OMNICHANNEL SOLUTION FOR TOP UK INSURANCE FIRM
ONE SOLUTION, UNLIMITED POTENTIAL
THE CLIENT
Acorn Insurance is a nationwide insurance broker offering insurance, including private car insurance, convicted driver insurance, taxi insurance, taxi fleet insurance, motor trade insurance, learner driver insurance and more.
Established in 1982, Acorn has over 40 years of experience and are a proud member of the British Insurance Brokers Association. Acorn Insurance have 7 offices altogether, with their headquarters in Liverpool, and offices in Manchester, Leeds, London and
Birmingham, with growth of now over 1,500 users.
KEY OUTCOMES
- Improved customer resolution and queue times
- Improved visibility of agent real-time adherence
- Real-time queue overview including live agents logged in, in pause and wrap up status
- Extremely low response times
- Improvement in staff morale and internal culture
- Reduced communication costs
- Increased webchat capability by 30%+
THE CHALLENGE
Acorn Insurance recognised the significance of delivering exceptional customer experience and identified specific areas within their workforce that necessitated improvements.
Their previous contact centre solution was restricted by technology, which limited agents to handling enquiries from only one channel. This caused certain areas of the business to experience higher volumes of enquires, resulting in customers encountering longer queue times when seeking assistance.
Acorn recognised the potential for this to impact their customer service and sought solutions to deliver on their commitment to providing a high level of service.
The restricting technology also caused calls to be routed to incorrect staff members, resulting in abandonment rates. Additionally, without the ability to collect data on their customer satisfaction scores, Acorn was unable to gain insights on how to improve their service, something they were committed to do.
Managing a growing workforce of over 1,500 employees can be a challenging task for any organisation. Acorn previously used Microsoft Excel to track employee schedules, but this method was prone to human error and was a complex manual process to manage.
Acorn was committed to enhancing their staff culture and believed that an efficient workforce management system was key to
achieving this goal.
Recognising the challenges faced due to their growing business and traditional technology, Acorn was committed to enhancing their customer experience, streamlining their workflow, and improving their workforce management system to improve their overall business operations.
THE OUTCOME
Interaction with multiple channels from one platform
Following the success of omnichannel in one area of Acorn, they decided to implement omnichannel in all areas, resulting in over 1,500 users. Acorn requested Matrix247 to configure their omnichannel solution to interact primarily with phone calls, emails,
Facebook, Twitter and webchat.
Improved workflow through skills based routing
With the implementation of omnichannel, Acorn Insurance has empowered its staff by allowing them to answer enquiries from multiple platforms rather than being restricted to one. This has significantly improved staff culture as employees feel more versatile and confident in their abilities, knowing they can assist with multiple channels during peak times.
Additionally, the system allows highly skilled contact centre agents to handle multiple enquiries simultaneously, such as speaking on the phone whilst answering a webchat enquiry. This streamlined approach saved up to 8 hours of work per week and has reduced queue times across the board.
Furthermore, the implementation of skills-based routing has increased webchat capability by 30%, allowing customers to complete simple tasks like updating their address without the need to interact with an agent. This has greatly reduced stress in busy areas of the business and again decreased queue times, ultimately enhancing the customer experience.
Acorn Insurance’s adoption of omnichannel and skill-based routing has revolutionised their approach to customer service and improved staff culture. By empowering their staff with the ability to handle multiple enquiries from various channels, Acorn Insurance has established a positive working culture, resulting in higher staff morale and increased job satisfaction.
Customers are directed to the most suitable agent
Acorn Insurance has implemented an artificial intelligence-driven omnichannel system that directs users to the most suitable agent to handle their enquiry, resulting in better customer experience. Acorn have configured their systems so that all of their agents are ranked 1-9
across all their products and services. If a customer calls about taxi fleet insurance, the call would be automatically routed to agents who excel at taxi fleet insurance. This has led to fewer customer offloads and a lower abandonment rate.
The system also recognises when a customer has had a positive interaction with a specific agent and connects them to that agent automatically in future interactions. This has strengthened the relationship between customers and agents, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and a decrease in abandonment rates.
The omnichannel system has also improved staff culture as agents are confident in their skilled area and able to help customers quickly and efficiently. The system has increased employee retention as agents are not being forced to handle enquires outside their skillset, but allows Acorn to recognise training gaps and development opportunities for their team.
Queue deflection system
Acorn Insurance’s implementation of a queue deflection system with omnichannel has not only improved customer satisfaction but also positively impacted staff morale and company culture. The system allows users calling into the business to be redirected to a digital channel. In peak times, users have the option of receiving an SMS message with a link to their webchat to complete the action instead of waiting for an agent to become available, or alternatively, they can request to get a call back from the next available agent instead of waiting in the call queue.
This leads to more positive interactions towards customers and staff, improving staff morale as they are able to handle enquires more efficiently and effectively. By reducing the number of abandoned calls and increasing first contact resolution rates, staff are more likely to feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in their work, leading to increased productivity and job satisfaction.
