Electric Insurance Company - Customer Service Team of the Year
Company: Electric Insurance Company
Company Description: Electric Insurance Company® is a national leading provider of personal and commercial lines insurance products. Established in 1966 specifically to serve GE employees, Electric Insurance now extends its superior personal lines products and outstanding service to discerning consumers inside and outside of the GE community.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Team of the Year
Nomination Title: Electric Insurance Company - Customer Service Team of the Year
Customer Service Team of the Year
COVID-19 hit Americans hard. Many faced financial burdens from job loss and other factors related to coronavirus. Home-schooling parents had time only for crucial tasks, and the need to transition to online transactions could be difficult for individuals living with disabilities.
Taking a “We’re all in this together” mindset, we quickly developed a plan that would allow us to address individual customer needs and requests.
Ensuring Help Was Available
Our customer-first ethos never wavered. Our first decision focused on transitioning customer service associates to working from home. The second created the Customer Response Team from experienced personnel company-wide. Their financial, legal, and technical expertise were needed to meet customers’ individualized needs.
As a result, we effectively supported 10,000+ COVID-19-related service requests additional to our normal call volume. The “all hands on deck” approach was successful: customer survey “Likeliness to Renew” results increased from 96% to 97%, and we maintained 95% customer satisfaction rate.
Outreach Program
A portion of the Customer Response Team identified and contacted thousands of customers who, based on their late payment status, were given more payment-plan flexibility to keep their coverage in place. We asked how we could help with payments and how working with us could be easier. The frontline team summarized customers’ input and provided the findings to the broader team, who then developed related action items. Financial and coverage assistance, a simplified customer experience, and expanded website content topped the list.
#1: Financial & Coverage Assistance
Oversight of premium refunds. The team planned and oversaw the complex efforts needed to distribute premium refunds to our auto customers.
Fee waivers. Instead of applying late fees, we waived the charges and offered customers flexible payment plans.
“Just want to say thank you; any help is appreciated.” E.M., North Smithfield, RI
Policy cancellations suspended. When we proactively contacted customers to offer financial leniency in cases of overdue payments, we learned about 6,000 were temporarily unable pay and 2,171 qualified for “hardship” status.
We understand that people who may not be able to pay installments are unlikely to survive the financial consequences of a totaled car or house fire; we honored their situation and provided them with achievable, individualized payment plans that ensured they kept their protection.
“Just wanted to sincerely thank you. We have been with you for many years and your service has always been super.”K.K., Menomonee Falls, WI
Layoff and furlough support. Large companies offer our coverage as an employee benefit. We proactively reached out to 1,494 participating employees while they were changing employment status to walk them through payment plan options and address any questions or concerns they had.
#2: Simplified Customer Experience
Document submission. We suspended documentation requirements to spare customers a trip to the post office — and potential exposure to COVID-19.
Information availability. One-on-one calls, automated calls, emails, and direct mail kept customers current on the availability of financial assistance.
#3: Expanded Website Content
More information. We built web pages covering financial leniency options, state-specific guidance, policy updates, and more—and approximately 10% of auto customers used the new resources.
Accessibility tool. Lockdown increased web traffic, creating difficulty for those with disabilities that create a barrier to online activities. To ensure our site is user-friendly, we added an interface so users can customize the display to work best for them. In the last 60 days of 2020,128 site visitors used it to manage their experience.
Summary
Many customers have been with us for decades; we were honored to repay that loyalty with financial support, continued protection, fewer requirements, and an improved online experience. We are also proud of our associates.Under unprecedented conditions, they never forgot our core customer service values,and they treated customers with empathy and respectby helping them handle difficult financialfinancial and coverage issues with dignity.
2020 Accomplishments
We stayed true to our “Always On®” ethos of providing customer exceptional service by:
-Forming the cross-functional Customer Response Team of experts in several fields;
-Successfully “home shoring” 100+ customer service associates without affecting call response time;
-Seamlessly handling a year-over-year increase of 10,000 additional interactions;
-Earning a 97% “likeliness to renew” score on customer service surveys;
-Navigating complex, multi-state regulatory requirements to offer several forms of financial leniency;
-Sending proactive communications offering financial assistance to at-risk customers
-Providing financial assistance to thousands of customers as premium refunds, late fees waivers, and customized billing plans;
-Authorizing continuous coverage for approximately 6,000 individuals who could not make scheduled payments;
-Waiving late fees on approximately 2,300 occasions;
-Waiving underwriting documentation requirements to lessen customer tasks
-Adding an accessibility interface tool to our website to make it easier for disabled individuals to take advantage of our online resources.