How to keep customers while they are experiencing the stress of COVID-19, lockdown and associated economic pressures. Presentation given at Insurance Conference.

1. Retaining customers in
challenging times
Samantha Hillion-Burnswww.BrillianceCX.com

2. of South Africans
expect brands to …
show that they care
2020 Edelman Trust Barometer

3. “How well a brand responds to
this crisis will have a huge impact
on my likelihood to buy that brand
in future”

4. “Companies that I see
placing their profits before
people during this crisis …..
will lose my trust forever”

5. These statistics are in
the context of an
emotional state
Brand Emotion

6. Struggle / Embattled
Attempting to
proceed with
difficulty or
with great effort,
repressed,
striving to
achieve or
attain something
in the face of
difficulty or
resistance.

7. Restricted / Abused
Inability to
move forward,
circumstances
denying or
preventing
choice, not
permitting
change.

8. Given these dominant
emotions during this
challenging time,
WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT IT?

9. Founder and Director of Brilliance
Samantha Hillion-Burns is dedicated to helping companies around the
world be more successful with their customers
Samantha has over 20 years’ executive experience in the field of
customer success, including customer experience management;
customer trust and loyalty; customer ethics; customer communication;
service design and complaints management.
She has an international MBA cum laude mastering customer loyalty,
and a degree in psychology and communications.
Over 150 firms are using Brilliance custom-designed subscription
systems to successfully implement, monitor and measure business
practices to meet both customer experience and regulatory
requirements.
Samantha@BrillianceCX.com
About Samantha Hillion-Burns

10. Retaining customers in challenging times
Value of
customer
retention
Real case
claims
example
Brilliance
customer
model
Essential
action
now

11. Value of customer retention
What we mean by customer retention
Locking in
customers

12. Value of customer retention
What we mean by customer retention
Customer
loveLocking in
customers

13. Value of customer retention
It makes good business sense
Customers with strong positive affiliations with a brand / company:
• Spend more
• Cost less to serve over time
• Cost less to keep than to replace
• Are much more willing to recommend that brand / company to others

14. Customers with strong positive affiliations with a brand / company:
• Are the most effective marketing agents
Because
 People give twice as much attention to recommendations from friends
than from any other source
 People trust recommendations from people they know
Once a referral becomes a customer, they are less likely to leave
Referred customers bring on average a 25% higher profit margin
It makes good business sense
Value of customer retention

15. Value of customer retention

16. Retaining customers in challenging times
Value of
customer
retention
Brilliance
customer
model

17. Brilliant for customers model
Customer
Success
Outcomes
Feel
Good
Confident
to trust

18. Companies reacting in one of two ways
during COVID-19 lockdown:
Reaching out to get
more support from
their customers
Reaching out to
give more support
to their customers

19. Your customers need your support
With the emotional and
financial strain of COVID-19
and lockdown…
• Remember your customers
are human beings
• Need to feel more
connected
• Need to feel less
vulnerable

20. Retaining customers in challenging times
Value of
customer
retention
Real case
claims
example
Brilliance
customer
model

28. Real case claims example: Learnings
Because customers are in a heightened emotional state
Claims are moments of truth

29. Claims are moments of truth

30. Benefit size 84%
Speed of claim handling 79%
Premiums 69%
Efficiency of services 67%
Professional service 67%
Factors influencing customer satisfaction with insurance companies
Claims and customer retention

31. Claims and customer retention
Customer
love

32. Claims and customer retention
Customer
love

33. Claims and customer retention
1. The importance of human touch
• Technology critical for speed and efficiency
– it is an enabler
• Humans critical for emotional connection
– authentic personal interaction.
of customers feel companies have lost
touch with the human element of the
customer experience
want more human interaction in future,
not less
• Want both speed and efficiency plus
knowledgeable and helpful employeesPwC international survey – 15 000 consumers
66%
75%

34. Claims and customer retention
2. Care-filled listening to your customer
• Humans are better than systems at making people
feel heard
• Listening training – empathic compassion
of customers who were unhappy or very
unhappy with interaction felt that their
emotions were not properly
acknowledged or understood
happy or very happy even though they
did not get desired resolution to a query
but felt properly acknowledged or
understood
PwC international survey – 15 000 consumers
85%
? %
Genesys Research 2020
60%
(generally)

35. Retaining customers in challenging times
Value of
customer
retention
Real case
claims
example
Brilliance
customer
model
Essential
action
now

36. Essential action now
Struggle / Embattled
• Fatigued
• Striving in the face
of huge difficulty
• Vulnerable
• Fearful
• Anxious
• Stressed
• Depressed

37. Essential action now
Find every possible way
within your means to make
customers feel safe and
protected – physically or
emotionally or both
Protected/Safe

38. Essential action now
Make customers feel safe and protected
1. People feel safer (and calmer) when they feel heard
• To make customers feel heard, you need care-filled listening
• Tone of voice, eye contact, choice of words, complete focus on
the customer and their feelings, and most of all: real care
• Meaningful interaction – connect with their feelings

39. Essential action now
Make customers feel safe and protected
2. Strengthen your empathy muscles
• Wired to Care: How companies prosper when they create widespread empathy
• Mindsight: Transform your brain with the new science of empathy
• The Age of Empathy: Nature’s lessons for a kinder society
• Well-Designed: How to use empathy to create products people love
• The Art of Empathy: A complete guide to life’s most essential skill
• Empathy: Why it matters and how to get it

40. Essential action now
Team brainstorm:
What else can you do to
make customers feel
emotionally safe and
protected?
Protected/Safe

41. Essential action now
Customer
Success
Outcomes
Feel
Good
Confident
to trust
What else you can you do
to make customers feel
emotionally safe and
protected
Protected/Safe

42. Essential action now
Customer
Success
Outcomes
Feel
Good
Confident
to trust
1. Uniqueness of individual human
beings – personalise
2. Build trust – honesty, integrity and
fairness; reach out to connect not sell
3. Meet expectations – promises
4. Respect – time and effort; speed
5. Resolve complaints quickly and
professionally
Protected/Safe

43. Retaining customers in challenging times
Value of
customer
retention
Real case
claims
example
Brilliance
customer
model
Essential
action
now

44. Retaining customers in
challenging times
Samantha Hillion-Burnswww.BrillianceCX.com

45. Founder and Director of Brilliance
Samantha Hillion-Burns is dedicated to helping companies around the
world be more successful with their customers
Samantha has over 20 years’ executive experience in the field of
customer success, including customer experience management;
customer trust and loyalty; customer ethics; customer communication;
service design and complaints management.
She has an international MBA cum laude mastering customer loyalty,
and a degree in psychology and communications.
Over 150 firms are using Brilliance custom-designed subscription
systems to successfully implement, monitor and measure business
practices to meet both customer experience and regulatory
requirements.
Samantha@BrillianceCX.com
About Samantha Hillion-Burns