February, 2013

Customer Experience Strategy

Kinetic were asked to support Hiscox in the migration from an incumbent outsourcer and to set up a new inhouse centre for an existing line of direct B2C business. The scope of the project covered setting up the new Customer Experience Centre (CEC) for sales and service and the migration of the existing business away from the outsourcer.

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Overview During this transition Hiscox also wanted to take the opportunity to define and implement a centre that would be world class thereby reflecting and delivering the quality and brand values of the business. In order to create a route-map that would enable Hiscox to move from good to great, a new customer experience strategy was needed. Kinetic, as part of the migration and the set-up of the new in-house CEC, were asked to lead and deliver the Customer Experience Strategy. Due to the tight time constraints of the project, the customer experience strategy had to be defined whilst other operational work-streams were being initialised. This required very close working and high levels of collaboration across the programme and business.

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Approach Whilst there had been historical activity conducted to understand and measure the customer experience widely varying views existed on what it could or should look like. Furthermore, there was no common view of what the future vision should look like. There was however, a wide agreement that the transformation project presented a huge opportunity to create a unique experience across all business touch-points. The aim of this activity was to develop and agree a customer experience strategy which would increase opportunities to sell, conversions, average sale values and that would reduce customers’ propensity to churn. This would require working in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. In order to achieve this, Kinetic took the following approach:      

Understand and gain common agreement on what was already known Use Kinetic’s knowledge and experience to facilitate the Hiscox team’s thinking around what ‘great’ might look like Develop ‘what great looks like’ options to test with customers Gather new customer insight based on the above options through customer forums and email feedback Define the appropriate customer experience strategy based on the above Define the operational strategy and roadmap

Current Customer Insight Analysis Whilst the ultimate aim of this activity was to create ‘what great looks like’ and then to transfer this thinking into an operational model, sharing a common understanding across all relevant stakeholders of what was already known was to be an essential starting point. Therefore, we needed to gather data and insight through a series of one-to-one meetings and document reviews of current thinking/data from Net Promoter Scores to previous project outputs. Create New Operational Insight Kinetic also gathered additional performance, operational and customer insight through side-by-side observations in the existing operation using its X-centric toolkit. Data was gathered both from a Process and People (quantitative and qualitative) perspective. This enabled the team to understand the current state i.e. the ‘As Is’; and to benchmark the operation using data contained within the tool (from within and without the insurance sector) and therefore identify the areas where efficiency and effectiveness gains could be realised. The findings from the benchmark exercise were included in the Customer Experience Workshop and then later aligned with the new Customer Insight.

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Approach Define the Visionary Options of What a Great Customer Experience Means There was a journey which the Hiscox team needed to travel through before arriving at what “great” looked like. Kinetic prepared and delivered a workshop to support the team through that journey. The workshop incorporated concepts, ideas, possibilities and ‘straw men’ or models which were be used to help drive and shape the debate. The workshop was the pivotal point in the engagement and buy-in process. We needed to inform, guide and then direct the team to the final outcome, ensuring that they felt they had contributed sufficiently to have ownership over the outcome. The debate of ‘what great looked like’ was shaped around the following values:       

Accessibility Speed and Efficiency Simplicity and Consistency Control Success Trust and Value Knowledge

A map of new ‘potential’ customer touch-points and experiences was created and agreement reached on principles of what options should be presented to customers for feedback via e-mail and forums. Collate Customer Feedback And Insight Our approach was to conduct both a blind test and a prompted test. The former provided a control of what customers thought about without prompting on what ‘could be’. The prompted test used the outputs from the workshop to assess the customers perspective. Document and Define the Customer Experience and Operational Strategy Once the above activities were complete, we completed both the Customer Experience Definition and the Operational Strategy. The Customer Experience Definition encompassed:     

Translating Hiscox values into statements Proposed touch-points in the customer lifecycle and the experience at each Channels (phone, e-mail, web, chat, mobile social media) Measurement of the experience at each touch-point Business impact of each

The Operational Strategy covered:  

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People required to deliver the experience at each touchpoint, including skills, attitude and knowledge High-level Processes – what operational processes are going to be needed initially to support the Customer Experience Strategy Technology – what the requirements are for technology to deliver the customer experience

All of these were described against a timeline or roadmap taking into consideration, the constraints of location, budget, product development, data and IT.

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Benefits Summary Due to the tight time constraints of the project, the Customer Experience Strategy had to be defined whilst other operational work-streams were being initialised and delivered. However, Kinetic’s approach facilitated very close working and high levels of collaboration across the programme and business, enabling the Strategy to be delivered and signed-off on time and with clear buy-in at all levels within the business. Having a clear and agreed Customer Experience Strategy at the earliest opportunity provided the building blocks on which the IT, process and people work-streams were able to develop in complete alignment with everyone pulling in the same direction. The Strategy provided a clear vision for the immediate and long-term development of the CEC and continues to be reflected across all operational delivery areas and marketing.

“Kinetic worked very closely with us for over 2 years. They are a highly experienced team who care passionately about great customer service. Service that is human, engaging and rewarding to our customers and generates real loyalty. They deliver what they say they will do when they said they would do it. They are a classic owner-managed business who get directly involved to make sure that they add value and create long-term mutually beneficial relationships.” Alan Millard, COO

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© Kinetic GB Limited 2015

Kinetic is an independent consultancy specialising in helping clients to deliver change and transformation programmes and world-class omni-channel customer experiences. Founded in 2001, Kinetic has become known within the Contact Centre and CRM industry for its dynamic and innovative but practical approach, in delivering measurable benefit for its clients.  

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We guarantee to deliver an ROI for our clients Our promise is to meet or exceed your expectations, on time, to budget and to quality by ensuring the most appropriate skills are used to meet your needs Our consultants always work closely with our client’s teams in order to enhance, support and integrate with existing change activities

Our consultants have been involved in a wide range of client projects. These cover both strategy and operations and within these areas we provide expertise to tackle business issues concerning people, process, location, environment, technology selection and procurement, consolidation, change and programme management. Kinetic’s unique approach has benefited many clients across a variety of market sectors. To date we have worked with 3, Argos Direct, Axa, Balfour Beatty, Boots, Brakes, British Airways, Broadsystem, Catalyst Housing, Comet, Compaq, DaimlerChryslerMercedesBenz, Dixons Stores Group, Dreams, Equion, Europcar, Eurostar, G4S, Halfords, Hiscox, Homebase, Intercontinental Hotels, Irwin Mitchell, Jockey Club Racecourses, Lloyds Banking Group, Morphy Richards, National Express, NFU Mutual, O2, Office Depot, RAC, Regus, RIAS, Safeway, Sainsbury’s, Screwfix Direct, Sitel Corporation, sit-up.tv, Six Continents, Talk Talk, Telegraph Group, Thus, TSC, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Which? and Woolworths. If you would like more information on Kinetic then please call us.