Case management system
When an issue is raised, the omnichannel system includes a Case Management System that allows an email ticketing system to be used. The system allows for quick assignment and routing of customer issues to the appropriate department, reducing the time staff spend on assigning and transferring enquires. Both customers and staff can then track the status of their issue via email rather than contacting the company for an update. This has a direct impact on call traffic reduction. It has also resulted in a decrease in system issue tickets raised, with tickets dropping from 636 per week to 327 per week. Staff are now empowered to handle customer
enquiries more efficiently and effectively.
Real-time reporting
Omnichannel provides Acorn Insurance a range of metrics and insights in real-time to monitor their performance, such as call resolution, abandonment rates, C-sat scores, average handling time and answer rates. They can customise reports by channel, month, department and source. This allows managers and supervisors to easily review their teams’ performance and identify areas that need attention. As a result, Acorn have been able to adopt data-driven improvements across their operations. With the ability to track their own performance and access real-time data, employees can provide high-quality customer service and deliver on Acorn Insurance’s
commitment to excellence.
Schedule reporting
All real time reports are sent automatically to supervisors and managers via email. This is extremely simple to set up and tailored to each agent’s specific needs.
Make personalised reports with SQL access reporting
Despite omnichannel providing detailed, accurate statistics about Acorn Insurance customers and agents, the type of data managers can access is limited due to the way raw data is collected, set up and displayed. The smallest time period for a statistics report is 15 minutes, and
reports can be delivered 2 hours after the quarter end. For example, if you request a report on the previous day’s performance, it will be available at 2am the next day.
For some users, this will be sufficient data access to develop clear plans for improving the performance of their department or individual agents. Acorn Insurance requested more detailed data to inform their decision making. This has been accomplished through SQL Access
Reporting, which allows Acorn developers to access all of the raw data of their customers and agents collected by the omnichannel software. Records for calls, chats, emails, and agent activities are continuously recorded with Acorn’s omnichannel platform.
Acorn Insurance has leveraged the data collected through SQL Access to create personalised reports for its agents, including visual charts that are colour coded for easy analysis. These reports cover a range of agent performance metrics such as the number of calls answered, hold time, average call time as well as customer satisfaction ratings. By using this data to create personalised plans for each agent, Acorn Insurance has been able to boost their performance and improve customer satisfaction. This approach not only helps agents improve their skills, but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and teamwork, as employees are given the support they need to excel in their roles.
API access
The omnichannel software provides open API access, allowing Acorn Insurance’s developers to create their own intelligent routing rather than relying on external party to do so. This has meant Acorn are able to set up their own integrations within a small-time frame and have unlimited accessibility and flexibility.
Acorn Insurance have utilised this feature to integrate their CRM to identify key customer characteristics when receiving calls. This enables the system to recognise the type of call and direct it to the relevant area of the business which Acorn Insurance would like them to interact
with. For example, if a user calls to update their billing address but is out of contract, the call will be automatically routed to renewals to facilitate an updated contract.
Similarly, if a customer who hasn’t paid their last two bills calls to get a quote for new insurance, they will be automatically directed to credit control to address their outstanding payments. By ensuring that calls are routed to the appropriate department and staff are able to quickly identify the needs of the customer, this system helps improve staff morale and job satisfaction as they are better equipped to handle the specific needs of each caller. By streamlining their operations, Acorn Insurance ensures customers are directed to the right department, improving their experience with the company.
C-Sat score & sentiment analysis
By tracking important metrics such as C-Sat scores, Acorn Insurance has been able to analyse the performance of its agents and identify areas that require improvement. This has lead to increased agent performance, and the implementation of training in the relevant areas, thereby enhancing their skillset.
Moreover, the company utilise AI to monitor customers’ emotions during their interactions to assess their overall experience. The sentiment analysis, when combined with C-Sat scores accurately reflects the customers emotional response to the business. This has resulted in a better understanding of customers needs and preferences, leading to improved customer service and understanding of their customers needs.
Workforce management system
With the implementation of omnichannel, Acorn Insurance has replaced its previous Excel Spreadsheet for tracking employee attendance with a Workforce Management System. This system allows the company to easily track who is in the office, who has scheduled time off and
who is working from home.
Additionally, Acorn Insurance has recently introduced flexible working hours to accommodate the varied lifestyles of its employees. The Workforce Management System is integrated into the omnichannel platform and provides an automatic and simple way to filter and understand employee schedules. By simplifying the process of generating shift patterns, this new system has saved the company time and improved staff morale.
THE FUTURE WITH OMNICHANNEL
Easy integration with new platforms & constant new features
The omnichannel software continues to evolve with new features and functionality and integrating its software with other companies that are experts CX. The new modules/features can be integrated into the omnichannel software in 6-8 weeks, which is an extremely short time frame. For example, they have begun working with PCI Pal which provides secure payment software. This has enabled businesses using the software to accept payments while also dealing with customer enquiries. The client’s digital channel can be used to send links to the payment method to the user. The customer’s information will be kept strictly confidential.
With the proliferation of new social media platforms and thousands of new apps being released each month, omnichannel can quickly integrate with the most recent platforms. This ensures that Acorn remains ahead of the curve in the latest technologies and competitive within the insurance industry.
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