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26th March 2014

Newslink Interview: Customer experience emphasis at Pegasystems
Interview

Two recent global surveys have highlighted the speed of change to online distribution channels across the insurance markets, which brings with it wider competition for the business and higher renewal churn. According to the Capgemini/Efma World Insurance Report, customer experience has a direct impact on insurers’ profitability but only 32% of global insurance customers said they had positive experiences with their insurer.
Insurance Newslink dropped into the Reading, UK office of Pegasystems to meet with European Insurance director, Tony Tarquini, to ascertain how his company were approaching the revolution in customer communication attitudes brought about by technology advances and the spread of distribution channels. Pega is a top three global customer relationship management (CRM) player with a significant global insurance base.
Tarquini agrees that the emphasis is on customer service, profitability and “retention, retention, retention.” The company foresaw the fast growth in mobile access and moved for specialist Antenna Software last October-its second biggest acquisition. The key, according to Tarquini, is to achieve complete transparency and inter-operability across all communication channels to customers and supply chains. He talked through the importance of customer analytics and the Pega initiative of Next Best Action(NBA) for all channels when an insurer is in contact with the customer-not just a service and customer satisfaction issue, but also product optmisation, retention, and profitability.
In looking at the six major Pega themes for 2014, Tarquini said that the three CRM topics were customer service, salesforce automation, and NBA-the segment of one customer. Other areas for Pega were its Underwriting Platform based around business rules, Product Composing/Configuration, and Claims(Pega has rolled out a claims system for a major insurer worldwide).
Pega has just received an “Outstanding” rating by Gartner in its research headed “Critical Capabilities for Case Management”-enabling a view of the customer across channels.
With long term relations cemented with a wide range of leading insurers, over 30 years experience, and with around 2,500 staff, Pega is in the right place at the right time. The insurance industry worldwide faces the considerable challenge and opportunity of diverse distribution, and the rapid growth of mobile and internet use.