IntroductionIntelligent virtual assistants are the key to accelerating your benefits marketplace, enrollment, and self-service initiatives.

Intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) are quickly being acknowledged for their critical optimization, brand engagement, and financial value. IVAs enable consumers to efficiently accomplish their online goals by facilitating decision support during benefits selection and enrollment, filling out forms or applications, or managing health assessments and online tools.

Health insurance organizations, employers, and eHealth technology providers are integrating IVAs as a core piece of technology to enhance the healthcare consumer experience, increase efficiencies, boost voluntary benefits enrollment, energize mobile engagement, and improve wellness participation rates. In fact, according to Gartner, by the year 2015, a virtual assistant will be a standard component of online interactions2.

This guide reviews market drivers which are spurring innovation in benefits self-service and enrollment as well as disease management and wellness engagement. In addition, it overviews the main capabilities of the leading virtual assistant solution, CIVA benefits advisor.

a CIVA Guide | 2

According to Towers Watson1, “Changing employees’ health behaviors has been a major obstacle for many companies. Above all, the lack of employee engagement is cited by 57% as the biggest obstacle to managing

Benefits Advisor intelligent virtual assistant solutions

1. Benefits Communication and EnrollmentOne-to-one education increases benefits understanding.

2. Public and Private ExchangesConsumers want a “guided” shopping experience.

3. Prevention and Disease ManagementDrive down costs by increasing wellness participation.

4. Benefits Advisor Features

5. Customer Engagement Platform

a CIVA Guide | 3

1. Benefits Communication and EnrollmentOne-to-one education increases benefits understanding.

With a variety of plans, healthcare reform, and an overwhelming amount of paper-driven processes, health insurance carriers, employers, and brokers are seeking alternatives to increase benefits participation and engagement.

According to Guardian research3, a majority of workers (56%) believe a single, consolidated web-based platform that integrates all of their benefits allows them to better understand and consider their insurance options, make selections, and appreciate the value of benefits available to them. But much of this same group thinks their employers are not entirely effective with benefits education and enrollment.

Additionally, a new Colonial Life survey conducted by Harris Interactive4, found that one-to-one communication increases benefits understanding. Although ideal, one-to-one, may not be practical. This is where a benefits advisor virtual assistant closes the gap. It provides an online, emotional connection that can complement or replace the benefits enrollment meeting/process. The employee may choose which parts to review or be directed to listen to each segment as the employer sees fit, and at any time, seek live help through email, phone, or live chat integration.

a CIVA Guide | 4

Click here to watch Hanna explain why critical illness coverage is important to this employee based on their choice of a high deductible health plan.

2. Public and Private ExchangesConsumers want a “guided” shopping experience.

Health exchanges, either private or public, provide consumers, individuals and families, a way to compare and buy health insurance. In general, exchanges are designed to:

‣Create a competitive marketplace.‣Inform consumers and improve cost transparency.‣Offer affordable health insurance and wellness choices.‣Ensure transactional ease and efficiencies via eHealth technology improvements.

Both private and public exchanges carry unique strengths and varying structures that appeal to individuals and employers alike. According to Booz & Company research5, public exchanges give plan access to subsidized populations and small businesses while private exchanges offer extensive design packages and benefit choices. Regardless of exchange type, they found employers and consumers desire “guided” support, product recommendations, and real-time administrative support via chat or phone.

The benefits advisor intelligent virtual assistants provide the guided support consumers want through several methods. For example, it assists employers when selecting benefits offered to their employees on the exchange or employees when making decisions based on a defined contribution plan. Additionally, it drives users to complete forms such as banking information and HSA applications. And because of real-time support, health exchange providers and payors experience a decrease in calls and a reliance on chat and email, creating additional efficiencies and a more satisfying benefits shopping experience.

a CIVA Guide | 5

Click here to watch this benefits advisor demonstrate how she can highlight and educate the customer through the daunting insurance selection process.

3. Prevention and Disease ManagementDrive down costs by increasing wellness participation.

More than ever, organizations recognize that a healthy workforce has an important effect on the bottom line. Wellness programs reduce healthcare costs but encouraging participation is a challenge. In fact, according to Towers Watson, a culture of workplace health and effective wellness and productivity programs combined with monetary incentives drives high rates of participation. As of a 2011 report, employers that offered financial incentives for health risk appraisals earned a 46% employee participation rate, compared with 19% for those that do not. Conversely, participation rates in disease management programs were low among all respondents, regardless of financial incentives, at just 14%, and show little responsiveness to incentives, increasing to just 16% where incentives were present6.

Although financial incentives demonstrate some impact in the long-term, organizations and insurers need to consider motivational factors that exclude or lessen reliance on these incentives, especially when considering disease management programs. This is where the CIVA benefits advisor can make the difference by substantially improving wellness participation through online engagement.

