How does customer experience become your greatest asset?

The challenge of creating an innovative, customer benefit-oriented customer experience is still a major one for many insurance companies. There is potential for improvement in numerous areas: complex product structures, timely, personalized services and offers, (digital) distribution channels, price transparency, and access to and availability of information.

An outstanding customer experience …

… has a direct influence on business success,since active promoters

• increase sales through an above-average share of wallet;
• remain loyal to the company in case of possible corporate misconduct;
• recommend the company to potential new customers.

… reduces the risk of image loss, because

• it takes a dozen positive experiences to make up for one lousy experience;
• twice as many people hear news from disappointed customers as news from satisfied customers;
• customer acquisition is many times more expensive than retaining an existing customer.

 … reduces costs by

• increasing the number of “once-and-done” processes;
• minimizing customer issues/complaints;
• reducing marketing expenditures;
• increasing employee satisfaction and thus leading to a lower fluctuation.

Typical weaknesses

Many insurance companies today suffer from a lack of multi-channel integration, inadequate claims handling, and a corporate culture that does not focus on the customer.

Multi-channel integration

• No seamless transition from online research to offline contract conclusion
• No 360° customer view that maps all customer interactions
• No differentiation between online-affine and traditional customer segments
   

Claims settlement

• Long waiting times for the customer due to inefficient processes with complex interfaces
• Lack of specialization and professionalization in key areas such as legal services or case management
   

Corporate culture

• Lack of willingness of employees to go the “extra mile” for customers
• Thinking in silos instead of interdepartmental cooperation

Success factors for a positive customer experience

Outstanding customer experience is based on four success factors*:

1. Value-oriented and authentic leadership that communicates and develops the customer-oriented business model together with the employees
2. A convincing value proposition and lived brand values, based on effective customer needs
3. Design of an intuitive, cross-channel customer journey that is anchored in the organisation and ensures that customer feedback flows back into the processes
4. Dedicated employees who have the necessary skills and tools to convince customers and pursue the jointly agreed goals with motivation

* inspired by Temkin Group, further developed by hpo

A leading Swiss health insurance company had set the goal of positioning itself as “service leader” and asked hpo for support in designing and implementing a customer-oriented customer experience.

Initial situation

The customer journey analysis showed that 

• customer needs of online affine customers were not optimally satisfied;
• processing times for customer requests were too high due to complex interfaces;
• the responsibilities between first and second level support were not clearly defined.

Approach

On this basis, a customer-oriented customer experience design was defined using the modular hpo approach to derive optimization measures:

• Creation of a consistent customer journey for the private and corporate customer segment
• Optimization of process efficiency and definition of relevant process KPIs
• Uniform training of first level support and transfer of customer responsibility to second level support

Customer benefits

Thanks to the integral customer experience design, the health insurer is well on the way to effectively differentiating itself in the perception of customers as a “service leader.” This is reflected in higher customer satisfaction and, ultimately, in a significant increase in sales.

Our offer in four modules

The hpo approach to a holistic, customer-oriented customer experience design is modular. Depending on the initial situation of the company, the relevant activities are selected per module.

1. Target definition
   The first module involves formulating a customer experience vision and identifying customer needs by defining the most critical customer segments as well as displaying them using personas.
2. Customer journey analysis
   The second module analyses the customer journey per business case or life event and persona for weaknesses. The customer journey is used to record customer interactions and to evaluate the perceived customer experience. Additionally, process inefficiencies as well as “moments of truth”, which have an above-average influence on the customer experience, are determined and examined for their potential.
3. Customer experience design
   Based on these findings, the third module develops the customer experience design. This can include various fields of action, such as the development of an improved value proposition, new distribution channels, and adjustments to the target operating model. Further enablers are technology and IT tools as well as leadership and corporate culture.
4. Implementation and monitoring
   The implementation of the customer experience design, which leads to a consistent multi-channel capable customer experience, is carried out in the fourth module. All data must be continuously monitored to evaluate the success of the measures and to improve the customer experience continually.

Your benefit

The unique Customer Journey, which is consistently geared towards customer needs, will enable you to differentiate yourself from the competition effectively. The holistic approach allows your company to go through a step-by-step transformation to a company with best-in-class customer experience.