Plug and Play: Enhancing The Customer Experience Through Smart Outsourcing. By Joanne Sammer

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1 Plug and Play: Enhancing The Customer Experience Through Smart Outsourcing By Joanne Sammer

Plug and Play: Enhancing The Customer Experience Through Smart Outsourcing by Joanne Sammer Insurers have traditionally understood the connection between exceptional service and business success.

2 Plug and Play: Enhancing The Customer Experience Through Smart Outsourcing by Joanne Sammer Insurers have traditionally understood the connection between exceptional service and business success. But in today s insurance marketplace, customer expectations have reached unprecedented heights, whether someone is asking a question or filing a claim. This is a byproduct of the world s rapidly increasing use of mobile devices and online services. It also stems from consumers enhanced ability to pinpoint which companies are providing the best customer experience. In this environment, insurers cannot expect to wow customers just by outperforming their peers. Companies are complacent with incremental improvements in their customer experiences, while customer expectations are growing at a lightning pace, according to an Accenture study. Customers expectations are driven by their best experiences not their average ones yet brands think that they re succeeding by being in the middle of the pack. To address these shortcomings, insurers must find ways to measure up to global standard bearers of customer service, including Amazon, Southwest Airlines and Charles Schwab. The end effect: Insurers must be faster, more efficient and flexible in addressing customers needs. They must ensure that their customers feel satisfied and cared for in every interaction. That can be difficult when touch points are virtual and service providers stick to carefully crafted scripts for processing common requests. Many insurers focus on the process of claims management and overlook the people aspects of customer service. The insurance industry has built-in processes and the claim services reps are following the traditional process flow even though policyholders want to do business in a natural language flow, says Brian O Mara, Safelite Solutions Senior Vice President, Client Service Delivery. Many times a service opportunity is missed because the process gets in the way. The first notice of loss (FNOL) becomes a crucial moment to begin a positive customer experience. This is when customers are at their most vulnerable and need efficient service and assistance that is both empathetic and compassionate. Research from McKinsey & Company 1 identifies five ways auto insurers are enhancing customer experience and satisfaction, all of which are related to direct contact with the company: employee courtesy, ease of communication, employee knowledge and professionalism, transparency and ease of the process, and the speed of the claim settlement. Insurers that can leverage these touch points to create the best possible customer experience are likely to see a strong return on these investments. The McKinsey research found that insurers that excel in providing a strong customer experience have higher levels of growth than their peers and lower costs. A separate analysis by Watermark Consulting 2 supports this conclusion. Auto insurers that are leaders in customer experience saw stock appreciation of nearly 266 percent from 2009 to 2015, well above that of the Dow Jones Property and Casualty Insurance Index (137.1 percent) and companies with the lowest rated customer experience (62.1 percent).

3 25% of customer claim satisfaction is influenced by the FNOL experience *J.D. Power 2017 A New Look at an Old Tool Enhancing customer experience starting with FNOL is within reach for insurance companies. However, carriers may not be able to achieve their customer experience goals on their own. Despite resisting outsourcing of any kind for years, a growing number of insurers now realize that they need help from partners that can help create a positive, seamless customer experience. This has fueled double-digit growth in claims outsourcing. Rather than focusing solely on cost savings, insurers are increasingly turning to outsourcing as a way to improve their technology. 3 That is where Safelite Solutions can help. The company possesses years of experience in providing seamless policyholder and claim support through its Safelite AutoGlass sister company. Safelite Solutions offers end-to-end claim management to meet every need. Its services include: Seamless, daily 24/7 claims management Backup support during catastrophic events Claims management support as a plug-in partner on an as-needed basis The Safelite plug-in solution is based on three building blocks (1) infrastructure and technology, (2) customer service excellence, and (3) true partnership with the insurance industry. Infrastructure and technology Given the enormous investments insurance companies have made in their systems and technology, any outsourcing partner must be able to easily plug its system into insurers legacy systems. The power of the Safelite Solutions approach is that its own system has developed and evolved over years of interfacing with insurance company systems to manage glass replacement claims. The result is a customer management solution that easily integrates with insurance companies existing systems and scales up or down to creates necessary capacity based on current demand. Safelite web-based interface quickly connects with insurance company systems and allows Safelite claim service representatives to obtain and share necessary information with customers seamlessly and with no disruption to the flow of customer transactions or conversations. This technology platform, called Safelite ClaimsPro, has been designed to mirror the flow of customer information necessary to open and process a claim. A proprietary, intuitive interface allows the customer contact professional to enter information as the customer provides it rather than having to follow rigid data entry procedures. In other words, the technology flows in the direction of the customer conversation rather than the other way around. Supporting this technology is a group of trained claim services representatives based in Safelite Solutions five contact centers. These contact centers are located in all four continental U.S. time zones, are fully redundant and adhere to all ISO disciplines. They provide reliable, efficient support in even the most difficult circumstances. For example, following a natural disaster, Safelite can staff quickly to handle high call volume professionally and compassionately. During Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Safelite handled 10% of the total claims calls - a 1300% increase in volume - with very little service interruption. Customer service empathy and excellence How customers feel during and after making a claim is often more important than how quickly that claim was adjudicated. Most customers contact insurance companies following a traumatic, stressful event. How well the insurer handles those first few minutes of contact during FNOL will often define the customer experience. A strong customer experience is a growth driver. The annual J.D. Power auto claim satisfaction study 4 found that 84 percent of highly satisfied customers plan to renew their policies and 83 percent will recommend their insurer to others. Customers less satisfied with their experience are far less willing to renew (12 percent) and recommend (7 percent).

