Well for most of us as consuners we only ever have contact with the tertiary industry as part of our daily private lives.We buy, we use and we experience.
Most companies sell physical products. If i buy a TV i watch it, i use it, i experience it on a regular basis. The buying experience is a very small part of the overall equation and user experience. The products is used everyday or at least on a regular basis. For the most part, the manufacturer or the provider of the product is not involved in this at all. The only time that they may become involved is when something goes wrong. In many cases though this is the responsibility of the retailer to handle the end customers service request. As such for Sony or Samsung or LG the most important thing is the daily function and performance of the product and not so much the customer service.
If we think about the service industry such as a reastaurant they are selling a produc,t the food but, also an experience which is strongly affected by imeasurable factors such as ambience or atmosphere in the restaurant. The customers themselves contribute to this. However the company are able to nurture this in the design of the restaurant and most importantly the customer service they offer. People come back to restuarants because of the experience. The product i.e. the food, the ambience and the customer service. In this case all three are important.
This brings us to the Insurance industry. Despite what they like to think they do not sell products. The policies and the insurances you purchase are not products in themselves. They are not physical they are not affected by ambience. What insurance companies sell is piece of mind. You know, believe and trust that when something goes wrong they are there for you.
In If vahinkovakuutus's slogan they state "don't worry, we help". This is the core of what they do.
Unlike in the other industries there needs to be trust for the "product to work". Without trust there is no product and no customers.
As a customer you only ever really experience your product personally when something goes wrong. Day to day you experience the insurance product simply as piece of mind. Why else would you contact the insurance company. As such the essence of what an insurance company does and when you experience their product is when you need to test that piece of mind. As such as an insurance company it is essential that this is recognised and that the absolute most effective service for the customer is provided. In order to serve their customers an insurance company should focus their resources on customer service and supplying the customer with a superb experience.
When a customer approaches an insurance company it is when something bad has happenned to them personnally. This is a very personal and often painful and stressful time for them. They need help and for them they are experiencing some kind of emergency. Granted this iswith differing degrees of scale. Someone has died, their house has had fire damage, they are stranded abroad or ar sick or injured or they have had a road accident. These are incredibly stresful and worrying times for a customer and this is when they NEED a very professional, accurate, caring and personal service experience to help ease their pain and certainly not to add to it.
Well here are some facts about If vahinkovakuutus's customer service.
1. You cannot get face to face service related to claims in an If Vahinkvakuutus office. In Finland (You can in Denmark)
2. If offices in Finland only sell insurance. At least o me this indicates they care more about sales than service.
3. When you call If's emergency number representative you may be speaking to a third party (Elisa)who do not know If's policies and can cannot give you accurate information even about whether or not you are covered.
Think about it when you have a car accident, if someone dies or gets injured or your house burns down. In these most important situations.
Do you not want to be able to speak to someone personally face to face, would this help you?
Don't you want to know that the information you receive is accurate and correct and you can act upon it.
This is the essence of experiencing the insurance product and as such,
An insurance company's product can be measured by their customer service experience. In fact NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.
When you do not get this you may find that you have been sold "piece of mind" but with this kind of service you may get home and discover that your television box is full of rocks or your restaurant food has come straight out of a garbage can.
Without a great customer service experience can you really trust an insurance company?
So as to help IF improve their customer service experience this is what i have asked for.
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Thanks for the comment, absolutely true. I am in complete agreement. One this is true also, we are all different as customers some people prefer online service, some prefer phone and some prefer social media.
ReplyDeleteThis depends on the situation. With less important claims, for example when my bicycle was stolen and it was resolved easiily via the web that was perfect for me. However in times of conflict and disagreement i personally prefer face to face contact and a real person to speak to.
The trick for good customer service is to offer service in the channels that the customers want and not what you want to offer it in so that you can be more cost efficient or work in a way that suits your internal backend technology.
In Finland i particularly feel sorry for older people who are not at all tech savey and grew up with personal service. In Finland getting personal service in Banks for example is almost impossible everything is electronic which is fine for some but not all. Anyway thanks for the comment, greatly appreciated!