, and even legacy care providers are mimicking their practices with apps and more. Notably, most of these providers have chosen to offer subscription-based or up-front payment models and to cut out the insurance middleman. Why? Because it just doesnt align with their promise of simplicity and empathy through the provider experience. By applying human-centered design, we can bridge this gapcreating insurance brands that look and feel like a natural extension of the modern care delivery experience. Companies like Oscar, Rightway, and Sana are already proving this is possible, offering an integrated experience that resonates with todays consumers. Its a fair question to ask, but why will business stakeholders care? A part of it will be about finding a set of believers and innovators who are both mission-aligned and consumer-focused. But its also important to acknowledge that fixing the flaws in the health insurance experience doesnt just address the financial crisis around healthcare, it aligns with business needs too. In fact, theres a clear business case for creating simpler health insurance products. According to the Integrated Benefits Institute, serious illnesses, when not treated, result in an average of 1.5 billion lost work days per year, costing employers $575 billion annually. When employees dont delay or skip care because theyre confident in their health coverage, theyre less likely to require sick time, workers compensation, disability, or family and medical leave. Employers see higher retention, insurance brokers and agencies build deeper trust with their clients, and insurance companies see a higher rate of renewals. Established companies can participate too through partnerships with modern solutions, allowing them to stay competitive in an evolving marketplace, benefiting new, innovative players seeking broader distribution. Our goal is simple: In 10 years time, we want people to be talking about how complex health insurance used to be, and finally build some real trust.
Category:
E-Commerce
Of all of its ingredients, it’s perhaps the signature pepperoncini at Papa Johns that most differentiates the pizza chain from its competitors. Papa Johns places one of its Mediterranean-grown pepperoncinis in every pizza box along with complimentary garlic dipping sauce. Like fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant or Andes mints at Olive Garden, these freebies are a bit of hospitality meant to delight customers and build loyalty in a notably unfaithful fast-food category. Now Papa Johns is taking the pepperoncini a step further by placing it right into your drink: “Cini Dirty Soda” is citrus soda with a zesty, pepper kick. How Papa Johns went all in on a pepper brand The brand expansion is happening at a time when Papa Johns is investing $25 million more in marketing this year to improve on its 1% year-over-year revenue growth. While such shocking food collabs are nothing new, in this case the pizza chain has been working pepperoncini deeper into its brand for a while now. Papa Johns released a new brand identity last year that includes a pepperoncini yellow-green in its color palette alongside colors like reds that evoke sauces and pepperonis. [Photo: Papa Johns] Coupled with a doughy custom font called Pappy, it’s a brand that’s designed to remind you of pizza with a free side of pepper. Now the pepperoncini has become the inspiration behind a limited-edition drink with Mountain Dew. Rather than selling the drink in its stores, Papa Johns made it as a limited-edition, do-it-yourself kit available only online. The Papa Johns recipe calls for 8 ounces of Mountain Dew and a quarter ounce of pepperoncini brine with a pepperoncini-brine-and-Italian-seasoning rim and a pepperoncini for garnish. It already sold out, and Papa Johns says it was one of the most engaged sweepstakes the chain has ever done. “The dirty-soda trend is on the rise, and with our revamped approach we thought it was the perfect opportunity to infiltrate culture with our iconic fan-favorite garnish,” Papa Johns CMO Jenna Bromberg tells Fast Company. “Our quality ingredients are our point of differentiation, which is where were focusing as a brand.” The “Cini Dirty Soda” taps into the dirty-soda craze of shops like Swig and Sodalicious while embracing the trend toward adventurous flavor profiles for products like the pickle soda Popeyes released last month. It also links the pizza chain to Mountain Dew, a soda brand that recently overhauled its visual identity and is making investments in becoming more culturally relevant. For a category as competitive as pizza, such small gestures as a free pepper and sauce can go a long way toward growing and cementing loyalty. Papa Johns is finding new ways to lean into its signature freebie.
Category:
E-Commerce
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