AllstateDCXUS16
•Download as POTX, PDF•
1 like•106 views
The document discusses how Allstate Canada is taking a startup approach to catalyze customer experience innovation and drive revenue growth. It outlines four focal points for Allstate Canada: 1) gaining leadership support and advocacy for change, 2) increasing IT agility, 3) empowering frontline sales teams, and 4) shifting the company culture. For each area, it describes challenges Allstate Canada faced compared to a startup and steps they are taking to influence change, with progress reported in piloting new approaches and embracing failure. The goal is for Allstate Canada to evolve into a more customer-centric organization.
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (18)
Similar to AllstateDCXUS16
Similar to AllstateDCXUS16 (20)
AllstateDCXUS16
- 1. Think Like a Startup to Catalyze Your CX Innovation and Drive Revenue Growth Eric Buchegger, Social and Digital Media Manager Allstate Canada Allstate Canada: A Case Study @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 2. Think Like a Startup to Catalyze Influence Your CX Innovation and Drive Revenue Growth Eric Buchegger, Social and Digital Media Manager Allstate Canada Allstate Canada: A Case Study @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 3. Allstate Canada is on a journey … @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 6. 4 Focal Points 2 3 4 1 Leadership Support & Advocacy IT Agility Frontline & Sales Empowerment HR & Company Culture @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 7. Leadership Support & Advocacy
- 8. Leadership at a startup … • Live and breathe digital • Tend to be very hands on and close to customers • Shepherd customer obsession • Take risks @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 9. Leadership at Allstate Canada • Strong background in larger, matrix organizations • Very friendly, caring and approachable • Supportive and open to change @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 10. Several challenges @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 • Not fully immersed in tech, digital or CX • A few degrees of separation from customers • Somewhat risk-averse • Tendency to evaluate initiatives based on expected monetary returns
- 11. Influencing change @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 • Build trust and nurture relationships • Share the vision – even if not fully formed • Educate on value, and share progress, results and insights
- 12. @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Progress and results • Foundation in place – Leadership support drives empowerment • Expanding investment in CX, social and digital media • Leadership social media participation
- 13. Things to consider Does your Leadership fully understand the need for your organization to evolve? @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Do you have their support, or do you actively need to seek opportunities to influence them?
- 14. IT Agility
- 15. IT at a startup … • Close connectivity to “business” side of company • Limited process and bureaucracy – able to quickly test • Current, diverse and versatile skills @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 16. IT at Allstate Canada • Talented team that has built and maintains robust infrastructure for the company • Disciplined, data-driven and process-oriented • Quality work that the company takes great pride in @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 17. Several challenges @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 • Legacy processes and systems • Design according to internal needs – not customers • Limited understanding of digital customer experience not in DNA • "US" and "them" thinking with respect to IT and the business
- 18. • Understand IT culture and processes ... empathize • Pilot projects that can lead to greater, quicker change • Introduce vendors to collaborate with IT • Help IT come to the realization they must evolve Influencing change @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 19. GOOD HANDS Blog @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 20. @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Progress and results • Embracing experimentation – testing methodology evolving • Moving to "always be testing" mindset • Customer feedback is driving decisions • Digital transformation team in place – influencing future DCX work
- 21. Things to consider @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 How poised is your IT team to innovate and adapt based on data and customer feedback? Who do you need to influence?
- 22. Frontline & Sales Team Empowerment
- 23. Sales in a startup … • Digital infrastructure – access to platforms and tools to help with acquisition and retention • Connectivity to product and service teams – able to share ideas and customer feedback • Aptitude for handling change, given nature of environment @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 24. Sales at Allstate Canada • Talented team of over 450 agents • Well-tenured employees, using legacy CRM and insurance policy platforms • Strong desire to use social media and social selling @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 25. @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Several challenges • Pressure to achieve quotas – customer-centricity at times second priority • Ad hoc processes for collecting customer feedback • Limited digital or social media skills amongst many team members (but desire to learn)
- 26. • Empower sales to participate on social media – developing local presence and voice • Change management: o Gain support amongst key stakeholders o Start with pilot – demonstrate success, socialize results o Introduce new, more nimble processes and feedback loops Influencing change @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 28. Progress and results @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 30. Things to consider @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Are your frontline and sales teams truly empowered when helping customers? Do they have access to the right technology and tools to help them do their work?
