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The Union Central Life Insurance Company |
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Headquarters:
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Cincinnati, Ohio |
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Website:
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unioncentral.com |
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Employees:
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700 + 1,000 independent representatives |
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Revenue:
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$486,731,000 |
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Assets Under Management:
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US $5.5 billion in assets |
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Customers:
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500,000 |
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| Challenges |
- In an increasingly competitive market, grow customer lifetime value by selling more products into existing accounts.
- Customer contact channels weren't integrated, and information on customers and product lines were kept in silos, creating disjointed interactions with customers and independent representatives.
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| Solution |
- Needed to simplify and automate workflow to improve customer service and make business processes more customer centric.
- Amdocs CRM creates a single, integrated customer view and interaction history accessible by the company and its independent representatives across all channels. Implemented Amdocs CRM nearly out of the box to meet the needs of several business functions and spread the cost of implementation and integration.
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| Results/Benefits |
- As the company changed its marketing strategy to attract more upscale clients, there was a realization that agents and clients would demand a higher level of service. Amdocs CRM allowed the Contact Center to support business growth and increased its ability to assist more customers.
- The Contact Center was able to provide service for two additional product lines and increase the number of calls processed with no extra staff.
- “One and done” customer contact target of 80 percent hit almost immediately after going live with Amdocs CRM.
- Provides more effective control of documentation used in meeting internal Service Level Agreement (SLA) commitments. Number of unresolved cases at time of SLA expiration dropped by at least half.
- 95 percent of customers are consistently or extremely satisfied with service.
- Contact Center associate role transformed from an entry-level job into a highly valued career.
- Flexibility of Amdocs CRM has allowed Union Central to use the same software in new and innovative ways, reducing costs and increasing business value.
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| Technical Statistics |
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Amdocs CRM modules: Support
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Types of users: Contact Center staff, wholesalers and sales support staff, computer Help Desk and IT, and building services representatives
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Interaction volume:7,500 calls and e-mails monthly
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Hardware: HP/Compaq servers
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O/S: Microsoft Windows 2000
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Database: Oracle
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Number of users: 363
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Integrations:
- FACSYS Lan-based facsimile system
- Audio log (for recording phone calls)
- CSS (an Internet-based database of insurance policy information)
- Jetforms (which provides company-specific
insurance forms
- Nortel phone switch and Symposium software
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Systems integrator: Amdocs CRM systems integration experts
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Faced with an increasingly competitive market, Union Central, a leading US mutual life insurance and investment company, focused on growing its customer lifetime value. But the company's systems for tracking interactions with customers and independent representatives was unintegrated and disjointed. The company launched an aggressive plan to create a single customer view with Amdocs CRM, and the benefit has been dramatic. ‘One and done' customer contacts are regularly hitting the company's target of 80 percent.
In addition, since deploying Amdocs CRM, Union Central's Contact Center has increased the number of calls it can process and began providing support for two additional product lines, without increasing staff. Amdocs CRM is so flexible and easy to use that Union Central has deployed it to manage several other business processes, reducing costs and increasing the value of the system. The next step is to expand Amdocs CRM to other areas of the company and use it to analyze customer trends so that the company can start to identify more sales opportunities.
“From day one, Amdocs CRM was enabling the Contact Center to meet our ‘one and done' targets.”
Jim Ascheman, Managing Director,
Client Services Contact Center
Union Central Life Insurance Company
Founded in 1867, Union Central is one of the top 10 mutual life insurance and investment companies in the US, with more than half a million customers and $5.5 billion in assets. Products include individual life and disability insurance, annuities, investment products, and group retirement plans such as 401(k). These are sold through a network of more than 1,000 independent representatives.
Union Central's key business goal is to increase revenue and customer lifetime value through its process of One Company Marketing, with an emphasis on the long-term needs of the company and the customer instead of short-term gain for any department or product line. The company also aims to improve customer service, communication, and information sharing with its independent representatives and customers across all channels.
Because information was in silos, and product lines were handled by different groups and systems, Union Central could not respond to customers or representatives quickly or effectively. Union Central's homegrown system for keeping track of phone contacts could not unify the different types of data and communication channels into a single repository. Meaningful reporting was difficult, and customers often had to wait at least 24 hours to get answers to simple inquiries. In addition, customer data held by field representatives and Union Central didn't match, because the system wasn't real time.
Retaining and Growing Customers
The company needed to be proactive in positioning itself to retain and grow its customers in an increasingly competitive economy. Union Central turned to Gartner, a market analyst group, to help identify the best solution for its needs – Amdocs CRM. A key benefit of Amdocs CRM is its ability to serve different and often diverse functions out of the box.
