Swiss insurance company reduces drop-out rate of incoming calls and improves customer service.
“Just ask us!” This is the slogan the Swiss all-industry insurance company Helvetia Patria uses to advertise its perfect service to its 750,000 customers. TOPCALL made sure that all questions and requests are quickly routed to the correct contact person where they can be dealt with promptly. This was not an easy thing to do with 50 different locations and as many different telephone systems.
Helvetia Patria, one of the leading all-industry insurance companies in Switzerland, checked its service area and customer satisfaction on the basis of the EFQM guidelines (European Foundation of Quality Management). The discontenting result: Some branch offices recorded drop-out rates of up to 50 percent. One of the main reasons was that the switchboard operators could not see whether or not an employee was available. So they had to put the calls through on the off chance, but often the callers were not connected or at least not to the contact person most qualified to answer their inquiry. As the company’s objective is to remain the quality and service leader in the Swiss insurance market, it was clear that something had to change.
In 2004, the company changed over to IP telephony. In the course of the modernisation measures, the database with the customer data was to be linked with the telephone system (CTI application) and voice, SMS and e-mail services were to be integrated into the communications platform. By consolidating the telephone and network infrastructure, telephone switching was to be made more efficient and availability and customer satisfaction were to be improved. Another goal was to reduce the costs for maintenance and administration.
Solution
TOPCALL implemented a CTI solution (Computer-Telephony-Integration) including voice, SMS and e-mail services which – together with the changeover to IP telephony – formed the basis for perfect communications with the customers and among the various branch offices of the company. Field workers can now be informed about new claims without delay so that they can handle them immediately. In addition, a switchboard workstation was installed at the company’s headquarters in St. Gallen to make sure that phone calls are forwarded efficiently.
Advantages for the staff
In the beginning, the 2,500 staff members were sceptical about the high transparency of the new system, but soon they started to support it. The functionality of the CTI application and the reduction of the drop-out rate helps them work more efficiently which also has a positive effect on their salaries.
Success rate
Thanks to the uniform platform the communications processes are now structured and traceable. The maintenance and operating costs were reduced by 35 percent. The set target of lowering the drop-out rate to 10 percent was even exceeded – the current rate is around 5 percent.