When I was a child growing up in Wisconsin, arm wrestling was a big deal. I’m not quite certain why, but my guess is it was since the winters in Wisconsin are actually long and extremely cold. I believe everyone ran from things you can do at the local tavern – so, arm wrestling it had been!
In my career in the insurance industry, I have seen a lot of arm wrestling matches. Perhaps not functional arm wrestling, but arm wrestling in spirit.
One from the longest-standing reasons for a leg wrestling match has been within the topic of the master of the client and the customer experience. Sometimes, departments for example marketing and, recently, e-commerce feel they own the client experience – and they're likely to protect that turf. I've witnessed situations where It had been vying for ownership from the customer experience since it could install software that will result in the customer experience appealing and functional – in one way or another.
I also have seen a great number of departments madly running from a person experience ownership arm wrestling match. Customer experience could be a really scary topic, and achieving it weigh to your performance appraisal may be daunting for a lot of.
Recently, numerous insurers have remarked that ownership of customer experience isn't a department issue; it is a person issue. A person needs to be responsible. To really make it a high priority – which it absolutely should be – the responsible person needs to be at the upper level from the organization, within the C-suite or at least directly reporting there.
Responsibility is a great thing, but that's not the whole success factor.
To truly institutionalize customer experience, organizing around it is imperative. A recent press release involving Farmers Insurance organizational changes brought the theme of the blog into clear focus. The reporter understood the problem; The title of the article was “Farmers shuffles execs to improve customer experience.” Now, there isn't a magical formula for customer experience organizational structures. Farmers elected to put the responsibility for customer experience ownership with two people: the newly appointed personal lines chief product officer and the person assuming the role of head of service operations for that company, who reported to the COO. The whole point is that an insurer will need an image and a strategic goal for customer experience and then enforce it through its organizational structure by having an accountable person or persons.
While I do not reside in Wisconsin anymore, I’m confident arm wrestling continues to be a big deal. However when you are looking at customer experience, insurers need absolute clarity on what the organization direction is, not arm wrestling – and sound organizational structure around customer experience can make that happen.