- 31. HR & Company Culture
- 32. Startup culture ... • Galvanized around business success & growth • Empowerment – all hands on deck • Tendency to embrace failure • Unique benefits and perks @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 33. The culture at Allstate Canada • Very strong, positive and collaborative culture • Family-oriented • Strong level of comfort within organization @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16
- 34. Several challenges @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 • Sense of comfort with the way things are • Sporadic levels of digital savvy through organization • Hesitance to fail
- 35. Influencing change @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 • Organizational effort – engaging with multiple stakeholders • Identified key areas to focus on: o Employee Value Proposition o Training – people managers o HR – hire for cultural fit and customer experience expertise
- 36. @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Progress and results • Employee Value Proposition developed • New hiring focus – reduced turnover in field • Embracing experimentation (and failure)
- 37. Things to consider @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 What is your culture truly like? Does it need to evolve? Who can potentially impact a change in culture?
- 39. @ericbuchegger #DCXUS16 Customers Allstate Canada is evolving
Editor's Notes
- - Welcome!!! - Think Like a Startup to Catalyze Your CX Innovation and Drive Revenue Growth
- - Slight change to theme … influence is the word that really applies, as you’ll see throughout the presentation.
- - Tell story of Allstate Canada, and our journey into thinking more like a startup - I’ve been at Allstate for just over two and a half years …. This journey is very much in progress - We’re in a state of transition …. I’ll share some challenges, successes, and lessons learned …. and what we have planned - Hopefully will help you with your efforts.
- - Important distinction … talking about Allstate Canada, not Allstate here in US! - Threw in the most four stereotypical Canadian images I could find. (admit … CANUCKS fan) … - Allstate Canada … 85 agencies, 450 sales agents, and 1700 employees across Canada (Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia). - Home and auto insurance THROW IN NORTHBROOK REFERENCE
- - Chicago marathon … 2013. Expression changed after Goose Island beer - Lead Social & Digital Media at Allstate Canada …. Building much of our strategy from ground up, working on small Corporate Relations Team. - Very cross functional role …. Close to Senior Leadership … claims, HR, IT, Marketing - Previous: background in marketing, social at Intuit for TurboTax, worked at a startup
- - Story of influence … I’ve got mindset that we need to think differently, but when I started, it’s not like everyone else did when I started. - Not like I could just flip a switch …. Introducing new digital capabilities, feedback mechanisms and a mindset that embraces experimentation and failure. - Needed to influence change - Focus on four main areas … Leadership, IT, Sales and overall company culture
- - The journey to thinking like a startup begins with influencing leadership - Cannot emphasize how important this first step is … - Again, fortunate to be only two steps away from Leadership Team … quite crucial …
- - Need to set frame of reference for startups … so I’m totally going to stereotype! - Leadership teams in startups live and breathe digital … what startup doesn’t define itself as tech? Every one does! - Hand on and close to customers -nature of a startup, founders and CEOs do the marketing, communications and are at the front-lines; active on social - OBSESSION - Risks – entirely pivot business models; Tony Hsieh .. Zappos was founded in 1999, customer obsession was in their DNA from the get-go Book: Delivering Happiness
- - Let’s compare to Leadership at Allstate Canada - Background in larger, matrix organizations many from Allstate US - Friendly, caring and approachable open door policy, know many employees - Extremely supportive and open to change
- - Some challenges to consider, framed against acting like a startup - Most are not fully tech, digital or CX just not in their background - Some separation from customers they do spend time in field, but a few layers removed - Overall, risk averse more conservative approach - Evaluate proposed initiatives based on expected monetary returns – LOTS of GREY with CX
- - Trust and relationships -- First thing I did, met with LT members personally …. got to know them, their business objectives … rapport - Share the vision – framework for digital and social media ecosystem (even if based on hypothesis) - Educate on value, and share progress -- descriptive dashboard, focus on outcomes, but also highlighted activity .. customer interactions - Benefits: LT becomes digital/social savvy; understands changing digital and social landscape ... paves road for investment
- - Two years in … foundation in place ... Leadership support truly drives other efforts I’m going to speak to - People feel empowered throughout company, knowing importance of digital, social and CX to leadership team - LT has much better understanding of digital and social, and our investment is expanding - Looking to get closer to customers ... plan is now in place to get Leadership participating on social media ... get close to customers (opportunity to get direct feedback) THEME: Underpin necessary risks with educated processes (strong) Leadership Team support and communication
- A couple of things to consider: - Does your Leadership Team fully understand the need for your organization to evolve? - Do you have their support, or do you actively need to seek opportunities to influence them?
