DC Insights

Channel Cost Analysis: Savings Potential of the Community Channel

This blog showcases a single, easy number to help folks understand the value of the new social media environment.

Consider the cost-to-serve customers through an online support community. For service platform optimization, reducing cost-to-serve may be one objective, but certainly not the only objective. It is a good starting point considering the potential impact for improving the bottom line.

This blog entry is the first of a series on developing a service platform optimization model to quantify the benefits. I'm starting with channel cost analysis and specifically with the community channel - a single, easy number that projects huge cost savings potential. This discussion projects cost per contact for the community channel in comparison to a benchmark call center costs; I think you'll be wowed!

The primary data source for this blog is the Forrester report, The ROI of Online Customer Service Communities, developed from a survey of "20 companies, experts, and vendors," that also includes a Total Economic Impact (TEI) model that takes into account startup and recurring costs in people, processes, and technology categories. Consider buying this great Forrester report if you have not already. Note, you can access a similar Excel model here via Scribd (free login required).

My cost-to-serve number assumes a community is already in production. That the community already exists is a BIG assumption. I'm not intending to marginalize the effort required to develop a community – I just want to impress upon you why you should be thinking about going through that BIG step.

One cost element assumption Forrester notes based on their survey results is a community moderator's workload. A typical moderator review process is modeled at 15 minutes every 2 hours, from 9 a.m. to midnight. Note: constant moderation is not necessary after a number of community super users are secured and enrolled to represent major content providers. Given this data point, I quickly derived a total annual moderator cost of $28,000:

Hours of the day:	15
Total FTE moderation time (hrs):	1.875
FTE utilization:	23.4%
Annual FTE cost:	$ 120,000
Total annual moderator cost:	$ 28,125

 

Next, I built the below table to identify possible per-contacts costs. The lowest moderator to participant level represents a breakeven point against a live call agent, benchmarked at $5.50 a contact (source). From there, savings benefits increase based on how much one believes a moderator can be leveraged:

Number of subscribers per moderator (annually):	5,114	10,000	25,000	50,000	75,000		Live call agent cost per contact:
Cost per contact:	$5.50	$2.81	$1.13	$0.56	$0.38			Median = $5.50

 

A more quantitative understanding of the community member to moderator ratio is required, but initial queries suggest that a 50,000 to 1 ratio is appropriate for support communities that start at the FAQ level of issue complexity and organically grow from there. I would love to hear your feedback on this. What is an appropriate member to moderator ratio for your organization, and why?

I hope this quickly illustrates to you the potential benefit of online customer support communities – just one use of the community support channel. And reduced cost is just one benefit. Read this blog by an actual Community Manager on additional potential benefits.

Cheers!

Nobel Prizes and the Power of Web Video

I want to start by extending congratulations to this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics. They are recognized for achievements that enable the web revolution you and I know today. I also want to extend a special recognition to George E. Smith, a University of Chicago alum (my alma mater). His half of the achievement, awarded to Willard S. Boyle as well, is the development of CCD, the base technology for digital images. Digital images, especially digital video, can contribute a remarkable value for web engagement.

Focusing on the role of video in the online experience, I want to share provocative data from an OVEC survey, found here.

Most Consumed Media: The web represents the most consumed media per day based on the survey. Accounting for 29% of a day's consumption, the web just eclipses TVs 27% and significantly surpasses all others; radio is next at 11%.

In Short Format: Of the time spent online, watching video represents a full third (32%)-an individual's primary activity-just behind reading/writing email (29%). Social networking and news cover the rest at 24 and 15% respectively Even deeper, videos watched are broken down into type. Not surprisingly, short clips dominate viewer time.

. . . and to Entertain: We can also gather what perceived benefit users are getting from these videos. It's certainly not all work with as much as 70% of video viewing being related to entertainment (I included categories called "Entertain Me", "I'm a Fan", and "My Time" but recognize overlap exists). Follow that by a measly 13% of viewing behavior that's identified exclusively for research, i.e. folks "Need Info".

Spread Socially: Of video viewed online, the survey suggests nearly 1 in 5 views are influenced through social media. People are using the web to share their interests and opinions with their network through video. That's good to know if you're looking to tap into that valuable form of marketing.

 

Another telling data point on the role of video is provided by YouTube, which became the number two channel for search at the end of 2008 – and it still holds that position. According to conScore's September 2009 search engine rankings, YouTube represents 16% of total search traffic, behind Google's 43% and ahead of Yahoo's 13% (if you were wondering, MSFT with Bing still only has 6%). People are seeking out video to learn from the web.

