How a new 1:1 relationship model is shaking up the insurance industry

“We knew that in order to stay successful, we had to provide the smartest products and services with best-in-class customer service and operational excellence.

This realization was the catalyst that caused us to completely rethink how we do our direct business – and to embed it into our group strategy. Since at the time there was no blueprint to lead our way, we had to create it on our own. So in 2017 we launched a pilot study to validate our future service model and principles of operation. The study focused on real customer interactions and provided us with an almost continuous NPS assessment of our interaction performance with the customer. Results showed that a potential uplift provided by the new operating model could be as high as 12 NPS point (meaning a boost of about 33% when compared to our current NPS performance).

Our ‘new’ service/operating model focuses on a new type of customer interaction and workload management, as well as two leading organizational principles (‘Selbststeuerung’, i.e. ‘autonomy’ and ‘Kümmerer-Prinzip’, i.e. ‘look after principle’). In a nutshell, in day-to-day business each agent is now empowered to decide how best to serve the customer. Whenever there is direct interaction with a customer, our agents are required to fulfill the customer’s request, without passing them off to another operator or ‘level’ for approval.

This new model is a huge change to the industry, where traditionally the structure of service operates in a way where customers are passed off to different tiers to have issues solved – creating organizational interfaces that are unnecessary at best, or, most of the time a nuisance to our customers. Now our customers will only speak to one person, who guides their entire experience and ensures that their needs are met – everything in the first ‘contact’.”

Source: Medallia Blog, Dr. Oliver Kleine, CosmosDirekt