Case Study
How Bupa is transforming healthcare as we know it
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Implemented a 360-degree, unified view of the customer
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Saw more than 50% uplift in delivery efficiency
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Over 127 next-best-action recommendations live in Pega Customer Decision Hub
“We've freed up a lot of human time. That means that the brains of our staff members are freed up to think about things differently. So I've actually seen the rise of more ambitious marketing plans. I find that really exciting – actually having the time and space to think more effectively around what strategies people want to deliver.”
The Business Issue
Bupa Australia has a simple mission – to help its customers live longer, healthier, happier lives. As a healthcare payer and provider, Bupa faced the industry-wide challenge of meeting ever-rising customer expectations. With customers comparing their experiences to digital-first companies beyond the healthcare sector, like Google and Spotify, Bupa knew it needed to be able to deliver equally exceptional and tailored experiences.
With this in mind, Bupa Australia embarked on a journey to become the world’s most customer-centric healthcare company.
The company commissioned research to identify the essential aspects of its customer experience that needed improvement and discovered 11 key areas of focus. These moments ranged from basic hygiene factors, such as transparent payment processes and effective claims management, to more exciting and personalized experiences based on customer history and preferences.
The Solution
Bupa Australia implemented the Pega Customer Decision Hub™ to achieve its vision of personalized, two-way customer conversations enriched with empathy and emotion. Bupa initially focused only on outbound communication but quickly expanded to create a 360-degree view of each customer.
Pega Customer Decision Hub proved to be an effective tool for scaling Bupa's ambition of hyper-personalization. It analyzes billions of data points to determine the right course of action, for a one-to-one experience as unique as every customer.
Bupa automated multiple processes with Pega Customer Decision Hub, including:
- Personalized sales pathways: By personalizing the customer journey for visitors to their website, Bupa achieved a response rate for abandoned cart campaigns that surpassed the industry standard by 60%. This initiative generated an annualized incremental revenue of $5.2 million, making it a promising revenue driver.
- Optical referrals: Bupa improved the efficiency and effectiveness of its optical referral campaigns by leveraging real-time data and micro-segmentation. This approach doubled response rates and demonstrated the value of simplified and targeted messaging, while generating $2.4 million in annualized incremental revenue. The success of this use case led to valuable insights that could be applied to other areas of Bupa's business.
- Post-surgery recovery support: Bupa focused on supporting members recovering at home after surgeries, starting with hip and knee surgeries. By leveraging Pega Customer Decision Hub, the organization achieved engagement rates of over 80% with members. Notably, this initiative resulted in zero changes to contact preferences, a rare feat in marketing history. Bupa estimated near $5 million in annualized cost savings from this initiative and explored opportunities to extend similar support for other surgeries.
The Results
In the first six months after going live with Pega Customer Decision Hub, Bupa saw:
- More than 50% uplift in delivery efficiency
- More than $1M savings in partnership spend by reducing reliance on outsourced communication delivery
- More than 30% increase in customer responses to targeted conversations
- 0.7% reduction in customer opt outs
- More than 127 next-best-action recommendations live in Pega Customer Decision Hub
Previously, Bupa primarily communicated with policyholders, but now it can engage with all members, leading to a more inclusive and personalized approach. With automation and machine learning in place, Bupa’s employees have more capacity to shape strategy and value for the future.