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Technology helps make complaint handing a team effort
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Tamara Nault, consumer relations manager,
The Progressive Insurance Group, explains how technology
assists her organization in streamlining consumer complaints. |
When it comes to using technology to improve complaint handling
and enhance customer service, Progressive is, well, progressive.
As one of the nation’s leading personal lines insurers, The
Progressive Insurance Group has used technology to turn complaint
handling and resolution into a well-oiled machine built around
a team structure with targeted technology applications.
Tamara Nault, customer relations manager, Progressive, explained
that her team is the central repository for all written consumer
complaints directed to the company. Phone calls are handled by
other teams.
“My team gets all the written complaints, whether they are
faxed, emailed or regular mail,” she said. “If a consumer
complains in writing to a claims office in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that
complaint will eventually wind up in my group. We read all complaints
and gather whatever data we need so that we can direct the complaint
to the right person within the company, whoever is best able to
handle the complaint. Once a response has been sent back to us,
we review the response to make sure that it has all the information
that is appropriate and that it has indeed responded to the specific
complaints.”
The character of the complaints usually revolves around claims
and other business issues, but not always.
“People complain about a lot of things,” Nault said. “We
even received a complaint from an advocacy group about the fact
that Progressive was advertising during ‘Desperate Housewives.’ We
handled the response to that complaint along with all the others.”
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Nault explains, “My group can receive
and send faxes from a mailbox right on their desktops. We
can send files attached to the faxes in the form of PDFs,
TIF files and Word documents.” |
Desktop complaint handling environment
Written complaints may be forwarded to the company by individual
consumers, insurance departments, local Better Business Bureaus,
attorneys and, as already mentioned, various advocacy groups.
“My group can receive and send faxes from a mailbox right
on their desktops,” Nault said. “We can send files
attached to the faxes in the form of PDFs, TIF files and Word documents.
We also receive confirmations on our desktops.”
Once a complaint is entered or scanned into Progressive’s
complaint resolution database, the rest of the process – from
information gathering, fact finding and file transmittal – can
be handled by the consumer relations representative without leaving
his or her seat.
Many consumer complaints also come in through a ‘contact
us’ screen that can be accessed through Progressive’s
website.
“The consumer can either communicate to us free form within
a text box or make selections using a Flash function that will
populate the screen with the most common questions and answers
associated with customer complaints,” Nault said. “This
allows us to more effectively accept the less complex inquiries,
such as claim status. We are able to respond directly back to the
customer’s email account.”
Some complaints still come in via what is affectionately called ‘snail
mail’ to Progressive’s main mail hub in Cleveland.
“Once mail is received at our mail hub, it is immediately
scanned into an electronic version that will then be available
to everyone with access to our team database,” Nault said. “Indexers
will code each piece of mail and then route it through our workflow
system, where it is entered into the database as a complaint. Team
members actually review 90 pieces of mail per hour and route them
to the appropriate people. From the moment a piece of mail comes
in, it takes about three hours for it to be logged in and routed
to the right people.”
Faster responses = customer satisfaction
By whatever means they arrive, all written complaints are logged
in and assigned to a respondent within hours. Often accompanying
the file will be substantial amounts of data related to the case,
including various metrics such as policy numbers, names, dates,
underwriting company, product, agent and the reason for the complaint
as well as fields where the respondent can enter the complaint
disposition and any corrective action. The system also enables
the tracking of complaint disposition to ensure timely responses.
“We can even send out monthly reports to different offices
so that they will know whether there is a problem,” Nault
said.
The net result is pretty simple. Faster response time results
in increased customer satisfaction, better complaint resolution
and disposition and a greater likelihood that the company will
be able to retain the business options … all of which sounds
like a progressive application of technology any way you look at
it.
CONTACT INFO
Tamara Nault
The Progressive Insurance Group
440.603.5532
Email: tamara_nault-ockunzzi@progressive.com
www.progressive.com
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