Dedicated to delivering better health and wellbeing, Southern Cross Health Society (SCHS) provides a unique mix of services for New Zealanders. Their vision, “empowering Kiwis to live their healthiest lives”, is backed by putting the customer at the heart of the conversation.

In a challenging time of competitive pressure, claims cost escalation and the need to increase premiums, SCHS needed to lift engagement and maintain growth. It was time for a brand re-launch with a direct member-engagement programme leading the way.

Leveraging its strong market position, SCHS looked to grow the overall health insurance market and improve the health and wellness of its members. It wanted to enable members to be in better control of their health outcomes through personalised experiences including – and beyond – the health insurance policy.

SCHS set a clear strategy to evolve customer communications from organisationally-centred messaging to a communication flow that reflected the life stage, lifestyle and life cycle of a member. They used single minded, hyper-relevant, timely messages with content relevant to all modes of interaction. Three strategic aims guided the communications; deliver truly personal messages, start new conversations and focus on digital channels for ease, convenience and cost efficiency.

The objectives were clear; to retain and grow membership, digitise members and lift engagement, along with improve SCHS communication processes.

By drawing on creative insight and data science, SCHS created focused, powerful and timely conversations delivered at the most relevant times for their customers. By understanding their customers’ uniqueness and needs in a genuine way, SCHS followed their vision of empowering customers to live their healthiest lives.

And the outcomes? Member retention and growth targets were exceeded, there was a notable increase in migration to digital channels and digital engagement, and operational and governance processes saw marked improvements.