A customer-based approach
Cunningham Lindsey’s global operations are extensive, with around
7,000 staff in 60 countries dealing with some 230,000 customers a year. In the UK, they have 1,600 staff working out
of 19 offices. Rather than direct claims
through a central call centre, they take a customer-based case management
approach, with each claim being directed as quickly as possible to the local
office that will be dealing with it.
“Our aim is simple,” says Andrew Jeremy, Learning and Development
Manager at Cunningham Lindsey. “To
protect our clients’ reputations by meeting the service standards that they
have promised to their customers.
Customer service is at the heart of what we do.”
The claims that Cunningham Lindsey deal with are typically complex
and frequently high value. They often
relate to traumatic events such as floods, fires and burglaries.
“Emotions can be running high”
“We have to recognise that the customers
involved are inevitably caught up in difficult and distressing situations,”
Andrew observes. “Emotions can be
running high. We’re often dealing with
them in their hour of need and there’s an expectation that things will happen quickly. So for our loss adjusters and case management
teams, it’s important to be sensitive to the individual and to build rapport
and trust. It’s certainly not a
one-size-fits-all scenario.”
Because effective customer service is so
important to Cunningham Lindsey, they decided to set up a professional qualifications
system – and chose The Institute of Customer Service’s qualification.
“We had a history of investing in technical
qualifications such as for insurance, surveying or engineering,” Andrew
explains. “But we realised we needed to
look at something for customer service too.
We considered setting up our own internal scheme, and looked at various
external providers – but kept coming back to The Institute as a leading
customer service entity. There were also
synergies with our own continuous improvement programme, iCare.”
They started the Institute of Customer
Service’s programme in 2010, deliberately keeping it small in the early days
and growing it over time. This year they
have 30 participants on the scheme, with three internal assessors.
The central feature of the programme is the
‘reflective learning logs’ that participants keep, in which they make notes
about the cases they are working on, the issues that have arisen and how they
dealt with them. They complete these
logs via the Institute’s online portal.
Practical and evidence-based
“What we like about the programme is that
it’s very practical,” says Andrew. “It’s
all based on actual real-time work. There
are key standards that you have to meet and provide the evidence for. The reflective learning logs are a great way
for practitioners to step back and think about their work. The learning comes from the reflection.”
The qualification takes anywhere from six
to nine months to complete. But the firm
is not prescriptive about this. They let
individuals progress at their own rate, particularly as they have to balance
the course with their own day-to-day workloads.
This approach has paid off – so far, they have had a 100% achievement
rate.
Customer service ratings: going up!
And what of the impact of the programme on
actual customer service results? The
outcome has been very positive so far.
One of the key measures in the insurance industry is the ‘Net Promoter
Score’, which is a rating of whether a customer would recommend that their
insurer appoint Cunningham Lindsey to handle claims in the future. A score can range from anywhere between -100
to +100. Anything over +50 is regarded
as showing great customer service – and in the last six months, Cunningham
Lindsey’s score has risen by ten points from +42 to +52.
“We’re very pleased with the increase in
our Net Promoter Score. It’s a sign that
the professional qualification programme is really paying off,” Andrew says.
Another key measure for the firm is their
staff survey. The most recent survey showed
that 95% of staff understood the importance of good customer service and over
85% say they would go the extra mile for customers.
A further positive sign is the number of
nominations made by insurance brokers for Cunningham Lindsey to be assigned to their
clients’ claims. This has increased
significantly over the last year.
Shifting the culture
But there are also signs of improvement
that can’t easily be measured.
“Sometimes you can just feel the enthusiasm
coming out,” observes Andrew. “Listening
in to calls and just talking to people who are doing the qualification, you can
see and feel the difference that it’s made.”
He gives the example of a case where a
customer was desperate for a specific make and model of replacement part to be
used, which was on sale in their local DIY store – but they didn’t have the
funds at the time to buy it. The case
manager took the initiative and offered to use their own credit card to
purchase it for them.
“I would certainly recommend the
professional qualification programme,” Andrew says. “It creates competence, gives confidence and
helps shift the culture. It also gives
longevity to the customer service commitment – it’s not just a one-off
tick-in-the-box exercise. We’ve always
had great support from The Institute too.”
All in all, it’s helped Cunningham Lindsey strengthen their claim to great customer service.