With a central focus on customer experience, CVS explores relevant digital solutions. Source: Shutterstock

With a central focus on customer experience, CVS explores relevant digital solutions. Source: Shutterstock

CVS directs its digital journey towards elevating customer experience

STORIES of businesses leveraging technology to boost efficiency have prompted customers to develop higher expectations from the brands they engage with.

More than anything, customers expect a seamless journey and a personalized experience when they interact with a brand.

Identifying customers’ expectations and delivering on those expectations, is undoubtedly an integral part of business, especially now, in the digital age.

CVS, a pharmaceutical and insurance company, has developed a mature understanding of why and how digital solutions can redefine what it means to satisfy and delight customers.

The company’s Chief Digital Officer Firdaus Bhathena revealed that having the right digital strategy is pivotal for CVS given the fact that they serve up to 39 million customers.

This is why Bhathena and his team believe that improving customer experience should be the focus of the company’s digital journey.

The strategies must be aligned with the services and products CVS offers and complement the grounds of its operations which can ultimately make up a digitally-enabled customer journey system for the entire organization.

One of the first things that Bhathena is looking into is revamping the database systems by connecting all information into one profile to allow CVS to have a complete overview of customers’ visitation records.

Previously, customers who went for health check-ups or clinic appointments – physical clinics or virtual ones – did not have their records updated instantly.

With a connected information system, CVS will be able to keep track of insurance claims, review clinic visits, and offer relevant prescription benefits to delight customers.

A digitally-enabled database system that is powered with connected devices will also allow CVS to engage with customers on a more personal level.

Customers that have not visited a clinic for a certain amount of time can also be sent an automated reminder, resulting in better care and a more precise customer healthcare management system.

While other improvements may include setting up a digital platform that would ease the process of checking the availability of clinics and the booking of clinic appointments, Bhathena believes that at the end of the day, it is about creating connected healthcare services.

Bhathena’s team is also exploring artificial intelligence in the retail healthcare space and creating virtual care services.

CVS believes that as integral as technology can be, companies must always direct the transformation efforts towards improving an operational strategy as a whole and work towards enhancing the business outcome.

What CVS is doing is definitely difficult given the industry it operates in. However, its persistence will definitely yield results, and prove to competitors and peers that ignoring the call to leverage technology to create better customer experiences can cost them dearly.