Below is the workshop 8 executive summary from TINtech 2011 by Mike Murphy of Interactive Intelligence. The session focused on the topic of eBusiness and Customer Communications.
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Workshop 8 focused on the complex nature of customer communications and the opportunities that eBusiness can provide to the insurance industry.
This session started by exploring the complex deployment models used in call centre's that, with pressing eBusiness strategies, are made even more complex leading to a poor customer experience. They are typically inconsistent, hard to measure, difficult and expensive to manage often with one or several third parties to align and co-ordinate.
A rethink and re design is needed that can take advantage of the next generation of contact centre software platforms with the primary objective of delivering an excellent customer experience with every customer touch regardless of which channel is used.
Handling and managing the interactions well is critical but will only be as good as your agent resources that respond to these interactions.
eBusiness projects need to start with the customer - UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WANT NOT WHAT YOU NEED was a key message. The use of analytics to measure what your customers do on the site is critical but often overlooked in the industry. These analytics enable you to build a picture of what your customers want, how they get to the site and where they leave and you can use this information to exploit opportunities and build it into your processes. For example arrange call backs, takeover of the other person PC and webchats to overcome user problems.
All this information can also be used to better target market segments and tailor your site to suit profitable customer needs.
The discussion moved onto the single view of the customer and the ability to know and act on all the data that has been captured to improve customer service, upsell and cross-sell. In terms of technology it is critical to ensure flexibility and scalability in the systems – and ensure you hold the intellectual property rights so that you are not tied to one supplier.
If you would like to discuss the issues raised in this summary with the author, please contact:
Mike Murphy
Head of Insurance
Interactive Intelligence
07889 07 88 77
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