Standard Life Healthcare's new study into customercare reveals a need for more emphasis on the customerexperience as a whole. Claire Ginnelly explains
In a service-driven economy it follows that our stock in trade is service.
It is easy to view customer care as how fast the telephone is answered or an email replied to.
These points are, of course, important, and recent research among IFAs confirmed the high value placed on the speed of response and delivering on promises (see table below).
But the entire customer care effort must be directed at the customer experience as a whole.
Every contact, every action and every opportunity to do something awesome will be important at a different point on the customer journey.
Broad picture For product providers, put simply, customers and their families are the policyholders.
But they are also the people who introduce or recommend new policyholders to providers, IFAs and specialist intermediaries.
The aim of the study, which was carried out among the public, policyholders, IFAs and claimants, was to get a broad picture of attitudes to customer care in general and the experiences of service users in particular, so levels of customer care can be leveraged to new heights.
The results of the research conclude that:
• People would still prefer a company to act quickly to rectify a mistake before coming up with an apology.
• Half of the people surveyed said their recent experiences of customer service had been mostly positive.
• People can tell when the person at the other end of a phone line is smiling.
• Generally speaking, people are more reticent about mentioning bad service at the time it occurs (IFAs are less so), but everyone is more likely to praise and thank good service immediately.
• More than a third of people would prefer their bank or insurance company to address them by their first name.
But most still prefer their title and surname to be used.
• Service with a smile, or smile as you dial - either way it's a winner.
Warm and friendly wins every time compared to cold efficiency, and the majority of people are drawn first to a warm smile, then to a sense of humour.
While we are happy to reward good service with a well earned 'thanks', we are not always as comfortable at pointing out where it could be improved.
The fact that advisers are more likely to point out a service failing may be because business people are more at ease doing so.
But how many of us finish a truly dreadful meal only to answer the waiter's enquiry with: "yes, lovely thank you - perfect."
Getting better at saying when something needs brushing up may lead to fewer stressful encounters that should never really have got that far in the first place.
Keeping methods of communication open is vital to securing feedback so that a provider's ambitions of delivering the best care possible are achievable.
That could mean making sure you're easily contactable, or offering online services to make administration easy.
Communication It is often said that something is or isn't worth the paper it is written on.
But in our business, while our products are often demonstrated by brochures, policies and paper marketing resources, it is worth much more to a customer and an adviser that claims are handled well and the general feeling of wellbeing that comes with PMI is understood.
The third strand of the research involved gaining feedback from peo ple who have really come to understand the important role PMI has in their lives - people who have claimed.
And we know from that study that IFAs are just like their customers and vice versa - who cares most about customer care, certainly does win.
Claire Ginnelly is head of intermediary sales at Standard Life Healthcare