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Success Story
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Peel & Holland
In a Class By Themselves - Peel & Holland Financial Group Extend Their World-Class Service to 24/7 with CSR24
The Challenge
Roy Riley, Chief Operating Officer of Peel & Holland Financial Group had started noticing the service he was getting from various companies such as computer companies and cellular services. There was an increasing convenience and instant response that started him thinking. If this was how other industries were servicing their customers, then how much longer before consumers started expecting that from insurance agencies?
The reality is that consumers are demanding 24/7 service in today’s business world. Riley states, "Peel & Holland is known for it’s world-class service. With consumers demanding 24/7 access, we had better offer it, or our customer will find someone else who can." So, to get ahead of the curve, Riley set out to find the right solution.
The Solution
Only One Choice
Riley started evaluating 24/7 services. He immediately ruled out staffing their office 24/7 as too expensive and difficult. His agency management software vendor offered a client access module that enabled clients to access their policy information via the Internet. He also found various third party products that provided certificates of insurance over the Internet and another that enabled access to policy information via the Internet. Unfortunately, these options only extended his service hours electronically. They did not offer a solution for the majority of his customers who still prefer to communicate via the telephone.
With CSR24, customers have both access to their policy information via the Internet and also telephone support when the agency is closed. "This was the one and only solution that would extend our service hours for all of our customers", comments Riley. "We have trained insurance personnel to answer our telephone calls and we have an easy to use Internet service for the do-it-yourselfers."
Meeting Consumer Demand
The Peel & Holland website now has a link to 24/7 Customer Service. From there, a customer can log-in to the CSR24 system, view their policy information, make change requests, issue auto ID cards, issue certificates of insurance, and print schedules. This is done completely outside of the agency management system, therefore minimizing security issues. Client information in CSR24 is updated by a nightly extract that sends a copy of all active policies in an encrypted format to the CSR24 site. As a result, every evening the website has a snapshot of the agency management system data. Change requests made by a customer online are emailed to the designated CSR automatically by the CSR24 system.
Peel & Holland statistics show the number of customers actively using the website for their service needs increasing, even when the office is open. "A great example of this is a call we recently received from one of the contractors that we insure. They called in a panic because they had forgotten their customer service password and had to get into our site to issue a certificate of insurance. They did not want us to issue the certificate for them, the simply wanted a new password so they could issue their own certificate!" says Riley.
The Peel & Holland phone system has an automated greeting when the office is closed. Now, the greeting gives customers the option to "press 3 to be connected to a 24/7 customer care center. If the customer presses 3, the call is automatically routed to the CSR24 call center where it is answered "Peel & Holland." The professional insurance-trained call center representatives can then answer basic questions, make basic policy change requests, and take claims information using the web component. "Escalation procedures are in place where a Peel & Holland employee is notified immediately in the event of a serious claim or if requested by the customer. " comments Riley.
Exceeding Expectations
Peel & Holland have been utilizing CSR24 since June 2001. With 39 insureds actively using the online self-service function, they average 43 web transactions per month and the vast majority of them, 85% of them, occur during regular business hours. "Every online transaction is one less call our CSRs have to handle, which frees them up for more productive proactive servicing of our clients, such as discussing additional products and services."
Riley says that the telephony service paid off right away and makes a difference when a customer has a crisis. "Fortunately, this service has been available several times to our customers during emergency situations, to their great satisfaction. The first time this service was used was the first weekend we had it up and running. Our customer had a petroleum tanker explode at 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately, there was serious property damage and bodily injury as a result of the explosion. The customer immediately called our local telephone number and pressed 3 to be connected to our customer care center. The customer care center called the agent’s home; per the escalation procedure we had put in place. When there was no answer at home, his cell phone was called. The agent received the call on his way to church and was able to be onsite with our customer by 10:00 a.m. Our client felt this was a great example of customer service." Peel & Holland never expected such an immediate response.
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