At the oldest health insurer in the Netherlands, customers like to be served digitally.

Zorg en Zekerheid is a regional health insurer based in Leiden. “We have been around for two hundred years, making us the oldest health insurer in the Netherlands,” says Stephan proudly. “Our strength lies in the region. It runs roughly from the area around Leiden to Utrecht and Amsterdam. Because we've been here for so long, we have a good relationship with the healthcare providers in this area. This allows us to offer our more than five hundred thousand customers the best care at a competitive price. Of course, anyone who wants to can be insured with us, but in Groningen, for example, we have less influence and are therefore less able to make good agreements than here.”

Many of our customers would like to be served digitally

Digital control

At the beginning of 2022, Health and Security switched to Mail to Pay software for the debtor management process. “Many of our customers would like to be served digitally. We had been sending the policy, which is immediately the invoice, via e-mail to these people for a long time, but then they still had to go to their online banking environment to pay the premium themselves. Now, the email with the invoice also includes a payment link and they can pay immediately. That's much more customer-friendly.”

More control over the collection process

“In addition, we wanted more control over the collection process,” Stephan further explains the switch. “With Cases, the Mail to Pay platform, we are very good at following what's happening; we're on top of it. For example, we see that a large number of insured persons pay the premium immediately after receiving the invoice and the payment link. After that, you'll see it flatten downwards. The moment we think: now that mail has gone into oblivion, we send a service message with a payment link via Cases to help people remember that they still have to pay their premium. After that, you'll see that payment curve skyrocket again. And then flatten out again. We are now experimenting to find out when is the best time to send such a reminder message.”

Sixty to eighty percent of customers read the mail with a payment link soon after delivery and pay immediately.

Very good results

The results of this way of working don't lie. Sixty to eighty percent of customers read the mail with a payment link soon after delivery and pay immediately. “That was twenty percent with an email without a payment link. So a huge improvement,” says Stephan. “We do see that when paying the deductible, the percentage of customers who pay immediately is slightly lower. People still want to take some time to see if the amount in the account is correct.”

Rapid intervention

Stephan likes being able to sit on top of the debtor process this way. “In fact, it's necessary. For ourselves, to get our money, but also for our insured. Because we are now quickly noticing a payment backlog, we can contact this customer early, try to find out what's going on and ask how we can help. Because the amount of health insurance premiums is such; if you are one or two months behind, you are immediately faced with a substantial amount of money. And people with financial concerns are experiencing stress. As a result, they will consume more care in the long run and this higher care purchase will lead to higher prices. That's a well-known vicious cycle that we should all watch out for.”

Prosperous implementation

Stephan is very satisfied with the cooperation with Mail to Pay. “The implementation of Cases went very well. The lines are short with Mail to Pay. That works well. After implementation, we extensively tested the process step by step. Mail to Pay has a test environment where you can send messages to yourself. This way, you can discover how the process goes, what the messages look like after sending them and where you may need to change things without having to go live right away. In any case, it's really nice to work in Cases. The platform is very user-friendly and flexible.”

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Data enrichment

Health and Security is already working on the next steps. “We want to serve as many customers as possible digitally. That's why we are now approaching customers who have ever indicated that they do not want to receive electronic mail with the question whether they still want to switch to digital.” Zorg en Zekerheid is also looking at the other options that Cases offers. “Ultimately, we want to gradually start using all the options that the platform offers. The Payment Coach, for example, allows customers with payment arrears to choose a payment solution that best suits their financial situation. We would also like to make a distinction in how we approach different groups of customers — for example good, bad and bad payers.” Stephan is looking forward to expanding the possibilities. “So far, Mail to Pay has fulfilled all its promises to us, so I am confident that the other features of the platform will also contribute to a good and customer-friendly collection process.”