Driven to Care: Ashley Longseth, Director, Business Operations

For our next Driven to Care series, we’re so pleased to feature Ashley Longseth, Lark’s Director of Business Operations. Ashley previously led our Customer Support team and now leads our Client Implementation teams— playing an integral role ensuring that our members and partners receive a high-touch experience. Learn more about her strategic approach to collaborative partner relationships, career tips for current and future support team professionals, her favorite Coach+ feature and the holiday treat she won’t make any healthy exceptions for. 

‍Share a little about your background. What initially drew you to work in the health and wellness industry?

Prior to Lark, I worked in the pharmaceutical technology industry. While there is absolutely a time and place for medications, I really felt like both society as a whole and the industry that I was in lacked a focus on wellness and prevention. Instead of trying to get upstream and address the drivers behind some chronic illness, the focus was on treating chronic illness after it has already happened. I wanted to be at an organization that focused on the ‘prevention’ aspect and Lark was the right place for me to make that happen. 

‍If I’m not mistaken, you’ve played a big part in Lark’s client success and member support services departments over your tenure at Lark. Tell us a little about your Lark career journey. 

It’s really nice to reflect on the last four years of my tenure at Lark. What I’ve really appreciated about Lark is the ability to adapt and try new things as Lark adapts and matures. I started by leading our Customer Support experience for members (the people that are actually using the product as part of their health journey) and have also been able to work on operational initiatives, serve in Account Management, and support our marketing team. It’s been a fun journey! 

‍Is the customer really always right? Do you have tips for anyone in the member support industry or those wanting to pursue it as a career?

A customer always has the right intention. At the end of the day, each member and each customer is simply trying to solve a problem that they are experiencing. Sometimes a member is trying to solve a problem and they’ve had a bad day. Sometimes a customer is asking for a solution based on their understanding of how Lark’s system works. Our role, when we’re on the front lines with customers or members, is to assume positive intent and to try to get to the root of the problem that the customer or member is trying to solve. Ultimately giving them a solution or partnering with them on a solution. 

A mentor early on in my career told me that you’ll never get in trouble for trying to do the right thing for the customer. That has stayed with me and applies to both the member support experience and the client success experience. The advice that I would give is to remember why you initially got into the industry or wanted to pursue it as a career. Use that as your guiding light when making micro and macro decisions about what you’re going to do that day. Additionally, use quantitative data to drive decision making so that you can prioritize the biggest impact items on the customer experience. 

‍Is there a lesson you learned the hard way or a pitfall you could help other member/client support specialists avoid?

In my role I previously mentioned, I was a project/account manager helping to deliver software for pharmaceutical clients and we surfaced a data collection issue during a client meeting. The issue was a bug in the software that caused some of the data to be inaccurate. It was a pretty big deal. We spent a lot of time working internally on the solution and crafting the perfect communication plan to tell the client, including making sure that we were able to fully describe the root cause, how it happened, the impact, and how we were going to address it going forward. So I brought what I thought was this beautiful packaged presentation to our client to let them know. The first thing that they ask me, and this always sticks with me, is “why didn't you tell us sooner?”

I think about that moment a lot. What I had done in hindsight is that I stripped the client of the autonomy to be a partner with us on the solution. I also learned the hard way that bad news doesn't really get better with time. That’s the lesson I always reflect on when managing our current accounts and mentoring team members that are interfacing with clients. While it's important to get to the root cause, understand the full impact of an issue and create a path forward, we don't want to take away our customer's ability to provide input into the solution. That, and to always inform them in a timely manner.

‍What skills from your previous experience are effective in your current role?

One skill that has traveled across my different rolls is the ability to communicate. But when I say communication, most people probably think of how they speak to others, which is certainly half of the equation. But what’s really important about communication is listening. Whether it’s a member or a partner, ensuring that people feel heard and that you’re their advocate is incredibly important to maintaining positive relationships. 

‍Can you share a specific instance where you saw the tangible impact of your work on a) a member’s experience and b) a client's experience?

Member Experience: There’s one example that really stands out. When I first started working at Lark, I was going through our member tickets trying to get an understanding of who our members are and what they care about. One member had contacted our Customer Support to say that they were so happy that Lark reached out to them to enroll in our Hypertension program. After getting our message, they contacted their primary care provider, got prescribed hypertension medication and were using Lark to make healthy lifestyle adjustments. The member told us in their email that their blood pressure was dangerously high and they might not have seen their grandkids graduate from high school. 

That’s really powerful stuff. Being so new to the organization, it instantly put into perspective the importance of why and what we do. It really solidified that I had chosen the right place to work. And this was just the start. Over my tenure, I’ve heard from many other members that have completely changed their lifestyle and habits. One of my favorite outcomes I continue to love hearing are the ones where members have enrolled in Lark’s Diabetes Prevention Program and they can’t enroll for a second year because they have dropped below the risk threshold for pre-diabetes.

