Why is insurance boring for a millennial employee and too complex for a millennial customer?
Think about it - Day 5 into your 1st job ever and you are told, the top 3 KPIs of this company are:
1. Profits
2. Sales
3. Margins
Hmmmm, and your job is to settle a claim or serve a customer!!!
Picture this now - I want to protect my financial outlay stemming from an unforeseen health event. I am told yes we can, this product covers you for A to D and doesn't cover you for E to G and A, B and D under specific conditions?
Insurance was always meant to be simple and cover the customer or his nominee financially against specific financial risks!!!
Over a period of time, it moved away from this basic concept to become something its founders will not be able to recognise, if they were to come back alive. Reasons are many. But, broadly I would divide them under 3 buckets:
1. Product differentiation on flimsy grounds - one upmanship and this constant fight to have one feature over the other. Even if it made no sense
2. Complex cost structures and levels of margins - Company, reinsurer, distributor, risk cover and so on
3. Risk aversion and the extent of it being built over time into a system which essentially is a risk management business...
Simplicity is the need of the hour. And why do we simplify? We simplify it to make it easy for our customers and employees alike. I am a firm believer of the quote - "What gets measured, gets done".
What if we change the game and tell our employees our goal is to be customer centric and this could manifest itself in many ways. Some examples below:
(1) Being the NPS leader in the market
(2) Every product we buy online should take less than 5-minutes
(3) I can commit/guarantee a time for claims settlement or service request
I love the concept of AHT at Zappos. From Average Handling Time used at normal call centres, they call it Average Happiness time. Now that one KPI changes the message to employees - CX over productivity any day!!!
At AXA Affin Life, we have had some interesting little success of our own by putting a "customer" in the room always:
1. Our digital products can be bought in less than 5-minutes
2. More than 90% of hospitalization takes place within 1-hr (vs. 4-hrs a year earlier)
3. We listen to the customer before we run our famous technical product processes (FGDs with a minimum rating threshold)
4. Highest management attention for customer complaints and we will go all out to use them as an opportunity and not a burden!
5. Priority to launch Products/programmes that pay customers for taking better control of their health!
One has to be happy to put oneself out there behind these simple KPIs.... These would inspire any employee as they are simple and relatable. And imagine buying from a company that prioritises me as a customer and builds its employee culture around this? We dont need PowerPoints for that! We need will and a strong one at that...
Finally, on the age old question of shareholder returns vs. customer satisfaction, I repeat it is a false dilemma and a lack of gumption on the part of CEOs and Management teams to craft a long term story around the impact superior customer satisfaction has on shareholder returns.
Ultimately the food chain starts with a customer paying for a service. Employees are recruited to serve them and that creates the need for Managers, investors and so on.
It all starts with the customer. Be obsessed with them - why, what, how and who....
Think about it - Day 5 into your 1st job ever and you are told, the top 3 KPIs of this company are:
1. Profits
2. Sales
3. Margins
Hmmmm, and your job is to settle a claim or serve a customer!!!
Picture this now - I want to protect my financial outlay stemming from an unforeseen health event. I am told yes we can, this product covers you for A to D and doesn't cover you for E to G and A, B and D under specific conditions?
Insurance was always meant to be simple and cover the customer or his nominee financially against specific financial risks!!!
Over a period of time, it moved away from this basic concept to become something its founders will not be able to recognise, if they were to come back alive. Reasons are many. But, broadly I would divide them under 3 buckets:
1. Product differentiation on flimsy grounds - one upmanship and this constant fight to have one feature over the other. Even if it made no sense
2. Complex cost structures and levels of margins - Company, reinsurer, distributor, risk cover and so on
3. Risk aversion and the extent of it being built over time into a system which essentially is a risk management business...
Simplicity is the need of the hour. And why do we simplify? We simplify it to make it easy for our customers and employees alike. I am a firm believer of the quote - "What gets measured, gets done".
What if we change the game and tell our employees our goal is to be customer centric and this could manifest itself in many ways. Some examples below:
(1) Being the NPS leader in the market
(2) Every product we buy online should take less than 5-minutes
(3) I can commit/guarantee a time for claims settlement or service request
I love the concept of AHT at Zappos. From Average Handling Time used at normal call centres, they call it Average Happiness time. Now that one KPI changes the message to employees - CX over productivity any day!!!
At AXA Affin Life, we have had some interesting little success of our own by putting a "customer" in the room always:
1. Our digital products can be bought in less than 5-minutes
2. More than 90% of hospitalization takes place within 1-hr (vs. 4-hrs a year earlier)
3. We listen to the customer before we run our famous technical product processes (FGDs with a minimum rating threshold)
4. Highest management attention for customer complaints and we will go all out to use them as an opportunity and not a burden!
5. Priority to launch Products/programmes that pay customers for taking better control of their health!
One has to be happy to put oneself out there behind these simple KPIs.... These would inspire any employee as they are simple and relatable. And imagine buying from a company that prioritises me as a customer and builds its employee culture around this? We dont need PowerPoints for that! We need will and a strong one at that...
Finally, on the age old question of shareholder returns vs. customer satisfaction, I repeat it is a false dilemma and a lack of gumption on the part of CEOs and Management teams to craft a long term story around the impact superior customer satisfaction has on shareholder returns.
Ultimately the food chain starts with a customer paying for a service. Employees are recruited to serve them and that creates the need for Managers, investors and so on.
It all starts with the customer. Be obsessed with them - why, what, how and who....
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