Customer Experience is the “New Battleground”

Someone in the Insurance market asked me the other day, what does it take nowadays to deliver a “great customer experience”?

That got me thinking about a number of things:

1. How do I want to interact with my Insurers(s) & service providers?
2. What would really meaningful interactions & consumer engagement look & feel like?
3. What would my children say?

It prompted me to consider what really matters to me, as a reasonably “tech savvy” consumer:

I want my Broker & insurer(s) to focus on understanding my preferences & behaviors whether that’s:

• Communicating with me through my preferred channel of communication (in my case digital)
• Using data that I choose to share as a consumer to understand what information might be relevant to me, or that I might be interested in … In other words, I’m happy to be engaged with if it’s relevant to me
• Time is important to me, so I want to access all of my insurance & protection needs in one easy to access place rather than having to go to a plethora of places to find/organize the products & services that are both important & relevant to me.

Doesn’t it feel “archaic” in today’s world that this is hard to achieve.

From speaking to a spectrum of colleagues in the industry it seems I’m not alone … indeed, the feedback from my children, took this even further. They expect to be able to interact with their insurers via their tablet or mobile, & will actively be influenced by social media activity & commentary when it comes to fulfilling their insurance needs. So if you haven’t already done so, move your thinking from:

• Product journeys to customer journeys
• Traditional marketing to Content marketing

I read an article recently , which stated that just 2 in 5 companies understand the customer journey and adapt their channel mix according. If 60% of businesses havent invested the time to map their current & potential customer’s journey to get a holistic view of the experience from the customer’s perspective and really understand what it’s like for them on a personal level is it any wonder that there remains significant room for improvement.

Done well the customer journey map is an illustration or diagram of all the places (or ‘touchpoints’) your customers (or prospects) come into contact with your company both online and off. The map can be used to improve the customer experience through identifying how customers are interacting with you now and help you to identify areas for improvement moving forward. The best customer journey maps are rooted in data-driven research, and visually represent the different phases your customers experience.

Done well, Customer Journey mapping:

• Will help you locate improvement opportunities, as well as identify the areas where there’s a risk of dissatisfying a customer
• Brings different teams together for a common goal: the customer experience
• Drives cross-functional change involving all elements of the organisation and is not just left in the hands of the marketing function
• Not only makes customers happy but also delivers quantifiable value to the business through driving customer loyalty whilst reducing cost to serve

Customers needs & expectations are changing & increasing, & the Insurance market need to rapidly evolve to keep pace.

Speak to us today about enhancing your Marketing strategy for a business that shows real growth and development.

Author Derek Findlayson