“By choosing Amdocs CRM, we had all the customer relationship management functionality we needed in a single integrated application, which meant we didn't have to purchase, customize or integrate multiple systems,” says Jim Ascheman, managing director of Union Central's Client Services Contact Center. “The Amdocs licensing agreement is also well suited to our business as it supports a large number of users with limited administrative oversight. These factors make Amdocs CRM a very practical and manageable solution as well as a great business partner.”
"The impact of Amdocs CRM has been felt across the organization as customer numbers are up, and the Contact Center has been able to keep pace with this increase in business."
“We initially selected Amdocs CRM to track interactions with our representatives and policy owners,” Ascheman adds. “But it's so flexible and easy to use that we've deployed it in other areas such as IT, wholesaling and sales support, building services, and more. Amdocs CRM replaced our old system ten-fold and its usefulness just keeps on growing.”
After Amdocs CRM was selected, Union Central's Service Desk went live in just six months; three months later, a customized version was available in the Contact Center. Amdocs' systems integration experts helped implement the solution and provided knowledge transfer, so Union Central could undertake future changes or upgrades. Says Ascheman, “When Union Central upgraded to the latest version of Amdocs CRM, it was very successful, which is proof of the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer and our relationship with Amdocs.”
ROI, service improvement and much more
“There's no doubt about it - Amdocs CRM has enabled Union Central to provide better customer service. With Amdocs CRM, our ability to service our customers has evolved from covered wagon to jet in a very short time,” says Ascheman. “Since deploying Amdocs CRM, 95 percent of customers now rate Union Central's customer service as satisfactory or extremely satisfactory.”
“The impact of Amdocs CRM has been felt across the organization as customer numbers are up, and the Contact Center has been able to keep pace with this increase in business,” adds Ascheman.
Amdocs CRM's greatest influence has been the improvement to customer service. Because of the single view of the customer, Contact Center associates are far more efficient. As a result, Union Central's Contact Center has started providing support for two additional product lines and managed a significant increase in contacts, without increasing staff.
Customers needing forms can now get them within minutes of their request, because links between Amdocs CRM and legacy systems ease Union Central agents' ability to identify, locate and send the appropriate forms to customers via e-mail. Menus of common functions and auto-fill features within crm also help improve efficiency.
On-screen access to information has cut the number of expired service level agreements (SLAs) by 50 percent. In Amdocs CRM, SLAs are tied to each case and automatic notifications go to customer representatives and managers before expiration so Union Central can honor its commitments.
“(In the Contact Center), Amdocs CRM has enabled increased job responsibilities, created a more empowered and fulfilling work environment, and transformed the job into a career.”
“One unexpected benefit of Amdocs CRM has been a radical change in Union Central's employment options for its Contact Center associates,” continued Ascheman. “Where the Contact Center used to be viewed as a stepping stone to a better job within Union Central and staff turnover was high, Amdocs CRM has enabled increased job responsibilities, created a more empowered and fulfilling work environment, and transformed the job into a career.” In time, Contact Center training will dovetail with technology and teach associates to spot opportunities for implementing One Company Marketing.
“Since deploying Amdocs CRM, 95 percent of customers now rate Union Central's customer service as satisfactory or extremely satisfactory.”
“Union Central's Contact Center staff credits Amdocs CRM for enabling best practices and improved customer communication and service,” says Ascheman. “From day one, Amdocs CRM was enabling the Contact Center to meet our ‘one and done' targets, and is fast becoming one of our most valuable assets.”
For independent representatives, one of the most striking impacts of Amdocs CRM is improved communication. Whenever a customer contacts Union Central, Amdocs CRM automatically sends an e-mail notification to the appropriate independent representative, alerting them to the contact. These representatives are also able to get accurate information and customer policy data from Union Central fast, easy, and in real time so there are no discrepancies between their records and Union Central's.
Union Central plans to expand its use of Amdocs CRM to other areas and to analyze customer trends so the company can start to identify more sales opportunities.
Following the implementation of Amdocs CRM, Ascheman has been able to tick off 24 of the 25 items on the company's Client- Centered Service Initiative - Union Central's strategy to make service more customer-centric. But for Ascheman, the key test is at the customer interface. “If a customer asks for the cash value of their policy, can we provide it? Yes. With Amdocs CRM, we can respond to our customers immediately, and we know the information we're giving them is complete and accurate.”
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