How can a company provide an engaging and informative health assessment? The CIVA benefits advisor intelligent virtual assistant solutions can help. Depending on organizational need, a CIVA solution becomes a benefits virtual concierge, a health advisor, or a lifestyle wellness coach.
2. Introduction
Intelligent virtual assistants are the key to accelerating your beneļ¬ts marketplace,
enrollment, and self-service initiatives.
Intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) are quickly being acknowledged for their critical
optimization, brand engagement, and ļ¬nancial value. IVAs enable consumers to efļ¬ciently
accomplish their online goals by facilitating decision support during beneļ¬ts selection and
enrollment, ļ¬lling 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 efļ¬ciencies, boost voluntary beneļ¬ts 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 beneļ¬ts 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 beneļ¬ts
advisor.
a CIVA Guide | 2
According to Towers
Watson1, āChanging
employeesā 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
3. Benefits Advisor
intelligent virtual assistant solutions
1. Benefits Communication and Enrollment
One-to-one education increases benefits understanding.
2. Public and Private Exchanges
Consumers want a āguidedā shopping experience.
3. Prevention and Disease Management
Drive down costs by increasing wellness participation.
4. Benefits Advisor Features
5. Customer Engagement Platform
a CIVA Guide | 3
4. 1. Benefits Communication and Enrollment
One-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
beneļ¬ts participation and engagement.
According to Guardian research3, a majority of workers (56%) believe a single, consolidated web-
based platform that integrates all of their beneļ¬ts allows them to better understand and consider
their insurance options, make selections, and appreciate the value of beneļ¬ts available to them.
But much of this same group thinks their employers are not entirely effective with beneļ¬ts
education and enrollment.
Additionally, a new Colonial Life survey conducted by Harris Interactive4, found that one-to-one
communication increases beneļ¬ts understanding. Although ideal, one-to-one, may not be
practical. This is where a beneļ¬ts advisor virtual assistant closes the gap. It provides an online,
emotional connection that can complement or replace the beneļ¬ts enrollment meeting/process.
The employee may choose which parts to review or be directed to listen to each segment as the
employer sees ļ¬t, 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.
5. 2. Public and Private Exchanges
Consumers want a āguidedā 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:
ā£Create a competitive marketplace.
ā£Inform consumers and improve cost transparency.
ā£Offer affordable health insurance and wellness choices.
ā£Ensure transactional ease and efļ¬ciencies 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 beneļ¬t choices. Regardless of exchange type, they found
employers and consumers desire āguidedā support, product recommendations, and real-time
administrative support via chat or phone.
The beneļ¬ts advisor intelligent virtual assistants provide the guided support consumers want
through several methods. For example, it assists employers when selecting beneļ¬ts offered to their
employees on the exchange or employees when making decisions based on a deļ¬ned 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 efļ¬ciencies and a more
satisfying beneļ¬ts shopping experience.
a CIVA Guide | 5
Click here to watch this beneļ¬ts
advisor demonstrate how she can
highlight and educate the
customer through the daunting
insurance selection process.
6. 3. Prevention and Disease Management
Drive 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 ļ¬nancial 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 ļ¬nancial incentives, at just 14%, and show little responsiveness
to incentives, increasing to just 16% where incentives were present6.
Although ļ¬nancial 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 beneļ¬ts advisor can make the difference by substantially improving wellness
participation through online engagement.
Imagine the beneļ¬ts 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 beneļ¬ts 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.
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key features
ā£Conversational scripts with menu driven options: Directs
users through predetermined paths without missing pertinent
beneļ¬ts program information.
ā£Natural language response option: This type of technology
allows customers and the virtual assistants to use
everyday language to accomplish self-service objectives.
ā£Product Offers: Can recommend wellness products / voluntary
beneļ¬ts based on personalized data or through questionnaires.
ā£Form Fill: Recognizes important data and helps consumers
and employees complete forms and applications.
ā£Mobile: Delivers the experience to any device ā a full 3D
experience is available on tablets, kiosks and desktops, 2D
and voice and text only is available on handheld.
ā£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.
ā£Seamless integration via a single line of code, cloud delivery:
Any website, platform, knowledge base, or CRM.
Benefits Advisor Features
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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 ā with just one line of code.
Itās just that easy.
4. Customer Engagement Platform
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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 beneļ¬ts 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 speciļ¬c
behaviors while allowing for everyday responses from
the audience and virtual assistant.
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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 reļ¬ect the brand and appeal to your customer base.
On the next few pages, each component will be reviewed in more detail.
experience streams
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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 speciļ¬c to the audience and organizational needs.
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experience streams: videos/scenes
script import recording and animate place video āconversationsā 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.
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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 application
shopping/ add-to-cart
custom questionnaire
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The CIVA solution comes with props that illustrate intent, give instructions, emphasize multimedia, act as online tools, or
display product images.
experience streams: props
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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
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Calls-to-action enable customers during the self-service process or prompt them to take speciļ¬c 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, ļ¬ll out forms, and accurately complete transactions.
experience streams: calls-to-action
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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 āparkā and
āunparkingā conversations, idle timing and gestures, and conversation completions.
experience streams: navigational mapping
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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 conļ¬ict.
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
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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 KPIās at the time of CIVA provisioning. Weekly email alerts, detailed monthly, and executive
summaries are included in the CIVA subscription.
sample metrics*
ā£Visitors: Views the total number of unique individuals that
accessed the website and can be tracked by CIVA.
ā£Clicks: Total number of times a visitor used a CIVA optimized
interaction such as clicked a link or web page.
ā£Page Views: Total number of times CIVA enabled web pages
were viewed by visitors.
ā£Page Assists: Total number of times CIVA services were used.
ā£Key Events: Details on goals and key events performed by
customers.
ā£Videos: In-depth breakdown of all CodeBaby videos and
segments viewed by customers.
ā£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:
ā¢ customized account setup
ā¢ A / B split testing
ā¢ multiple goal and key events metrics
ā¢ monthly executive summary with analysis
analytics