Customer experience is now more important than ever

In today’s highly competitive market, customer experience is increasingly one of the key differentiators for businesses. Various factors —economic, social, digital and beyond— are affecting people’s everyday decisions in unavoidable ways. People are reevaluating what is important to them. As a result, the way they interact with brands is evolving, and so too is the idea of customer experience. Aleksandar Mlinar, Head of Market Management of Allianz Hungária says, Allianz is proactively approaching customer engagement to ensure that customers remain fully informed, engaged and satisfied throughout their relationship with the company. 

How many insurance contracts does a person have, who works for an insurance company?

Seven or eight, in two countries – some still active in Germany where I used to work for several years. And it’s still not enough. (laughs)

And how many insurance contracts does a typical Hungarian customer have?

In terms of the number of policies purchased, on average probably less than 2 policies – but those with more assets and properties, higher life insurance needs and income may have more. Still, the average number is not yet enough. Insurance is your financial plan’s safety net – having the right types of insurance at the right amount protects you and your family from unforeseen events and provides a baseline financial cushion. And this, especially at challenging times is vital. For this reason, one of the opportunities but also one of the biggest challenges, is to further increase the share of protection and life insurance as higher value-added insurance solutions.

You have a lot of experience in this industry. Do you see any differences between the Hungarian and the CEE-regions’ customers and those of other countries?

Different countries are at different maturity levels when it comes to insurance penetration. There could be different reasons for that. Usually regulation, tax incentives play some role, but also different levels of size and strength of economy and general financial maturity and savviness, plus what is relevant is the disposable income. As a baseline, obviously the more disposable income people have, the more they are able and willing to buy insurance beyond the mandatory covers, for example life, health and invest in savings solutions. There are of course other factors that influence our attitudes towards self-care, but when it comes to the needs and behavior, I don’t think there is much of a difference.

What do you think Allianz as a global brand can bring to customer experience at the local level?

We have a strong, reliable brand with more than 130 years of history. Based on different official rankings, Allianz continues to be the top insurance brand and is among the top 30 most valuable brands worldwide. Our core promise is that We secure Your future. This is reflected through providing security, assuring that Allianz is there to help, protect and secure peace of mind. We are locally in Hungary also recognized, as one of very few brands, winning the Superbrands award for 20 years in a row. This speaks to stability and consistency of delivering value to our customers. Our work locally is to translate this positive brand perception into local actions to further build strong consumer connections. In recent years we have refreshed our sales processes, simplified our product lines and worked on modern servicing. We are working further to improve servicing, as an example enhancing our customer portal, so customers are able to view all their insurance data, contracts and make changes in one place.

Going back to what you have just mentioned, ”peace of mind”. How do customers enjoy that?

Insurance is a service industry, it is essential that our services and products offer added value. We want to provide a positive experience so customers feel that by choosing Allianz, they get a positive experience and peace of mind even when it comes to basic insurance packages. For example, our motor third party liability insurance (MTPL) policy provides included roadside assistance, but also legal support and personal accident coverage. If the water pipe breaks, our customers with home insurance get rapid assistance from us. Or, when it comes to travel insurance, our cover comes with benefits including tele-medicine advice and a 24/7 Hungarian language hotline.

Sometimes the insurance industry gets criticism over not staying well ahead in digitizing their services. How do you see that happen at Allianz in Hungary?

As far as digitalization goes, there is ongoing work still to be done, and this includes also supporting our customers’ understanding of the various digital tools by which we aim to service them. Overall, with some recent innovations I see Allianz Hungary probably ahead of the market currently.

For instance, we are transforming our claims process with the digital claims notification and tracker, which makes claims processing quick, easy and transparent. We are digitalizing and speeding up our processes in motor insurance – and AI can be a key to success as it helps us optimize processes and become more efficient. Our AI-assisted car inspection assesses the state of your car, eliminating the need for an in-person inspection for casco coverage.

Or, I can also mention travel insurance where we introduced blockchain solution. If a flight is cancelled or delayed by more than two hours, an automated payout can be initiated. Simple, automated solution to our customers embedded in our travel insurance product. However, we still have to improve how we transition from old to new tool and process, both internally and how this can be made even more easier to our customers. 

These are very good examples on how digital technology and AI are shaping customer experience. But how does customer experience evolve and what trends do you see?

In my opinion, customer experience is now more important than ever. In general, on the increasingly popular social media platforms consumers can easily look for proof if a product or service is credible, plus they have much more choices to check the different offerings. Therefore, for a brand to sustain and thrive in the long-term, services and products have to provide proper value and deliver as a minimum good experience at any touch point. We are moving towards a more proactive approach to customer engagement, even when it comes to cancelling a contract. We also want to make sure that our outsourcing partners – car repair shops for example – provide fast and quality service to our customers. And there is more in the pipeline.

If you could create a new customer experience metric or measurement, how would you go about it?

We probably have even too many metrics, especially in our industry. But perhaps not enough for customer experience. The core is to provide the best possible service at any touch point. And, to me this is that combination of digital and human touch and then being able to serve the customer in the way they choose.

Could you name a metric that you find essential to understand customers?

Our Voice of the Customer (VoC) program is an excellent example, it is rolled out globally.  At any touch point we ask our customers to give us 1 to 5 star rating and comment our service. We aim to take up customers’ feedback regularly as it provides crucial intelligence into what customers truly need and appreciate – as well as what they don’t. And, those who provide lower rating (3 stars and less) we call to understand what went wrong and how to improve. We have a dedicated programme in place which reviews the customer journeys’ mapping areas of high satisfaction and those we should further improve. We are happy to see that our overall rating, in for example last months this year, is on average above 4.6 (on a 1 to 5 scale), which is really good, but I believe we could do even more than this.

Allianz’s current campaign is showing the benefits of being an Allianz customer. Why did you decide to come up with this campaign?

Our single aim with the campaign was to show the wide-ranging benefits that come directly from our products and services. This is important aspect when comparing different products and prices. We believe customers get more by default at Allianz, let it be innovations led by AI, wide-range assistance services or even loyalty discounts.  But these are only a few examples of how we serve our policyholders in their daily lives.
With smooth, secure, and personalized customer involvement, we aim to have Allianz Hungária becoming a more integral part of our customers’ lives, keeping our promise of securing their future.

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