SA Water
Better Health Network (BHN) is a responsive and agile community health service, providing a wide range of healthcare, social support, disability, and welfare services to communities across south-eastern Melbourne. BHN was formed in 2022 from the voluntary amalgamation of Central Bayside Community Health Services (CBCHS), Connect Health & Community, and Star Health.
The challenge
After merging three separate organisations, BHN sought a unified approach to understanding its clients and service users—their needs, goals, and preferred ways of engaging with BHN. This insight would be essential to develop a new customer experience (CX) strategy to guide service delivery into the future, with a focus on improving access to services and positioning BHN as a sustainable and future-ready organisation.
Escient was engaged to evaluate the client experience and identify strategic opportunities for improvement. The aim was to create a seamless, integrated client experience that aligns with BHN’s vision of your choice, your health, your way. We focused on the clients’ journey to identify efficiencies and improvements for transformation, enabling a seamless client experience at BHN.
The approach
A notable challenge for BHN was its disparate approach after the merger, which was complicated by the varying systems, processes, and ways of working inherited from the three legacy organisations. These factors created some inefficiencies and limited collaboration within the network. The goal was to move towards a unified client experience that promotes deeper, more meaningful engagement with clients, underpinned by streamlined processes and systems enabling integrated care.
Escient led a comprehensive, human-centred approach to reshape BHN’s client experience. A core component of this work involved a detailed client research process and the establishment of a collaborative, tiered engagement structure that brought together employees, clients, and volunteers. This team co-created the Current State and Future State journey maps and service blueprints, allowing diverse perspectives to shape every phase of strategy development. The result was a CX Strategy grounded in the real needs and experiences of BHN’s clients and workforce.
The Escient team demonstrated strong expertise in Client Experience, supporting the development of our first CX strategy. They were sensitive to the needs of an organisation emerging from a tri-party merger, and really helped drive the collaboration needed to achieve our goals. The team blended beautifully with our culture, which made all the difference in delivering a successful outcome.
— Amrita Ahluwalia, Executive Director of Transformation
Better Health Network
The outcome
Escient’s CX Strategy established a clear aspiration centred on what matters most to BHN’s clients and focused on how best to empower their staff to deliver exceptional service. Defining the ideal customer and service provided the strategic focus for successful delivery and unlocking benefits.
With a practical and phased implementation approach to support the delivery of the strategy, BHN is able to deliver value to clients, staff, and the community early on while setting the foundations for long-term success.
Key steps included –
- Quick wins to simplify client access, improve information and communication channels, and realign the client support teams.
- Initial steps toward establishing the BHN Way, a unified approach to service delivery that will guide future operations and streamline processes across the network.
This structured approach would help address legacy inconsistencies and provide the foundations to streamline service readiness and delivery functions, helping BHN move close to a seamless, integrated client experience.