Omnichannel: SHI Services from a Single Source

Insured people today expect fast, seamless service - whether via app, telephone, or portal. How can SHI provide a consistent customer experience without media breaks? This article shows how an omnichannel platform bundles processes and enables service from a single source.

Communication between statutory health insurers (SHI) and their policyholders has changed fundamentally in recent years. Digital channels have long been established or are part of the Telematics infrastructure (TI) 2.0, yet the need for personal advice remains high, especially for complex issues.

What at first glance appears to be a steady and customer-friendly expansion of existing structures often turns out to be a structural problem in practice: the many communication channels stand side by side without being sufficiently interlinked. This creates additional coordination work for health insurance companies. For policyholders, this means repeated requests, media disruptions, and unnecessary forwarding. This is where the omnichannel platform (OKP) comes in as a central service.

The decisive difference between multi-channel and omni-channel lies less in the number of channels than in their integration. While multi-channel structures provide different access points, an omni-channel platform combines these on a uniform basis. In concrete terms, this means that, regardless of whether policyholders contact the app by phone or via the web portal, the context of their request is always available. Information is not lost, responsibilities are clear, and the next step in the process is immediate.

This creates a consistent customer experience tailored to the insured person's situation, not the selected channel.

What seems obvious in the example on the right is the result of clearly controlled communication with intelligent routing: inquiries are not only received, but also intelligently distributed - across all channels. AI-supported processes analyse the concerns of insured persons, prioritize them according to urgency and forward them to the appropriate contact person in real time. This is efficient for health insurance companies and policyholders alike.

The implementation can now be realized much faster than often assumed. Our omnichannel platform is built on Amazon Connect, a cloud-based contact center platform. On this established basis, implementation periods of less than six months can be realized in the SHI environment. - depending on the initial situation and scope of integration.

Flexible adaptations and modular extensions ensure that entry-level scenarios are just as possible as long-term further development towards a fully-fledged omnichannel contact center.