Sep 13, 2021
4 Examples of How Cigna's Customer Service Team Goes Above and Beyond to Meet People’s Needs

At Cigna, we put our customers’ satisfaction at the center of everything we do. Nowhere is this commitment to customer centricity more evident than among our customer advocates.

Cigna's customer service team is committed to helping people live healthy lives and they do this by listening first and responding with empathy. Our customer service team makes it easy for people to work with us, while advocating for health and wellness.

We’re so proud of the work that our team is doing, that we decided to share a few of the stories on how our customer service professionals use their caring nature and quick-thinking skills to help our more than 90 million customers make the most out of their Cigna benefits. Below, we highlight some of the many inspiring stories we hear every day.

Tracking Down an Oxygen Tank for a COVID Long-Hauler

One of Cigna’s customers spent more than three weeks in the hospital battling COVID-19, which resulted in damage to his lungs. When he was discharged from the hospital, he was told he would require an oxygen tank to resume normal activities. But, in order to return to work, he needed travel oxygen, which was proving to be tricky to track down.

When Julie Boone, a senior customer service representative at Cigna, heard about the situation, she stepped in to work with our benefits experts and the provider, helping to get the customer authorization for the oxygen tank, and working out a payment plan that satisfied both the customer and the provider.

The oxygen tank was sent out the very next day.

Boone believes in being there for customers 100%:

“We have to do everything we can for our customers, especially when they’re in this type of situation,” she said. “You don’t want them to have any work at all, you just want them to sit back, trust you, and keep them updated with the status and get it taken care of.”

Empathy and Elder Care

The meaning of family might vary from person to person, but at its core, it’s about trust, love and dedication. And all of those values were on display when Amanda Klein, a customer service advocate encountered an elderly man, his son, and their stack of bills.

The men, both veterans of the armed forces, were still reeling from the passing of their wife/mother in September 2019. The son was also feeling the stress of caring for his parents full-time over the past 13 years. “He was adamant on keeping them home,” Klein said of the son’s dedication to his family. “It really touched my heart.”

She worked hard to walk the two men through each and every claim, resolving their billing issues by explaining details and making the necessary outbound calls herself. That simple action moved the young man to tears.

“He just explained to me over and over and over again that he’s never had anyone there to help him take care of his parents or help him with the bills or the stresses or even just a conversation,” Cigna's Klein said. “Empathy kind of took the forefront.”

The empathy came easily for Klein, who had watched the same situation unfold with her mother and grandmother.

“I watched my mom go through the same things, with all the bills piling up, with all the added stresses, if there’s hospice involved, things like that,” she said. “And a lot of people don’t realize how hard that is on a family.”

For Klein, making the difference in just one person’s life means the world to her, and it’s something she aims for on every single customer service call she answers.

An International Event with a Twist

On the last day of her vacation in Wales, a Cigna health plan customer suffered a miscarriage. After flying home not knowing how everything would play out, she got hit with a devastating medical bill.

She followed up on her claim numerous times, hoping for some reimbursement. When customer service advocate Cindi Guerrero first connected with her – 1.5 years after the international trip – the customer had just about given up hope on getting reimbursed.

For Guerrero, tracking down all the documentation for the customer’s claim was no easy task. The paperwork was scattered, and getting foreign claims resolved can be difficult, since foreign providers don’t always use the same diagnostic codes or may require the customer to pay to have documents translated. But that didn’t stop Guerrero from employing her trademark empathy, while also getting the claim adjusted.

“I look at all of my customers as if, what if this were my mom, or my sister, or my daughter, or me,” she said. “I had a miscarriage when I was younger. It helps the empathy part of it.”

Guerrero, whose supervisor calls her a “Cigna cheerleader,” knows that sometimes a customer just needs a sympathetic ear.

“We are in this together. I am here to help my customers,” she said.

Navigating Family Planning

Family is always top-of-mind for Jody McCormick, a customer service advocate based in West Virginia. So when a woman called in to ask about family planning, McCormick was happy to educate her on her options.

“She was pleased to find out her Family Planning benefit covers an IUD with an in-network provider,” McCormick said. “We discussed the brands that are covered. What contraceptive you use is a big decision.”

McCormick’s comprehensive knowledge on the available benefits made an impact on the customer:

“She even gave me extra information that would help me in the future,” the woman said, before adding that she had decided to enroll with Cigna for another year thanks to her experience with our customer service.

With employees like Klein, Guerrero, McCormick and Boone, who truly live out Cigna’s values, it’s easy to see that customer-centric services and experiences are the norm here at Cigna.

“Whether it’s giving direction or just a friendly voice, I believe every call/connection I have impacts a life,” McCormick said.

Join the Cigna Customer Service & Claims Team

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