Custom-made contacts: call centers are morphing into one-stop customer-service shops equipped with more sophisticated skills and tools. (Technology: Customer Service).

The time is right and the technologies are available for customer-service call centers to morph into contact centers that can further customize interaction with individual policyholders. These one-stop shops are equipped with a set of skills and technologies that reach well beyond the customer-service representatives and interactive voice-response systems found in insurance call centers.

As insurers contemplate the transition, they should be cautiously aggressive, with a well-thought-out strategy for adopting and supporting the new technologies. Implementation should rely on good, old-fashioned requirements analysis and process definition. The unwavering focus should be on simplicity and quality of service.

First Things First

Before an insurer gives customers more communication options, it is important to make sure that the process can handle the new entry points and that routing mechanisms and skills sets direct callers to the right resources and information. Otherwise, what might have been a good call-center experience in the past could result in a negative one with disastrous results.

If an insurer provides customers with different ways to access information, they'll use them. Unless a single data source with accurate information is used, they are likely to get different information from different access routes. If that happens, the result will be more calls to the contact center, not fewer; a higher cost to service the inquiry, and a frustrated customer who will now be less likely to purchase any additional products.

Tailor the Experience

The beauty of technology is that it allows service to be tailored to individual policyholders. Typically, the customer-service rep performs this role, interprets the data and customizes the interaction during each call. But when an insurer relies on technology to emulate this same customer-of-one service, things get a bit tricky.

A customer profile is the cornerstone for providing quality tailored service. It is the objective of the contact center to interface when, where and how each customer prefers. How does an insurer know whether customers want their statements e-mailed? Do they prefer the long and elaborate, interactive voice-response instructions or the abbreviated version? Are they comfortable speaking with a customer-service rep and hesitant toward technology? Would they like weekly reports sent to their wireless device? If insurers don't ask, they'll never know.

Customer Intelligence

That is why it is important to create a profile for each customer. An insurer can create one when a policy is purchased or later by informing policyholders online and encouraging them to select a personal identification number. While every customer won't rush to the Web to take advantage of this new service, a natural adoption will happen over time. For those who still are calling the customer-service representative directly, the rep can coach them through services available online or build the profile over the phone. If the rep meets with resistance to the new services, he or she can note this in the customer profile that is being refined with every interaction. However it builds the profile, the insurer is obtaining the "customer intelligence" to tailor each contact-center experience.

If customers are traditional and like the personal touch of a customer-service rep, then service them that way. If they are fresh out of college and rely heavily on wireless devices, then communicate through technology. Good service is not one-size-fits-all, but rather a service experience tailored to each customer. Technology should support the desired service process, not dictate it.

Skill Sets

With the introduction of new technologies and access options, there is a need for a set of complementary skills in the contact center. As an insurer enables the customer to do a lot more and communicate through a method other than the phone, the company needs a process in place that integrates all the potential contact points and pro vides skills to communicate effectively with each customer.

In the past, a customer-service rep with exemplary phone-service skills was the ideal. Today, the same customer-service rep with great phone-service skills might have limited skills in written communication for e-mail or conversational skills in a chat environment. Depending upon the access point and the tailored interaction required, the inquiry should be routed to the right resource--technology, a customer-service rep or a combination.

Ideally, a multi-skilled resource that could handle any inquiry or access method would be preferred. But with multiple skills come additional cost and a reduced body of qualified resources. In the effort to reduce operating costs, staffing with complementary skills and routing effectively might be the best approach to achieve contact-center excellence.

Technology Options

With the house in order and consistent access to accurate data, a profile for uniquely tailored service for each policyholder, a routing process in place and a complement of customer-service skills to meet every need, insurers should next consider technologies that will serve to simplify the process, enhance the policyholder experience and reduce operating costs.

Interactive voice response with natural language: IVR has long been a mainstay technology in the call center, with the maturation of natural language adding a whole new dimension. Gone is the "Hit or say 1 for policy value," replaced with "How can I service you?" The response is simply "Tell me the value of my policy."

Web access: With personal identification numbers and profiles in place, policyholders are able to engage in self-service more than ever before. With nothing more than Internet access and a standard Web browser, a policyholder can handle complex transactions that would have taken extended phone time and confirmation of accuracy of the transaction, often prone to human error.

E-mail and wireless: Ideal two-way means of communication can quickly become a double-edged sword if not properly implemented. Easy enough to implement, outbound e-mails and wireless transmissions to policyholders offer efficient distribution of premium notices, account statements, notices of new service offers and other customer communications.

The rush to implement incoming communication, however, has often turned a positive experience for customers into a negative one. Too often, customers have clicked on the "Contact Us" option to a business, formulated a well-thought-out e-mail and received no response in days, weeks or maybe ever. The lack of response has become the expected result, with the customer typically covering the bases by following up with a phone call. Hardly a simplification of the process.

Fax: While the need for fax is reduced with the advent of e-mail, Web access and wireless technologies, there is still a role in interacting with policyholders according to their personal preferences. In the mission to implement new technologies, it's important to continue to add to service and access methods rather than take away.

Web chat and video conferencing: Since these technologies are in the earliest stages of adoption, it is not known how widely they will be used. It is expected, however, that these access and communication methods will become a supporting piece of Web access rather than independent service methods.

Hybrid: The true test of how well integrated the process is will be the hybrid inquiry. A policyholder might begin an inquiry or transaction on the Internet, abandon the transaction and call the customer-service rep. Better yet, the customer can click on a "Call Me Now," requesting that the contact center initiate the call. The access methods should be integrated well enough to allow the customer-service rep to pick up the transaction where it was left on the Web and to continue servicing individual policyholders at their convenience.

As the evolution from call center to contact center continues for insurers, technology's role needs to be considered relative to its effect on the goal of increasing simplicity for the policyholder and providing the very best in service while reducing operational costs.

Eric Miller is a senior principal with Highpoint Consulting Inc., specializing in operations management, particularly technology-related cost-benefit analysis.