A Bain & Company 5 analysis found that motivating customers to renew and recommend the insurer is about three times more valuable than turning unhappy customers into neutral customers.

4 A Bain & Company 5 analysis found that motivating customers to renew and recommend the insurer is about three times more valuable than turning unhappy customers into neutral customers. It s more important to delight customers through, say, a superior claims experience than to simply avoid complaints, according to the study. Customers who are promoters of their carrier are worth seven times more in lifetime value than those who are detractors. Claims management is an essential part of this effort to satisfy customers and motivate them to recommend the carrier. However, when claims come in waves, there is a risk that systems and personnel could become overloaded exactly when they must perform at their greatest efficiency. Following a catastrophic event, the resulting tsunami of calls into the contact center creates more tension in the entire process, making customers concerned that their individual experiences may get lost in the crush, says O Mara. of highly satisfied customers plan to renew their policies will recommend their insurer to others Having a back-up plan for these situations can greatly enhance the customer experience. The easy integration with insurers existing systems ensures that Safelite can begin work quickly and effectively during high-traffic periods. Because Safelite s contact center professionals receive training in an insurer s messaging, brand and culture, they are ready to serve that insurer s customers immediately. Safelite Solutions contact center staff can be on call to handle call overflow during emergencies and during staffing shortfalls. However, a growing number of insurers are recognizing the benefits of turning over customer contact to Safelite to handle all incoming calls 24 hours a day, every day of the year. True Partnership The challenges of providing a compelling customer experience are only going to increase. That is why Safelite Solutions customizes its contact center and claims management support to meet the unique needs of each carrier and its customers. By understanding a carrier s current processes, Safelite Solutions can not only take over claims management as needed; rather, it can also prescribe ways that carriers can improve FNOL and other key customer touchpoints. Safelite Solutions insight enables it to identify the right mix of services to enhance the customer experience. One carrier improved its customers Net Promoter Scores just by adopting the Safelite methods of answering the phone. Safelite works with carriers to determine key performance measures and then structures contact center approaches and requirements to maximize results in each of those areas.

FNOL 10 of the nation s top 25 insurance companies count on Safelite for FNOL on claims other than auto glass Customized reports and dashboards also allow insurers to gauge performance levels and

5 FNOL 10 of the nation s top 25 insurance companies count on Safelite for FNOL on claims other than auto glass Customized reports and dashboards also allow insurers to gauge performance levels and make adjustments on their own. The Future is Customer Experience In the years ahead, customer service will become increasingly important for insurers. They will have to respond with care and speed to all situations over and over and over again as long as customer expectations keep growing and evolving. There is no foreseeable point at which insurers will be done with customer experience improvements. They must focus on continual evolution and improvement. In doing so, insurers can increase customer retention and the likelihood that someone will recommend a company. It is these types of recommendations that often carry the most weight with consumers and lead to strong growth. They help define a brand. A partner with nimble technology, a keen knowledge of the insurer, consumer expectations and the essentials of customer service can play a major role in making that happen. Seamless Technology, Seamless Results Here is how Safelite Solutions award-winning end-to-end claim management approach produces impressive results for insurance companies: 80 percent of calls answered within 30 seconds Less than five percent call abandonment rate More than 200 customized FNOL options available to meet insurers needs 2,000 customer contact professionals 17 million contacts handled annually Five call centers in continental U.S. Standalone power and disaster-recovery sources to ensure uninterrupted service during peak volumes Seamless brand representation and ongoing skills training to ensure that the right talent is always on the line Numerous awards for customer service Endnotes 1 w /us-en/_acnmedia/pdf-23/accenture-expectations-vs-experienceinfographic-june-2016.pdf About the Author Joanne Sammer (joannesammer.com) is an award-winning business and financial writer and content creator. Her work has been published in a range of business and financial publications, including Forbes, Business Finance and Compliance Week.

WHAT IF THERE WAS A TOTAL END-TO-END P&C SOLUTION FOR POLICY, CLAIMS AND BILLING?

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