Engineering a low effort customer experience organization is easy to talk about and more difficult to do in execution. See how Mark Pitchford, Managing Director of Sales and Service at Esurance puts the principles from Matt Dixon's best-selling book, The Effortless Experience, into practice in his organization.

1. Operationalizing the Effortless Experience
Mark Pitchford
Managing Director & Chief Customer Advocate

2. #call2loyaltyEsurance Overview
Esurance launched in 1999 as an
on-line auto insurance provider
“Built to Save: Born online,
raised by technology, and
majors in efficiency”
Acquired by Allstate in 2011,
doubled in size since
Esurance today:
• Offers auto insurance in 43 States,
plus homeowners, motorcycle, and
renters insurance
• Serves ~1 million customers with
annual revenues of $1.5B
• Seven Sales & Service call centers,
~1,000 front-line representatives,
30% work-at-home

3. #call2loyalty
Our NPS data led us to focus on
reducing customer effort
• Low Effort work was intriguing and aligned with our overall focus on improving
self-service and reducing call handling costs
• NPS survey work, combined with customer attrition analytics, reinforced this focus

4. #call2loyalty
Mattersight: A key partner in the
customer service journey
• Began implementing Mattersight speech analytics in 2012
• Trained all representatives on personality profiles and how
to modify their communication styles to the customer’s personality
• In our service organization, initial focus was on reducing
non-interaction and talk time
• Extended focus to First Call Resolution and reduction
in customer distress
• Expanded partnership with Mattersight to leverage the speech
analytics and personality profiles into personality-based call
routing in early-2014

5. #call2loyalty
AGENT EMOTIONS OPINIONS REACTIONS THOUGHTS AVERAGE
A 222 277 263 231 246
B 352 414 373 378 380
C 334 490 412 432 419
D 291 324 373 376 341
E 425 500 370 500 458
AVERAGE 355 384 387 389 380
ATT Variability by Agent by Caller Personality
Number of Seconds
n = 36,000 calls.
Source: Esurance; Mattersight analysis.
Personality Mismatch and Performance Variability
Have a Significant Impact on Business Outcomes

6. #call2loyalty
ATT Variability by Personality Pairing Across Agent Performance Quartiles
Average Talk Time (in seconds) for 64 Esurance Service Pilot Participants
n = 36,000 calls.
Personality Mismatch and Performance Variability
Have a Significant Impact on Business Outcomes
Agent ATT
Performance Quartile
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4300
400
500
600
272
324
371
450
281
346
392
480
297
366
411
499
313
386
431
533
Agent’s Best
Personality Pairing
3rd Best2nd Best Worst
0
100
200
Source: Esurance; Mattersight analysis.

7. #call2loyaltyATT Benefit from Routing
ATT Reduction from Routing
n = 510,000 customer calls.
ATT(Seconds)
400
350
300
250
April
2014
May
2014
June
2014
July
2014
August
2014
September
2014
October
2014
November
2014
December
2014
January
2015
February
2015
March
2015
April
2015
May
2015
June
2015
July
2015
August
2015
Routed
Non-Routed
Calls routed based on personality require 13.1%
less talk time than non-routed calls at Esurance.
Source: Esurance; Mattersight analysis.

8. #call2loyaltyImpact on Service Experience
Non-Interaction Time Transfer Time
RoutedNon-Routed
∆ = (25.1%)
RoutedNon-Routed
∆ = (13.5%)
Personality-based
routing yields significant
reductions in handle
time, and thus costs…
…while ensuring that
traditional metrics
around the quality of the
call are maintained.
Transfer Rate Positive Comment Rate
Non-Routed Routed
∆ = (2.8%)
Non-Routed Routed
∆ = 3.2%
n = 510,000 customer calls.
Source: Esurance; Mattersight analysis.

9. #call2loyalty

10. #call2loyalty
Mark Pitchford
Managing Director &
Chief Customer Advocate