The Future of Customer Service & Experience with Katya Andresen, Chief Digital & Analytics Officer at Cigna!

Ahead of Reuters Events:?Customer Service & Experience USA 2022 ?(May 26-27, San Diego) we wanted to highlight the world-class leaders who are pushing customer service & experience forward in exciting new directions with their innovation, drive & desire to place the customer at the heart of their business strategy.

Recently I sat down to speak with?Katya Andresen, Chief Digital & Analytics Officer at Cigna?to discuss some of the critical topics that she will be addressing on stage in San Diego!

"?We couldn’t be better poised to bring digital, data, analytics and tech together to forge lasting relationships and empower our customers to make good choices in their life"

Check out an excerpt from the interview below to discover insights into Katya's work at Cigna that covers data-driven strategies, providing seamless omnichannel care, and how the Cigna team is embracing a customer-backed, digital-first mindset.

This interview forms part of a wider report published by Reuters Events which contains 12 interviews with leading Customer Service & Experience experts from brands such as?Nationwide, Walmart, CVS Health, Nissan & Cigna.?Download your report here today !

Why do you feel that Customer Service & Experience USA is an important event, especially this year as we return to in-person?

It’s exciting to be in CX right now because we’re in the golden age of understanding the brain, human psychology and behavioral economics – and digital makes that all the more powerful.?When we can understand how people think – both rationally and irrationally, we can understand people more deeply and build great experiences for our customers. This ultimately opens opportunities for us to matter more deeply in their lives than ever before and create a lasting relationship, however technology evolves. The Customer Service & Experience USA event brings together thought leaders and the passionate network of CSX professionals to seize this unique moment in time.?

What can our audience expect to learn from you and your session?

Industries like financial services and health care for years were slow to embrace a customer-backed, digital-first mindset. But that’s been changing – and fast, accelerated by the pandemic and its catalytic impact on consumer-focused, digital and virtual experiences. In this session, you’ll learn how to capitalize on this movement as well as leverage the latest thinking on neuroscience, human psychology and behavioral economics to build great experience, even when change is hard at your organization. We’ll cover the way to win – with some cautionary tales of classic missteps.

In your company, how does your role fit into the customer service/experience department?

I see my role as creating value for those we serve and our business. And that value can only be created by exhibiting curiosity about customer feedback, remaining responsive to user needs and anticipating future expectations. By combining data, technology and digital, we can create a truly personalized experience that brings human-centered design to the forefront of our digital experiences to drive affordable care and better outcomes, and connect points of care across apps, virtual or alternative sites of care.

What excites you about the current direction of customer service, experience, and support?

We are living at a time when customers are not only embracing, but demanding the intersection of customer service, experience and support. And it’s opening the doors for truly innovative solutions that are disrupting past benchmarks for success. Although technology continues to rapidly evolve, human nature does not. So if we can continue to bring the thinking and unthinking mind into areas of leadership and innovation, we can deliver data-driven strategies that unlock seamless, omnichannel experiences to create truly digital differentiation, which has the power to change health care for the better.?

Which technologies are you exploring, or investing in, to meet evolving customer expectations in 2022?

We are investing in technologies that unlock life changing value for our customers and empower better health – all while driving affordable care and better outcomes through digital-first, holistic solutions. These include virtual health as well as future care models. Virtual health has the ability to produce even greater customer experiences by bringing health care directly to customers, wherever they are, at any time. Digital is the enabler to continue to evolve this on-demand, hassle-free care to provide virtual solutions for whatever urgent, primary, behavioral or dermatological care our clients need. Future care models provide an opportunity to re-engineer care delivery and care management through the patients’ eyes and to also re-engineer risk and incentives, with a focus on convening and orchestrating the right care experiences and improving the customer experience through digital engagement and virtual care. Thanks to our ability to harness the enormous amount of data available, we are able to accelerate new, predictive, innovative care solutions, all while making the patient experience easier and more convenient – and offer preventive care and real time alerting.?

How important a role does data play in providing world-class customer service & experience?

Data is the ultimate key for forging deeply meaningful customer experiences. Data allows us to glean insights, test assumptions, anticipate what stakeholders need and power the self-learning systems core to the future of care ecosystems, making it possible to deliver new sources of value to those we serve. Only through data and sophisticated analytics are we able to drive insight which in turn introduce ground breaking, predictive, direct to consumer experiences that drive better outcomes and launch differentiated products. When we do this, we can leverage our data and tech innovation in ways that show up to real people in a manner that adds value and as such, it’s a key enabler of our business strategy. And we know the better the experience, the more trust we will earn with our customers, the more engagement we will receive – resulting in more robust data being shared, which will continue to fuel our ability to personalize their care experience with us.?This is key to a world-class customer experiences.

With business being disrupted heavily in the last couple of years, what things have taken on a greater significance for your company?

With the heightening of customer expectations in the area of digital, we are more focused than ever on creating digital experiences that are truly worth talking about and deeply meaningful to our clients. Developing more personalized, holistic customer experiences that create better connections across points of access, reduce frustration, increase levels of simplicity and ultimately boost customer satisfaction and trust are a paramount way we are making health care more affordable, predictable, simple - and just all around delivering a better care experience. We are a mission-oriented company. And with the current market demand, we couldn’t be better poised to bring digital, data, analytics and tech together to forge lasting relationships and empower our customers to make good choices in their life.

Want to find out more about Reuters Events: Customer Service & Experience USA 2022??Check out the website today ?to discover how we're planning to launch into the future of customer service & experience.