We spoke to Julie Hopkins, Director, underwriting and claims strategy at financial services firm Guardian about why it chose HealthHero for its 24/7 GP service.
About Guardian FS
Guardian is a famous name in life assurance with a long history. Those of a certain age may remember their name. However, they’ve changed their appearance and adopted a new look for a new era – one that reflects their intention to continuously rethink and reinvent protection for the better.
They re-entered the UK protection market with the commitment to provide fairer, clearer policies that give families the certainty they deserve, and with an only single ambition: ‘For every family to have protection that they truly believe in.’
Why did you choose to partner with HealthHero?
HealthHero came recommended by a partner of ours. We had been looking into remote GP services but hadn’t heard of HealthHero. We chose it because of the scope and quality of the solution.
Their office is close to ours, so we could easily see the operation. We really liked what we saw – very impressive set-up and great people to work with. The people we met aligned with our brand promise of ’life made better’ and we liked the ’trust and clarity of offering’ – the whole thing was just a fantastic symbiotic relationship. We had exactly what we wanted.
What were the objectives and your expectations?
We had high expectations, but happily the actual proposition exceeded those.
We didn’t think we’d find a genuine 24/7 service – it was a wonderful surprise. In reality, when you need access to medical advice, it’s usually in the middle of the night or early morning when something happens – and that’s when you want to speak to someone.
If you use yourself as a yardstick – “what would you want for yourself?” then it absolutely fitted the bill.
What feedback have you received?
Staff members who have had access to the service have stood up in front of the whole Guardian team at weekly meetings praising the service.
They used the service when travelling and were genuinely surprised by how quickly they got to speak to a doctor and the quality of service they had – giving them peace of mind and confidence should the situation arise that they need to use it again in the future.
What do you think your members most value in the HealthHero service?
Anybody with a child who is ill will welcome the opportunity to get quick and speedy access/advice from a GP.
You cannot minimise how important that is for a parent. The concern and anxiety you go through with a sick child is absolutely huge. Insurance is a family business; you don’t often think about what you need to protect until you have children.
Services that help protect children are highly valued by parents. The family offering is very, very meaningful.
What would you like to highlight about HealthHero?
Is Guardian the only company offering a GP service? No. But I do think that if we didn’t have cover such as this in our armoury, it might make it harder for an adviser to recommend our product.
There is evidence that having support services are part of the reason why an adviser might choose a particular offering. A provider without a GP service is less likely to be on an adviser’s pick list.
What are the plans for the future at Guardian FS? How is the product going to evolve? And how can HealthHero help?
Future Guardian product launches will include income protection (IP). Once you get into the IP arena, then you are dealing with disability and any support you can give to people with a disability, those services are always going to
be valued.
Truthfully, I love the look of your next tool Medi-Smart*. I think it has lots of potential to help a lot of people understand drugs/medication.
I love the idea that you can be prescribed something/buy something over the counter and think to yourself “I wonder should I take this because I’m already on another treatment, what are the potential problems?”.
Sometimes you drop into the pharmacy and they ask, “do you have 10-15 mins to go through this?”. But you won’t have. You never do. I think it’s good to get involved in the ongoing health, wellbeing and support of our customers. That’s the thing I like best.
One final thing I can say about HealthHero. We found a company we liked, it had all the right ‘vibes’, a great fit for us. You care about what you do, the customer is at the core, it is all about support, making people’s lives better.