Zurich Insurance September 2019

Where the customer comes first

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Zurich Insurance: where the customer comes first WRITTEN BY

DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

JAMES PEPPER

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ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP

Zurich Insurance Group is utilising customer feedback to drive its digital transformation

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urich Insurance Group has forged its reputation as one of the world’s leading and most trustworthy insurers over 140

years focused on caring for its customers and serving them. With roots in Switzerland, Zurich was originally founded as a marine insurer in 1872 before moving into a range of insurance fields 04

to help its customers understand and protect themselves from risk. The appointment of Mario Greco as Group CEO in 2016 heralded a simpler, more customer-oriented approach to support global and local business.

Traditionally, the insurance industry has focused more on products than customer experience.

Monika Schulze, Zurich’s Global Head of Customer Experience & Digital Strategy, believes technology is the key enabler to deliver the transformation that will continue to support the company’s customer goals. “Our focus on the customer journey and finding better ways to serve them is fascinating,” she says. “It means we have to change the culture of the company to work in a completely different way.”

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ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP

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“ Our focus on the customer journey and finding better ways to serve them is fascinating,” she says. “It means we have to change the culture of the company to work in a completely different way” — Monika Schulze, Global Head of Customer Experience & Digital Strategy, Zurich Insurance Group

Schulze notes that the influence of companies like Amazon and Google is changing the expectations of customers who demand instant answers and are now used to immediate service.

“They are not willing to wait on an agent to put it in black and white and then waiting two weeks for an answer on a claim,” adds Schulze. “In a world where technology plays an increasingly integral role, customers are used to getting an answer with the click of a button. We have to look at regions like Asia who are more advanced in their adoption of mobile technology to see what we can learn to remain customer led.”

For Zurich, the digital transformation required is driven by customer experience. “You have to start with your customers’ feedback and analysing their journey,” confirms Schulze.

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ZURICH DATA COMMITMENT’ 07 “You need to define a must-win area,

demonstrate how customers’ feedback

where you want to be better than the

and actions derived from that have an

competition and then delight your

impact on business results. For example,

customers so that they come back and

there is a correlation between higher

buy more. Technology is an enabler

NPS scores and retention rates,” she

to get to this position. The customer

says, of an approach which has shown

need, however, is the starting point

the executive team the potential of

for defining a superior position in

focussing more on customer satisfaction.

the market.”

Schulze explains that the Net

Schulze highlights the challenge for global businesses like Zurich to identify

Promoter Score (NPS) program is

common pain points and find ways of

one source that has provided that

working together with joint solutions

valuable feedback from customers

to define efficiencies and become

which has pushed Zurich’s transforma-

more effective at deploying technology

tion. “It’s extremely important to

across the business. “My starting point w w w.z urich . com

The #1 Customer Experience Platform

See why Medallia is Zurich's Customer Experience partner of choice

“ Zurich won a UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI) award (climbing the index from 188th to 12th place) which was in part down to our communication around pay out of claims. We revealed that 99% of our claims are paid out.”

— Monika Schulze, Global Head of Customer Experience & Digital Strategy, Zurich Insurance Group

forms part of a suite of services Schulze refers to as ‘the app store for Zurich’ offering, for example, chat bot functionality, journey mapping tools and claims apps. It’s all in one

is always to find similarities and then

space where countries can download

respect the differences,” she adds.

whatever they need and also adapt

“We have a global platform, every-

to their individual needs. Being able

body’s using the same vendor and

to fine tune them for their requirements

methodology, so the question is: ‘How

is hugely important to cater against

can we best work together to harness

their needs.”

synergies for positive change?’”

Zurich deploys customer journey apps and technologies in order to help different countries map out those journeys and find new ways to serve the customer. “But you cannot rely solely on technology,” warns Schulze.

“We do a lot of workshops because talking to customers and colleagues is essential; just to understand how they think, how they reacted, how you can improve. A lot of human interaction is needed on top of the technology platforms we are using.” The technology w w w.z urich . com

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ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP

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Schulze believes that customer

Allied to this, Schulze points out the

feedback also needs to be harnessed

company must be clear about its basic

for innovative ideas that build trust in

proposal and services. “Zurich won

the Zurich brand. “We need to ask

a UK Customer Satisfaction Index

ourselves how we can go beyond the

(UKCSI) award (climbing the index

traditional ways of serving our custom-

from 188th to 12th place), which was

ers and invent new things. We have

in part down to our communication

to be agile in our thinking to understand

around pay out of claims. We revealed

how to go further than the obvious.

that 99% of our claims are paid out.

We need a highly creative innovation

This is something that is extremely

team to look at things from different

important in order to build basic trust

perspectives.”

and counter the misconception that

insurance companies rarely pay out.

In order to drive renewed levels of

We looked at our numbers and realised

customer satisfaction Zurich partners

how impressive that statistic was.”

with Medallia, the market leader in

Published by the Institute of Customer

Experience Management, rolling out

Service, the UKCSI rates customer

an NPS expansion program across 25

satisfaction across 13 sectors, incorpo-

countries. “Don’t just buy a technology

rating the views of 10,000 consumers

platform from a vendor, but use your

on 247 brands. Zurich was also ranked

partnership to further develop your

first in the insurance sector for ethical

program. You can learn from other

business behaviours and connecting

companies and constantly improve

with consumers, and fifth and seventh

and develop further,” says Schulze.

respectively across all companies.

Medallia’s customer experience

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

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Monika Schulze “Working and living in different countries and environments enriched my life and allowed me to think about what it means to be a good leader to a diverse group of people and thus shaping me into what I am today, with 30 years of experience in strategy and business development including profit and loss responsibility in different roles, functions and market environments including assignments abroad,” says Zurich Insurance Group’s Global Head of Customer Experience & Digital Strategy Monika Schulze. Skilled in analysing market and customer data to define growth opportunities and effective strategies, Schulze has a proven track record of leading teams and building international networks to translate vision into action during times of change.

Listed by MarTech as one of the “Top Twelve Women CMOs to follow on Twitter”, she has also been recognised by Forbes as one of the “World’s Most Influential CMOs” and awarded by AdAge as “Woman to Watch Europe” based on her notable accomplishments. She strongly believes technology can be a great enabler for the enhancement of customer experience. w w w.z urich . com

ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP

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ÂŁ47.bn+ Approximate revenue

1872

Year founded

55,000

Approximate number of employees

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ZURICH INSURANCE GROUP

“ We aim to become more advanced in data analytics. We have a lot of data, but much of it in silos. The trick will be to find the data you need and how best to correlate that” — Monika Schulze, Global Head of Customer Experience & Digital Strategy, Zurich Insurance Group

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management skills are leveraged for strategic advice, as it’s important to always have up to date technology.”

Looking forward, Schulze is keen to combine excellence in the basics of Zurich’s offering while innovating the next generation of services. “We will have to become stronger to impact the business digitally,” says Schulze.

“We aim to become more advanced in data analytics. We have a lot of data, but much of it in silos. The trick will be to find the data you need and how best to correlate that. We want to help people find data on their own terms with easy to use dashboards to consolidate insights in order to drive business results.”

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www.zurich.com