 

So if that's the user's side of the story, what are companies doing about this? To begin understanding this, I want to quickly reference McKinsey's latest web 2.0 survey, How companies are benefiting from web 2.0. First, the survey's general takeaway confirms the benefits of web 2.0 technologies:

69% percent of respondents report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues. Companies that made greater use of the technologies, the results show, report even greater benefits. . . Despite the current recession, respondents overwhelmingly say that they will continue to invest in Web 2.0.

For video, survey results show video sharing as the leading web 2.0 technology in use. They even call out the increasing trend, "respondents report using Web videos more frequently since the previous survey; technology improvements have made videos easier to produce and disseminate within organizations." Given the forecasted increase in web 2.0 investment, we might project a further increase in spend on web video.

The takeaway here, besides a congrats to Smith and Boyle for development of CCD, is that video is here, it is in high demand by users, and it is already a significant portion of many companies web 2.0 strategies. Given all this, you'll want to ask yourself, "Am I using video as strategically as I can?"

Health Carrots - Requiring Social Media Participation

If you didn’t catch it last week, there is a great article in Time about a Cleveland Clinic based health prevention/promotion program and its implications on the future of health care and reimbursement.  Reading through it, I had an epiphany on the sustainability dilemma of social media.

Sustainability is a real concern with social media.  In a previous blog, I mentioned the ‘great’ Quicken community as a point of differentiation from other financial platforms and a potential model for increasing engagement within Intel Health Guide.  The only problem:  it shows Quicken has not been able to sustain aspects of community participation, making it a great theoretical model, not a practical one.

Sustainability certainly has two sides.  A company needs to keep their community of customers engaged – and remain committed to offering/maintaining an environment that is worth engaging in.  For the later need, I’ll quickly reference Patricio Robles’s blog at Econsultancy.  I’ll peer through that lens in a future blog.

How might heath care entities keep their communities of customers (e.g., patients, physicians, office staff) engaged?  One great motivator is to require the community members to return!

Early in the Time article we read that Renee Turner is given the opportunity to participate in what sounds like a great health prevention/promotion program – for FREE.  The only catch – all she has to do, “is show up.”  Just take that one step further and require her and all other participants to track their progression, and share their stories, through an integrated social media platform.

What makes this even more enticing is the amount of data available to enhance the interaction that can occur in a virtual community that runs in parallel with day to day activities.  Cleveland Clinic presents a dream state of eHealth:

Nearly all of the 5.5 million patients who have passed through the clinic's doors since it opened in 1921 now have a digital health record, and this electronic paper trail is an ideal partner to prevention. The hospital's patient-record system, MyChart, is synched with Google Health and Microsoft's HealthVault to give patients the ability to upload important health information directly from devices such as scales, home blood-pressure monitors and glucometers, which measure blood sugar. That allows patients to track their progress and also helps doctors see whether treatments are working. Doctors and patients can also communicate better digitally, without the need for appointments.

With all of that data, folks like Renee can share their progress with friends and family across the nation, get into health competition with other participants (think Biggest Loser Club), and get or give that extra push of motivation through virtual support groups and forums.

Now bring in the health care professionals – after the program ends, they currently keep in touch with weekly e-mails of tips to keep past participants committed to newfound health habits.  Are we allowed to say emails are so ‘90s?  If past participants are ‘required’ to continue returning to a virtual community (for cash, or steep discounts on health foods and services), why not enrich their ongoing interaction with physicians in a far more engaging and scalable means?

Now, for non-Cleveland Clinic employees, the Lifestyle 180 program costs $1,500. The article notes that, “Some local companies have started to pick up the tab.”  Have them pick up the tab while requiring participants to maintain certain levels of engagement in a community – and one-half of the sustainability problem is solved.

Would it be draconian to offer ‘free’ wellness programs that require a level of social media engagement?  I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Cheers - Eric A Siegmann

Increase EHR Adoption through Support Communities

Related to my EHR Stimulus Tour participation, Nuance just came out with survey results on physicians’ interpretation of ‘meaningful use’.  Nuance is the alliance member that provides voice recognition functionality to EHR solutions.  This survey was also covered by BusinessWire.

The term ‘meaningful use’ was one of the open questions discussed during the tour presentation.  Physicians will only be able to receive stimulus money if they are able to demonstrate meaningful use.  HIMSS is scheduled to publish more details on what ‘meaningful use’ means.  Prior to then, Nuance wanted to gather the thoughts of physicians on what it should mean.

