It’s Still About the Customer

By Clay Ricord
Senior Consultant

Today, the popular topic is how to navigate these rough waters by cutting costs, reducing staff, closing operations, and other actions aimed at managing the crisis. No doubt these times are both difficult and unique, especially in terms of the breadth, depth, and degree of governmental actions. But, if you plan to keep your doors open, I suggest it is now even more about the customer than ever.

There is comfort in consistency, and two measures that have been consistent over my career are that 1) satisfaction and customer retention are linked, and 2) claim-handling experience and retention are powerfully linked.

The J.D. Power and Associates’ 2008 Claim Satisfaction Survey once again proved these two points. Customers who rated their service experience high on specific claim practices also indicated a very high level of “will definitely” renew. What are the keys to moving an insured’s claims experience to the high satisfaction levels while not inappropriately paying claims?

In our experience, there are two very different but powerful forces that management must harness and shape in order to consistently deliver such results—the forces of culture and process. Just as the forces themselves are different, the skills that a leader must possess to affect them are very different. But these two enablers are also very independent from the outcome you are seeking to build: this is because your customer service goal is tied to your staff’s desire, willingness, and ability to deliver that service. Without a supporting process, your attempt to build a culture that reinforces customer service will soon wither under your staff’s frustration at not having true support from management to do what they are being asked to do. Similarly, having the process without the culture to support how to use the process will not be effective in the long term, with the tools unused as a result.

Where to start? I suggest these questions:

The additional drivers identified in the J.D. Power survey will be familiar. They include returning phone calls, answering customers’ questions, providing flexible appraisal appointments, sharing information between claim representatives, and providing proactive updates.

The next steps are yours. Now that you have that information, you can look at your process, hand-offs, file documentation, use of diary tools, use of prompts, and how file reviews are used to support a customer service focus. And, most importantly, listen to the culture to learn what behaviors are valued.