In speaking with industry experts about best practices and reading countless articles about technology developments and implementations, I find it intriguing and more than a little unsettling that buried within allthe highfalutin tech talk,I often hear a nervous, nearly inaudible question: Who exactly is the customer? Is it John, the policyholder? Is it Bob, his agent? Or is it the ABC Bank that sells XYZ Insurances new product?
As this issue came together, the critical importance of all customers became apparent, even if that wasnt the original intent. The cover story, Gimme a T!,(p. 14) was meant to be a roadmap for maximizing the relationship between IT and business, which as it turns out is the internal customer. CRM Is Dead . . . Long Live CRM (p. 18) is focused on the external customer. Although the thrust of the global insurance IT feature, Re Inventing the Wheel, (p. 22) was intended to be on reinsurance trading systems, it became apparent those systems were going to gather dust pretty quickly unless they got buy-in from the reinsurers e-partnerthe carrier.
Internal, external, and partnersthat pretty much sums up your entire business. Id say the biggest lesson this issue imparts is actually written between the linesthat if you can make all flavors of customer happy, your company will be doing bang-up business; and if not, keep the padlock handy.
The challenge we face is the heightened need to make these relationships work better than ever and a new need to integrate them to achieve the highest levels of efficiency. Today you shouldnt think about, say, ABC Bank without thinking about the impact on John, Bob, and Jane. It puts a whole new spin on Total Customer Management. With this in mind, I propose a concept called CARE (sure, I admit its corny, but it stands for Customers Are Really Enterprise-wide). Since a concept isnt worth the paper its written on unless it has some irrefutable principles, here are a few to chew on:
Customer service is what your customers say it is. If you havent fulfilled your customers needs as they define them (whomever they are), youve blown the job.
Customer service is not just a marketing issue. Each category of customer has impact company-wide and on the bottom line. Yes, a CIO is a customer service rep.
Customer service is a leadership issue. If upper management, in general, and IT in particular, make it a priority that certain internal, external, and partner customers are satisfied, you can bet that will permeate downward.
Create an all-inclusive, interactive customer service structure and make it a core competency. Translate the lofty sounding policy into implementable deeds, and solicit feedback to be sure you stay on target.
Its tough enough dealing with each customer separately, but its at least worth keeping all your customers collectively in mind to seek greater efficiencies and broader benefits. So, as you, our customer, explore this issue, go ahead and read between the lines. Im certain youll encounter some valuable ideascustomer satisfaction guaranteed.
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