Project Summary
Client: Bonitas Medical Fund
Role: Design and Experience Strategist & Co-Facilitator
Scope: CX Vision, Journey Design, Retention Strategy, QA Framework, Voice of Customer, Training Enablement
Outcome: Record retention performance, measurable empathy improvement, sustainable CX operating model
Outcomes & Impact
Retention uplift: Weekly saves rose from ~90 to 125–131, breaking previous records and sustaining improvement for consecutive weeks.
Quality boost: Conversations scored 40% higher on empathy and connection.
Cultural shift: Employees and leaders adopted the “smart, cared-for members” mindset, turning CX into a shared business competency.
Sustainable model: Delivered scalable frameworks (journey design, QA, VOC, training) that now anchor Bonitas’ long-term CX strategy.
Reputation: Reframed Bonitas as a healthcare brand known for being simpler, more supportive, and genuinely human.
Vision & Challenge
Bonitas, one of South Africa’s largest medical aid providers, was facing a critical retention challenge. Rising member churn, inconsistent service across channels, and complex transactional processes left members feeling confused and undervalued.
The leadership team needed to shift from reactive problem-solving to a human-centred service culture that inspired trust, empathy, and measurable loyalty.
Approach
We approached the brief as both a CX vision and organisational transformation initiative, redefining how Bonitas understood, measured, and delivered care.
Our work focused on four pillars:
Governance: Established a CX Steering Committee and cross-functional workgroup to align leadership and delivery teams around shared goals.
Discovery: Combined journey mapping with Voice of Customer (VoC) analytics to identify emotional and process-based pain points across members, brokers, and providers.
Design: Co-created high-impact journeys for retention, onboarding, and complaints, introducing conversation guides, tone principles, and new QA frameworks focused on empathy and connection, not just compliance.
Enablement: Embedded CX capability through workshops, empathy kits, and training that translated experience principles into everyday interactions.
Design & Execution Highlights
Retention Journey Overhaul:
Redesigned member retention experiences with new scripts, options, and communication flows. Shifted the team’s success metric from volume of calls handled to quality of conversation and connection.Complaints Experience:
Mapped triggers and emotional peaks across stakeholders, then created training and process fixes to address root causes and reduce repeat calls.Voice of Customer Redesign:
Expanded beyond CSAT to new experience metrics — effort, emotion, forgiveness, and empowerment. Introduced multi-channel feedback loops (email, phone, social) that included members, brokers, and employees.
Vision and Experience framework
The guiding idea — “We care because we are caring” — became both an internal cultural statement and an external brand expression.
We defined a clear experience vision:
“Make healthcare simpler, supportive, and human.”
This was operationalised through:
Design principles for service and digital channels.
A QA framework measuring empathy, not activity.
CX playbooks and conversation guides reflecting the brand’s tone of care.
