Frank Heaps
Director, P&C Product Marketing
StoneRiver
Late summer was a rough time for the East Coast of the United States between the earthquake centered in Virginia and Hurricane Irene. Neither event was very severe, and most of the major damage was localized to a few areas. That is good since Irene was a large storm that lost energy, and no one expected the earthquake. Thousands are recovering from the hurricane, but the forecast was for millions to be impacted—at least 1 in 5 Americans. The earthquake was a surprise that was limited in damage.
Late summer was a rough time for the East Coast of the United States between the earthquake centered in Virginia and Hurricane Irene. Neither event was very severe, and most of the major damage was localized to a few areas. That is good since Irene was a large storm that lost energy, and no one expected the earthquake. Thousands are recovering from the hurricane, but the forecast was for millions to be impacted—at least 1 in 5 Americans. The earthquake was a surprise that was limited in damage.
Watching the news footage over the weekend I wondered how many carriers have a modern system that would allow them to communicate through social media with their customers. We had two very different events in the past ten days but the need was still the same. For the earthquake, carriers could have sent targeted email blasts and tweets to their customers. They could also have set up an autobot dialing service to provide instructions on how to file claims and what is typically covered for an earthquake claim. Facebook can also be used as a more general way to communicate to people who follow the carrier. For Irene, preemptive information could have been provided once the storm got close to the US and there was a better idea of the affected area.
The challenge is that many carriers do not have a modern customer management system or they have the information disjointed in several locations: claims system, sales system, policy system, etc. To implement a customer care initiative like this requires a modern system with all of the modern contact methods (email addresses, phone numbers, Facebook account, Twitter account, etc.) and the system should have the capability to integrate to all of those external engines. In order to identify the customers to contact, the customer information will need to be stored in a robust database that can provide the proper reports, queries, and dashboards.
Little things and friendly communication go a long way to providing customer care and helping increase your customer satisfaction.