Client Experience: A recent one that comes to mind is being able to share the effectiveness of our marketing team. One of the clients that I manage has had stable eligibility for the past few years. Lark has been able to maintain a high enrollment rate by innovating our member-facing marketing and messaging. In this case, I get to be the messenger and share how our marketing team’s efforts to continue to innovate and make quantitative decisions that make an impact on the member experience and our outcomes. The client was super thrilled too! 

‍How do you approach leading consistent, high-quality client experiences across diverse accounts?

As I mentioned before, you’ll never get in trouble for trying to do the right thing for a client. But in general, I have four broad principles that I follow and try to instill in my team. 

1. Set and meet expectations. 
2. Be humble. It’s okay to say that we don’t know something.  Take it back to check with our expectations. 
3. Find win-win opportunities. 
4. Bad news doesn’t get better with time. 

Whether it’s interfacing with members, health plan clients, or PBM clients, at the end of the day, we’re just working with people. Our customers want to know that we’re going to deliver on what we promise and that we’re going to be good partners if and when things go awry. 

‍What strategies have you found most effective for demonstrating value to clients in the health and wellness space?

Ensure that we’re using a combination of quantitative data and qualitative data. Member stories need quantitative, population level insights to demonstrate that Lark is driving positive health outcomes in a scalable manner. 

Quantitative data without bring a voice to the member’s perspective makes it easy to forget the mission and goal that our clients and Lark are working towards in partnership. 

‍When presenting data in client business reviews, what techniques do you use to make complex health metrics accessible and actionable for clients?

There are two primary techniques that I use. 

First, bring the member story to life and give the numbers a voice. We’re never We’re never going to know why a member decided to join Lark and what a member is going through in life when we just look at the quantitative numbers. It’s easy to forget that we’re here to serve members on their health journey when we’re staring at a spreadsheet all day or getting sucked into the next item on the to-do list. Giving a voice to the data and the metrics brings these numbers back to the mission and what we are here to accomplish. 

Second, explain why we care  what we are doing about it. Numbers and metrics are just that without  context. When talking to our customers, we should explain what it means, why we care, and whether the metric is an outlier. If it is an outlier, we should either propose a solution or invite our customers to partner with us on the solution and the path forward. 

‍How do you coach your team to turn data insights into strategic recommendations for clients?

Ask ‘Why’. When my team is invested in our client’s success, they’re demonstrating curiosity and asking ‘why’ if a metric seems outside of the norm. As examples, if we’re showing increased time that members spent with coaching in a QBR, we want to be able to explain, and celebrate the success of, what our Product team did last quarter to improve the member experience and drive that up, and we also want to explain to our customers why we even care about an increase in coaching conversations (spoiler alert, it’s because it’s associated with better health outcomes). If we see that members aren’t engaging as much with one component of the app, then we want to explain to our clients what we’re doing about it. If my team cares deeply about the metrics and demonstrates curiosity, data insights and strategic recommendations naturally come to the forefront. ,

‍As the health and wellness industry continues to evolve, what emerging trends or challenges are you most excited to tackle in your role?

The ability to personalize a health and wellness experience using AI. Leading the implementation team at Lark, we have the power to make recommendations to our new customers to leverage the great new tools, including Coach+, that deliver a personalized food coaching experience to members. 

‍Have you used Coach+ personally? If so, what did you use it for? 

I use it regularly and I really like it. One of my favorite things to use it for is to help me avoid food waste. I’ll give it a list of all the things that I have in my fridge and then it will turn those ingredients into a healthy recipe for me to use.

‍What holiday recipe would you use Coach+ to make a little bit healthier?

Definitely green bean casserole. I feel like that can get very unhealthy very easily with the various creamy soups and the crispy onion topping. I love green beans, so I think that that is definitely one recipe that could use a healthy nudge.

‍Do you have any healthy hacks for a common unhealthy holiday food?

Well maybe my new Coach+ healthy green bean casserole recipe (laughs). I was actually just thinking about this because I’m planning to attend a ‘Friendsgiving’ where we all bring a side or dessert. My tip (or at least the tip that I’m following this year) is to make healthy options available. I know that there will be boundless indulgent food at Thanksgiving, so I’m planning to bring a salad. Even if I don’t fill my plate with salad, the option is always there for me if I decide I want seconds (and that will definitely happen). 

‍And vice versa, what’s one of your favorite holiday cheat treats that you will not make healthy exceptions for?

Pumpkin pie and pecan pie. I can’t get enough!