Eric Murphy discussed his journey to transform Ingenix from a product-focused to a customer-focused culture.
Eric has partnered with their COO and the CEO to get all 11,000 of their employees to change their mindset. How can you go about this? Eric offered an honest assessment of where they are 18 months into their journey: and how NPS features in this transformation strategy.
They have 11,000 employees to cover 250,000 clients. Of those clients, about 240,000 are physicians. But that still leaves them with 10,000 business clients to manage with 11,000 team members, total. How could they treat these 250,000 clients in a way to generate delight?
He described how they use NPS as the measure of success for their Client Engagement Model. What was clear was Eric’s vision of how they will redefine, purposefully, the customer experience for Ingenix customers…in a way that is targeted and differentiated. He used words like, “trusted partner” to describe how Ingenix is focusing its efforts with its most strategic clients and partners.
To accomplish this, they are stitching together over 250 unique IP assets (software, data), as well as the silos of people and expertise that were huddled around each of those areas of speciality. The challenge he described, which many B2B businesses also struggle with as they grow, is to bring that wide variety of capability into an integrated solution for a strategic client.
Words Matter
Eric is the Chief Client Officer at Ingenix…but that wasn’t his title just a few months ago. He changed his title from Chief Sales and Marketing Officer to Chief Client Officer to reinforce the client-focus that he wants to have permeate throughout the organization. They have also changed titles from “account managers” to “client managers.” As Eric put it, he wants to remove the word “accounts” from their vocabulary.
But it’s not just words. They have also redefined their team structures around these “client managers,” and have put their expertise within the business units. As soon as they did this, magic started to happen. They also changed their compensation structure, to focus more heavily on client success measures. His goal is for their most strategic clients to for all to be Promoters. It is a lofty goal, but ultimately, the bar needs to be set so high to achieve his vision of success with this key client group.
Start with Good Data
Eric admitted that the quality of their contact data when they started was not up to snuff. In the first few months alone, they were able to make incredible strides in understanding who the key decision makers were, cleaning up their data, and more effectively communicating with customers about the goals of the feedback process.
Results So Far
Their initial results, only 18 months in, are impressive: a 22 point increase in their Pharma sector, and 28 points in their employer segment.
My Favorite Quote
“I had a marketplace that wanted to buy a kitchen, and we were selling them pots and pans.”
More about Eric Murphy and Ingenix
I interviewed Eric back in December, and you can find more details on the Ingenix story by clicking on this link: Q&A, December 2009.