Imagine the benefits advisor, as a virtual health coach, personally greeting each participant, walking them through the assessment, summarizing the results, making recommendations, explaining procedures, giving advice, and escalating to a live health coach when necessary. An emotionally engaging virtual assistant empowers the user and encourages them to consistently monitor their health and make better lifestyle choices. The benefits advisor virtual assistant is not designed to take the place of a practitioner but to complement face-to-face guidance, help users complete health risk assessments and teach them how to self-serve with additional online tools.

a CIVA Guide | 6

Click here to watch Myra explain the health risk assessment process and the importance of a good program. At the end she explains the report and how participants can take the next step to better their health.

a CIVA Guide | 7

key features

‣Conversational scripts with menu driven options: Directs users through predetermined paths without missing pertinent benefits program information.

‣Natural language response option: This type of technology allows customers and the virtual assistants to use everyday language to accomplish self-service objectives.

‣Product Offers: Can recommend wellness products / voluntary benefits based on personalized data or through questionnaires.

‣Form Fill: Recognizes important data and helps consumers and employees complete forms and applications.

‣Mobile: Delivers the experience to any device – a full 3D experience is available on tablets, kiosks and desktops, 2D and voice and text only is available on handheld.

‣Dialog Box Options: Choose from a range of dialog boxes that integrate with the contact center, email, live chat, a knowledge base, FAQ, and social media.

‣Seamless integration via a single line of code, cloud delivery: Any website, platform, knowledge base, or CRM.

Benefits Advisor Features

a CIVA Guide | 8

total choice. total engagement.

The CIVA customer engagement platform blends 5th and 6th generation virtual assistants with web APIs to create engaging, rich online experiences. CIVA operates as an overlay to the website and is delivered seamlessly to any website, CRM, or ERP without web server tool limitations and minimal reliance on IT support — with just one line of code.It’s just that easy.

4. Customer Engagement Platform

a CIVA Guide | 9

The virtual assistant carries the persona and the intelligence driving the customer experience. Which avatar experience chosen depends on the audience, platform or objectives.

virtual assistants

display

CIVA 2D is a non-animated two-dimensional character. Static images show different gestures and facial expressions when interacting with users. Choose speech with text or text only.

CIVA 3D is a fully animated three-dimensional character. It will have a full range of motion capture (mocap) gestures and enhanced facial expressions. Choose speech with text or text only.

CIVA Voice is a non-character virtual assistant that gives all of the benefits of speech and text or text only, special effects, and calls-to-action to accomplish online objectives.

CIVA Text is a non-character virtual assistant that provides text only communication, special effects, and calls-to-action to accomplish online objectives.

speech

NLR or natural language response can be used in combination with any character manifestation. Natural language response uses sophisticated statistical modeling to identify key phrases and looks for a match in a list of example phrases that have known meanings. This type of technology allows customers and the virtual assistants to use everyday language to accomplish self-service objectives.

CLR or conversation language response uses scripted conversations (speech and text or text only) based on action paths, menu driven options, and calls-to-action. The conversations are carefully crafted to match the organizational culture and target audience. CLR can be used in combination with NLR to drive specific behaviors while allowing for everyday responses from the audience and virtual assistant.

a CIVA Guide | 10

Experience streams are a combination of avatars, conversational scripts, wizards, props, interactions, dialog boxes, calls-to-action, and navigational maps. The client services team learns about your audience, goals, content, and organizational culture. Through careful analysis, they create experience streams that reflect the brand and appeal to your customer base. On the next few pages, each component will be reviewed in more detail.

experience streams

a CIVA Guide | 11

experience streams: character combos

Choose from over 500 character choices with a wide range of lifelike or cartoon males and females, varying ages, body frames, and cultural and nationality identities. Select from almost an unlimited combination of clothing, texture, hair, and uniforms. By custom order, 3D artists can create tailor-made motion capture or manual gestures to match movements specific to the audience and organizational needs.

a CIVA Guide | 12

experience streams: videos/scenes

script import recording and animate place video “conversations” into segments

Our client services teams ensure the organizational personality comes through in the words, gestures, and expressions. Creating conversation videos are very much like making a TV or movie production. The experience stream is comprised of a script, professional audio, character animation, and adding those videos into proper segments.

After crafting the script and recording the scenes, the animation of the character takes place in our award-winning software called Studio. Once the scenes are exported, they are uploaded into our proprietary development tool which enables the client services team to program the video segments to play right on cue.

a CIVA Guide | 13

experience streams: wizards

Wizards entail creating guidance on an already existing form or application or creating a new one to meet objectives. CIVA integrates with already existing help buttons and provides additional voice or text explanations. Customers can be walked throughout the entire process or access CIVA only when needed. Think of it as a second pair of eyes which encourages users to stick with it and complete the transaction.

navigating complex selections

lengthy applicationshopping/ add-to-cart

custom questionnaire

a CIVA Guide | 14

The CIVA solution comes with props that illustrate intent, give instructions, emphasize multimedia, act as online tools, or display product images.

