One-on-One with Solutions Director Zameer Baber
Zameer's deep digital strategy and technology expertise helps organizations design and transform their operations to deliver a better customer experience.
We recently caught up with Zameer to chat more about how payer organizations can transform their marketing organizations to meet their member growth and retention goals.
A strategic focus on marketing is becoming increasingly critical for payer organizations. Can you share a little bit about why?
Traditionally, highly regulated industries (like healthcare) have been slower to adopt more modern marketing capabilities that are used frequently in industries like retail and media. At the same time, digital is bringing together what used to be disparate areas of Marketing and Customer Service in ways we’ve only started to see. We’ve seen a rush to adopt these modern capabilities with the pandemic as a way to more effectively have near one-on-one conversations with prospects and members. People want to hear and be heard in today’s very tumultuous environment. Organizations that move away from broadcasting generic messages to large populations and instead facilitate a dialogue with concerned segments of populations are the ones that will ultimately meet peoples’ needs more effectively.
How can a modern marketing ecosystem help?
A modern marketing ecosystem is one that both communicates and listens to potential and existing members. For payers, this means their marketing ecosystem should be able to pick up on a number of demographic trends, communicate personalized messages accordingly, and ensure peoples’ needs are being met as they go through care. For example, the same ecosystem that identifies how to better support certain zip codes negatively impacted by COVID should also be able to help individuals through any confusion experienced as they transition into retirement. While this may seem like it is an almost impossible task, it isn’t. Cloud-based systems CRMs (such as Salesforce), CMSs (such as Adobe), EHRs (such as Epic), and ERPs (such as SAP) are already being stitched together across the most modern healthcare organizations across the globe. By balancing an agile digital/IT workforce with the right data and analytics, organizations can quickly start to advance the modern marketing capabilities (and successes) that have been synonymous with other industries.
What advice would you share for these organizations and their leaders?
Innovation is about bringing together lots of disparate ideas to create entirely new mindsets. Learn from ideas that exist outside of the realm of your day-to-day life. How does Netflix create content? How does American Express create highly specialized customer service? How does Amazon simplify payment? What does NASA do to hold on to lessons learned from projects? How does Google break up its technology investment portfolio? The experiences that drive these organizations may be highly specialized use cases, but the underlying capabilities that enable these use cases exist across all industries. Identify the capabilities core to your organization and then start asking questions about other companies. Do not emulate best in class, rather learn from the best across classes.
Anything else to share?
Have fun. These are trying times and the pressures that exist on those reading this are enormous. At the crux of all this advice is one underpinning idea: learn from others and teach each other. Talk to as many people as possible and share concepts, brainstorm new ideas, exchange stories, and if you’re lucky make some new friends.
At the crux of all this advice is one underpinning idea: learn from others and teach each other.
Cake or pie?
Flan.
What’s something we can’t learn about you by reading your LinkedIn profile?
I tried my hand in both standup comedy and radio before “settling down” in corporate America.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?
If I could only have one superpower, the one I’d wish for more than any other is the ability to ask for an infinite number of superpowers.
Go-to podcast?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Conan O’ Brien Needs a Friend. I invited Conan to both my graduation and wedding. He never RSVP’d. My daughter’s first birthday is in January, so I’ll send him another invite. We’ll see what happens.
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