A key survey question/response, “How concerned are you about the following obstacles regarding EHR adoption?”  90% are either "concerned" or "very concerned" about usability as a leading obstacle to EHR adoption – just a bit statistically significant.   And this is where a social media element can bring together healthcare professionals and vendors involved in the implementation of these new systems.

With each solution being interoperable across networks and datasets, vendors should ensure access to secure, web-based communities.  These communities can be application/solution specific, bringing together professionals with in the same functional roles but across health systems and geographic regions.  With access to these communities, an individual or role specific team will not have to ‘go it alone’ through the implementation of new systems and processes.

I believe there can be great gains in developing ‘how to’ and ‘best practices’ communities across the various vendor solutions.  From there, as community knowledge grows, vendor solution specific wikis can develop to supplement or eventually replace the help functions of these solutions.  Examples of this across developer groups are many^{1 2 3} .  We use forums like this across multiple applications: Firefox, MS Office, or Dreamweaver.

What will be key for adoption and use of this community based ‘how to’ tool will be creating a user interface that is both (1) easy to use, and (2) built within the workflow of the solutions being implemented and the workflow of the healthcare professionals’ day to day tasks.

What are key obstacles I have not considered?  Can support communities improve EHR adoption among healthcare professionals?

Cheers - Eric A Siegmann

LifeSource and a Community for Donating Blood

I gave blood last week – I reached the 1 gallon mark some years ago so I’m working on 2 gallons.  My mother and father regularly donated; it was natural for me to follow suit.  If one is physically able to give blood, it is an easy way to make an incrementally huge contribution to the health community. 

That said, is everyone who can donate donating?  And if not, how can the numbers be increased?

LifeSource, the Chicago based blood center is starting to explore a solution.  After donating, I was handed a flyer for a new program, Brighten Life.  One can now join a ‘frequent donors’ program.  The program     site allows me to maintain a profile, view past donations, and earn points to redeem at the Brighten Life store.  There are also different Brighten Lives levels to further promote donation frequency.

To give you an idea of how donations are valued, one can get a $25 gas card for 775 points.  I received 100 points for my donation.  So each donation is worth $3.13 in gas money.  But that’s not why one should donate.  Does LifeSource considering this to be the next change agent for increasing donations?

So, how do I think LifeSource can increase donation levels?  Going back to why I donate, and the impression my Mother and Father left on me, I believe social media is a very valuable mechanism for increasing donation levels.  Social media can allow me to share with my network (e.g., family, friends, close workmates) my blood donating activities and allow me to positively impress upon them the contributions they can personally make.

Instead of using applications to engage with my network in zombie wars or movie trivia, I have a personal interest in petitioning my network to donate blood.  My commitment to personally donate blood then justifies my petition.  And my “LifeSource / BrightenLife” application communicates to me and my network just how my network and I are progressing with blood donations – lives being saved. 

I believe the Brighten Life platform is a key piece to this.  It generates a story, through my and others donations, that creates contextual interest in the social media environment.

If you were wondering, 20 groups have the generic name “Blood Donation” and 100’s more have Blood and Donation in their name.  For LifeSource, there are 323 results – none of which are for LifeSource, Chicagoland’s Blood Center.

In a short time, LifeSource can (1) develop its objectives, approach, and guidelines (2) implement a pilot group with means to collect feedback, and (3) initiate a larger scale phase 1.0 BrightenLife Community. . . and from there see potentially large increases in donation activities.

I would love to hear if you think I’m on to something here.

Cheers - Eric A Siegmann

Intel Health Guide. . . with no Community

One of the solutions mentioned at the EHR Stimulus Tour is Intel’s Health Guide.  Reading more about it, this is a great example of where social media can significantly improve the delivery of health care.  To start, this is the primary tagline of Intel Health Guide:

The benefits of the Intel Health Guide include patients who are more engaged to take a more active and positive role in their own care. For healthcare providers, it enables more informed and personalized care—which may lead to better patient satisfaction. And it helps healthcare organizations to face the challenges of chronic care, increase efficiency, and achieve organizational objectives.

Key words that I want to call out:  patients who are more engaged, informed and personalized care, better patient satisfaction.  My position is, integrate social media tools into Intel Health Guide and at a minimum increase the solutions ability to meet the three attributes I called out.

I’d like to use Quicken as a solution metaphor.  Now, the range of access to Quicken is huge, from using free personal financing tools online, like Mint, to purchasing a full home business suite.  Regardless of one’s level of access, everyone has access to the Quicken Community and its forums, blogs, Expert Locator, and member locator, “Search our member database to connect with other members of the community”.  Now, if one has questions, problems, or just opinions, both technical/product based and financial, there is a resource and channel to address that need.  It can only help make Quicken customers become “more engaged”, giving them for “informed and personalized” service, while increasing their “satisfaction”.

