BKK Linde

BKK Linde is one of the fastest-growing health insurance companies in Germany. Founded in 1952 as “Betriebskrankenkasse Linde der Gesellschaft für Linde’s Eismaschinen Aktiengesellschaft,” its policyholders have since grown in number from 3,551 to over 90,000. The statutory health insurance company sees further opportunities for growth in the continuous expansion of its range of services in particular. enios, one of the leading providers of economic information in the German-speaking world.

Excellent idea

With that in mind, it chose to develop an app for simplifying insurance processes for its members. The app is downloaded to a smartphone, and can then immediately be used to submit certificates of incapacity for work, FitBonus+ vouchers or claims electronically. They are simply photographed by the phone and sent to BKK Linde. The data transmitted is encrypted and secure. “The greatest potential for innovative services nowadays is to be found in the digitization of customer contact. Our aim was to create a very attractive unique selling point in a highly competitive health insurance market,” says Head of Marketing Robert Leubner about the project. The extent to which this aim has been achieved is shown by the fact that the BKK Linde service app was immediately awarded for its customer-friendly and forward-looking concept by an expert jury from a specialist publication. The ideas were rewarded with the Enterprise Mobility Award 2015 in the Customer Experience/Customer Recruitment category.

Rapid approval from policyholders

Most importantly, however, the cloud-based app won members over immediately. Within four weeks of its launch, BKK Linde had already recorded around 2,300 registered users, and they were eager to use the mobile service platform to communicate with the health insurance provider: for instance, 10% of the medical certificates received in the first month were submitted digitally. More than 800 documents in total. “The service app has been a wonderful hit,” says Leubner of the great response. “It has captured the spirit of the times and fully met the needs of our customers.” The app has proven BKK Linde to be an innovation leader, and is why the company will give apps an even greater role in communication with policyholders in the future. “It means we are in the pocket of all our customers. You can’t get closer contact.” explains the Head of Marketing about the benefit.

Digitization as a company strategy

Taking the lead as an innovation leader.

The success story of the service app is closely linked to the partnership with d.velop ProAPE. “They proved their expertise, inventiveness and flexibility in every phase of the project,” lauds Leubner. “They made it possible for us to achieve this outstanding result in a development period of just six months.” And what has started successfully, is being ambitiously further developed. In the future, for instance, policyholders will be informed about processing statuses through push notifications and will be able to keep their own mail in the BKK Linde electronic inbox. These enhanced functions are currently in development and are expected to be available by March 2016. There are also plans to integrate related service providers into the app to offer policyholders an additional service benefit. “We want to maintain our current lead as an innovation leader for as long as possible with regular extra highlights,” explains Leubner of BKK Linde’s special commitment to cutting-edge customer service.