A troubled Australian health insurer has replaced its antiquated computer interface with a new system in a bid to rebuild brand loyalty.
Medibank had been using the old system since it started in 1976, contributing to a huge number of complaints in 2016 and lost over 40,000 customers in the FY 2015-16.
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In a recent Customer Experience Innovation and Techfest event in Melbourne, David Koczkar, Medibank’s chief customer officer, told WARC that the system would “break” some 1,000 policies every month, while the entirely separate CRM system only allowed customers to pay direct debits on a particular day each month.
The new system, he said, slashed off “about 150 customer pain points,” – but there is still some way to go in order to boost customer experience.
“To actually understand the thoughts, feelings, and the emotions, pre and post these touch points, and also when people are not connected to your brand, has been incredibly important,” he told the publication.
“But that’s the big data side. Also what’s important for our leaders is to get emotionally connected, because we are human. In addition to the measurement we actually, now, speak to our customers,” he said. Senior executives are expected to put in a minimum 30 hours a year to speak with customers.
Koczkar is keenly aware that despite its progress, the company is being compared to competitors not only in the insurance sector, but also in services across multiple sectors.
“Recognising what we’ve done in the past is a really important part of the change process,” he said. “We certainly have spent a lot of time being more transparent with our customers and saying, ‘You know what? We can do better’”
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