Joyce Maroney, Senior Director, Customer Services Marketing, Kronos Incorporated, shared her insights and lessons learned as she took on the challenged of restarting their program and the business changes involved after  taking the company from public to private.  As part of the process the new investors took a branding study with the “Likelihood to Recommend” question included. The  result was that the NPS score was much lower than historical  NPS scores, forcing the company  to take a harder look at redefining their existing customer experience programs.

The major change evaluated was around how to measure NPS.  The company looked at moving away from their existing method of a 3rd party outbound phone survey  to more timely and accurate survey reporting.

While Kronos was sending alerts when customer responded with Detractor scores there was no closed looped process and the organization as a whole had little insight into the responses. Kronos adopted the “moment of truth” to help define their customer corridor. As Kronos defined the aspects for their new program they looked at a more automated format, internet based, with surveys going out quickly and feedback going to the people that need it. They define the process for trustworthy data which meant having triggers that moved transaction surveys daily and then they followed-up with an annual loyalty relationship surveys. The Satmetrix web based environment enables action to happen faster and the business rules send alerts to specific individuals in charge of taking action with their customers. Finally, to analyze win/loss deals they also call the sales people directly to gain greater insights into why deals are lost.

The company also focused on a new brand design which led to a 36pt improvement in NPS. So by improving their brand and visibility, the company has seen better customer loyalty.
What has been most important is to gain insight into the VOC and then define and assign the processes to make feedback actionable.

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Richard Watts, GM, Progressive, kicked off his session with the story of Dave an executive at Progressive and his mother.  Dave mom signed up for Progressive insurance but at the end of the process Progressive has a policy to send out another form that needed to be signed in order to activate the account, because Dave’s mom, like so many others, didn’t complete the process and sign the form Progressive canceled her policy. In fact they were canceling a lot of people in Pennsylvania. So Progressive looked at their process and  found out they didn’t need the form and didn’t need to get rid of all these new customers.

Their new motto -- “Would you do that to your mom?”

Progressive has 8% of market share = $14 billion in business so acquisition is very important to the company.

For insurance companies retention is key to their business.  For Progressive, one month retention translates to more than $1 billion in additional premiums and retention is part of their annual bonus process.

To aid employees in focusing on their customers Progressive has developed a customizable dashboard that lets the employee manage the customers.

Verbatim comments have become the treasure.  To provide additional insight they are sent directly to the employees’ dashboards at their desktops enabling them to track loyalty based on varying factors like renewal notices. Employees are rewarded for their efforts at the Annual Progressive Promoters Dinner – where employees with the highest NPS score are invite to attend.

Progressive is really listening to the customer and implementing process improvements.

Looking at additional ways to improve processes Progressive saw that they send so much paperwork and notices that customers can’t tell what is important.

Progressive is always looking for ways to give customers a little more some examples are:

• Pet Insurance - Progressive really won hearts by offering pet insurance. They tie it into a social network where people can share pictures of their dogs and be part of a community.
• Claims Process - Because of their claims process where you drive in and then you get a rental car, Progressive does everything else so those customers that have ever filed a claim are the most happy.
• Additional Special programs like:
  • Name your price
  • My rate – where you get discounts based on driving habits

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