experience streams: props

a CIVA Guide | 15

Dialog boxes are almost as unlimited as character choices. CIVA is able to integrate ecommerce options, serve up web pages, provide forms, display appointment setting options, and much more. Client services ensures prominent calls-to-action and menu options for popular navigation choices. And all boxes are branded with the logo and online color palette.

experience streams: dialog boxes

a CIVA Guide | 16

Calls-to-action enable customers during the self-service process or prompt them to take specific actions during the virtual assistant conversation. The conversation is precisely timed with the call-to-action so users take next steps, learn about the website, read important information, fill out forms, and accurately complete transactions.

experience streams: calls-to-action

A CIVA Guide | 17

In addition to creating engaging and interactive conversations, the client services team determines how to best optimize the overall experience. Based on their analysis of the website and through discovery analysis with your team, they create a map of all possible navigation pathways. In turn, this involves creating conditional conversations, options for “park” and “unparking” conversations, idle timing and gestures, and conversation completions.

experience streams: navigational mapping

a CIVA Guide | 18

CIVA integrates with any knowledge base, chat, callback platforms, CRM or ERP systems. The proprietary CodeBaby Delivery Manager (CDM) intelligently manages the virtual assistant experience by deciding which content to load, which integration to enable, or where to interact. When necessary, the CDM can even pre-load content, thereby ensuring a smooth, real-time experience. Additionally, all CIVA content is the last to load, so there is no website or platform conflict.

APIs and mashups

Integrates with any proprietary knowledge base, CRM, or ERP system. No IT resource dependency. Delivered directly to the web

Expands self-service to social media channels or other Internet enabled services like Google Maps. Can connect users or bring those features into the virtual assistant dialog box.

Offers multiple contact channels and escalation capabilities including live chat, callback, callout, email, message, and

Interacts with website components such as forms, buttons, menus, and navigation to engage and help users make

a CIVA Guide | 19

Use the power of CodeBaby Analytics to track and measure related metrics. For in-depth analysis, there are several detailed reports - Clicks, Keys, Pages, and Videos. The client services team in partnership with your organization sets goals and event metrics to adhere to KPI’s at the time of CIVA provisioning. Weekly email alerts, detailed monthly, and executive summaries are included in the CIVA subscription.

sample metrics*

‣Visitors: Views the total number of unique individuals that

accessed the website and can be tracked by CIVA.

‣Clicks: Total number of times a visitor used a CIVA optimized

interaction such as clicked a link or web page.

‣Page Views: Total number of times CIVA enabled web pages

were viewed by visitors.

‣Page Assists: Total number of times CIVA services were used.

‣Key Events: Details on goals and key events performed by

customers.

‣Videos: In-depth breakdown of all CodeBaby videos and

segments viewed by customers.

‣Impression Hours: Total time in hours CIVA was available and

viewed.

*each of these metrics can be drilled down to provide detailed reporting

managed services include:

• customized account setup

• A / B split testing

• multiple goal and key events metrics

• monthly executive summary with analysis

analytics

Benefits Advisor Intelligent Virtual Assistant Solutions

Ready to accelerate benefits and wellness engagement?Contact us for more information, for a personalized demo, or ask for an assessment that helps you provide the business case and data points to articulate the value of implementing CIVA benefits advisor solution.

Learn More:Go to http://codebaby.com/online-solutions/benefits-advisor/Email info@codebaby.com

Sources:1 Towers Watson and National Business Group on Health, “Performance in an Era of Uncertainty, 2012 Employer Survey on Purchasing Value of Health Care”, Towers Watson, 2012 (http:// www.towerswatson.com/assets/pdf/6556/Towers-Watson-NBGH-2012.pdf)2 Johan Jacobs, “Key Considerations for Virtual Assistant Selection”, Gartner, July 29, 2010 (http://www.gartner.com/id=1412520)3 Guardian, “New Platform, Old Challenges”, Benefits and Behavior 2011, Spotlight on Enrollment Trends, 2011 (http://www.aboutemployeebenefits.com/reports/enrollment-trends-new-platforms-old-challenges.pdf)4 Colonial Life, “Well on the Way: Engaging Employees in Workplace Wellness”, Benefits at Work Series, A Colonial Life Whitepaper, Fall, 2012 (http://www.coloniallife.com/~/media/acrobat/newsroom/white%20papers/NS-12658.ashx)5 booz&company., “The Emergence of Private Health Insurance Exchanges Fueling the “Consumerization” of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance” 2012 (http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/BoozCo-Emergence-Private-Health-Insurance-Exchanges.pdf)6 Towers Watson and National Business Group on Health, “Pathway to Health and Productivity”, 2011/2012 Staying@Work Survey ReportTM, 2011 (http://www.towerswatson.com/assets/pdf/6031/Towers-Watson-Staying-at-Work-Report.pdf)

a CIVA Guide | 20

© 2014 CodeBaby.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

a CIVA Guide | 21

© 2014 CodeBaby.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

Request a Demo

Call +1 877.334.3465

Email info@codebaby.com

Go to http://codebaby.com/online-solutions/benefits-advisor/