Two things to consider:  I reference Mint above - it provides a great, free personal financing tool that I use.  It only has a finance blog to expand its solution value through social media.  That gives Quicken a huge point of differentiation for its free platform – and a lead in to its pay applications.  However, Quicken Community is very quiet – too quiet.  They have the right idea; they just need to improve execution – more on that in a future blog.

Back to Intel Health Guide, they suggest that other current systems, “fail to provide patients with social connectedness,” and that, “Intel Health Guide uses interactivity to increase the level of patient engagement in disease management.”  That is all great verbiage.  I wonder just how far they are taking that, however, considering how well they could connect like-minded patients into need-specific communities to exchange information and improve on health solutions.

Intel’s solution is targeted to an older segment.  I want to quickly push aside the myth that an older generation is not becoming engaged on the web.  Baby Boomers have been one of the fastest adaptors as they catch up to their kids (’04 stats), already constitute a significant segment, and have other reasons besides health that bring them online.  So I do believe if Intel built social media features into Health Guide to improve the patient experience, they would come.

Also out of the Forrester study, the baby boomer generation tends not to be a high contribution group; the environment I’m proposing requires a higher level of user creation / contribution.  Sarah Perez offers excellent insight  – focus on making the contribution route “dead simple” with a focus on initial contribution actions (e.g., reviews, ratings).  I suggest that further integrating experts - into the community features of Intel Health Guide to participate and provide guidance - can significantly increase participation and contribution of baby boomers.  I’ll be sure to further defend this position in a future blog.

In conclusion, Intel Health Solution is just one existing health care delivery example that can benefit through the integration of social media tools.  While the “how to implement” must be determined, pilot programs could be implemented quickly with a feedback mechanism to drive iterative development.  It would not surprise me if Intel already has something in plan or development.

I’d love to hear your thoughts . . . could this be valuable for Intel?

Cheers - Eric A Siegmann

Attending the EHR Stimulus Tour

I attended the EHR Stimulus Tour yesterday and considered it mildly interesting.  They certainly communicated healthcare related stimulus information in a meaningful way – but nothing drastically new.  They also brought in a local case study, a highlight of the event.  I don’t know if the 2+ hour presentation was worth the travel time for one participant from Detroit.  For me:  good networking, expansion of thinking on social media in healthcare, and a free EHR Stimulus Tour 2009 t-shirt . . . are chochkees really needed?

To start, they introduced the alliance vendor representatives present; if you have interest or need, this is a great way to meet with any number of them in a single place.  They then given a brief presentation that essentially covered the Stimulus 101 document.  That was followed up by a game of Jeopardy – where would we be if we didn’t have Trebek or SNL – to ensure we caught all of the information.  Then, to finish up, an alliance SME called in from DC to address specific questions - not a whole lot of dialogue was exchanged.

The FAQ doc is another good quick resource.  Two key open questions that came up during the presentation:

• Meaningful User – We have three tenets in the bill, page 1 in FAQs or here; it was noted CMS will supply additional information on the certifying body, reporting requirements, and final standards criteria
• Delivery of Funding – The fact that the timing and means of distribution are yet to be defined

They did have folks fill out a quick data sheet of inputs for a Federal Incentives Calculator – can’t find it online.  I filled one out as best I could for my own PCPs office.  I’ll break down the output more and perhaps cover it in a future blog.  At first glance, it is pretty intuitive and not too complex.

As for the local case study, a director from Advocate Health Care shared experiences and lessons learned from their ongoing Allscripts solution implementation.  Here is an article on their latest module.  The director’s key takeaway was how Advocate measured ongoing progress/success to guide changes and improvements to implementation efforts.  Advocate identified direct and indirect success metrics and measured progress against stated targets.  It was a great theory to practice review.

Now, how is this related to social media:  use of EHRs lead to a whole slew of opportunities for healthcare professionals to connect with each other and patients as information is collected and aggregated, both on a personal level and across communities.  My intent is to hit on those opportunities within and related to social media - through this blog. 

But, here’s an interesting perspective I came across yesterday.  The use of social media by healthcare professionals, a task that requires minimal initial resources, can actually develop a level of social confidence for the professionals’ IT capabilities – a beneficial PR effect that can encourage and drive overall adoption of IT programs being implemented.  I’ll be sure to cover this in a future blog.

Cheers - Eric A Siegmann

[06/18 comment]  Now I'm famous. . . my video made it on their post-tour webpage!