- Shift gears and talk about IT
- - Close connection with “business” side of company -- work closely with team members, open lines of communication, especially sales, marketing and customer service - Limited process and bureaucracy -- able to move quickly, make decisions; more apt to apply lean startup --> ability to test and deploy in rapid manner, taking into account customer feedback - Versatile skills - probably a lot of young guns --> strong understanding of evolving/emerging UX and CX principles, mobile, experience with multiple companies and brands (move around quickly); versatile teams --> including UX design
- - Proud that we have a very talented team - Built and maintains robust infrastructure for the company – insurance policy systems, CRM, internal database – ensure data security - Disciplined, data-driven and process-oriented - Quality work that the company takes great pride in - They are our lifeline. If our systems are down, we’re not writing insurance policies ….
- I LOVE OUR IT TEAM!!! - Rooted in legacy processes and systems - slow, bureaucratic; processes and structure ideal to develop legacy infrastructure, but not necessarily well-poised for agile development; - Inward focus with respect to design - - not taking customer feedback into account - Limited understanding of digital customer experience --> just not in DNA; older demographic, worked at Allstate for awhile, NO experience developing products for other consumer brands - "US" and "them" thinking ... with respect to IT and the business (and language matters) (IT somewhat silo’d from other business areas)
- - Understand their culture, their processes ... be able to empathize (not overnight process); Set the stage for influencing change (recognize it won't happen overnight ... need to develop some level of respect and influence); - Pilot projects that can lead to greater, quicker change - Introduce outside vendors to collaborate with IT - augment skills and experience - Help IT come to realization that they must evolve ... don't dictate ... involve them in process ... THIS IS KEY ... Educate IT ... help them understand digital customer experience
- - Recall earlier reference to a content research ... quick win with LT? - Well, we turned it around and built our blog based on it - Allstate GOOD HANDS blog (first notable project) - Collaboration between IT and outside vendor ... we trained IT on development, but got best work in conjunction with outside vendor - Enabled more nimble, quick approach - and nice design ... we brought in the skills Pebbles, rocks and boulders analogy
- -Testing methodology is evolving - we're doing A/B ... multivariate testing Allstate.ca and blog, with outside vendors ... able to quickly make changes based on test results -Always now have tests in play, and constantly collecting feedback to drive decisions; working with vendors such as Optimizely and ClickTale -Notably, silos are being reduced, IT more integrated ... move away from "IT" and the "Business" to one team ... it's us ... not us and them ... we're getting there ... this is paramount. -Digital transformation team in place, involving business and IT
- A couple of things to consider: - Does your IT team need to evolve? - Who do you need to influence?
- Let’s turn attention to sales and frontline staff ....
- Sales in a startup ... - Digital infrastructure - Access to leading platforms and tools to help with acquisition and retention (communication and collaboration tools like Slack ... if anyone on IT team is listening) - Close access to product and service teams – able to share customer feedback, leading to enhanced offering - Aptitude for handling change, given nature of environment (on their toes)
- - At Allstate ... talented sales team of over 450 agents in 86 offices - Many well-tenured employees, using legacy CRM and insurance policy platforms (one of the great things I love about Allstate, people stay for years …) - Shift in demographics (people retiring, starting to get younger … hiring young guns) - Strong desire to use social media and social selling, but no training or tools in place
- - Pressure to achieve quotas – customer-centricity at times second priority - Ad hoc processes for collecting customer feedback - Limited digital or social media skills amongst many team members (but desire to learn)
- - Social media – developing local presence and voice; Blog was first pillar - Invested in platform to enable sales participation - Change management - Gain support amongst key stakeholders (Start with pilot – demonstrate success, socialize results; We piloted ... got advocates within the organization and across the country ... agents are now helping each other ... - Introduce new, more nimble processes and feedback loops (Direct connection to everyone - biweekly calls, I actively ask for their feedback and input, processes for monitoring customer feedback)
- - Risk mitigation - Risky endeavour ... (Position Playbook as risk mitigation aid … facilitates experimentation) - Risks -agents going rogue or off-brand in their activity - Overcome by coaching/bi-weekly calls, platform monitoring, key word monitoring (no idea that many profanity combinations!) - Experimentation - Agents have leeway to experiment, set up so that cost/risk (to us) is minimal; we experiment as well ... learning, trying different content
- - 120 empowered agents now using Facebook and LinkedIn (versus 0 year ago), engaging with customers and prospects - Agents have their own voice, creating better local presence; able to do low-risk experiments (Pokemon example) - Hearsay Social – feedback loops, - We now have data based on 120 sales people, engagement with content – we can use to drive decision-making - 60% now attributing new sales and customers to social media activity) - Allstate single view project – data
- - Blog and Hearsay enabled quick and comprehensive customer communication in response to Fort McMurray fire - CAT communication feature activated on blog, including claims contact information and updates on Allstate presence in community centers - Agents proactively shared updates on their Allstate-focused Facebook business pages
- - Are your frontline and sales teams truly empowered when helping customers? - Do they have access to the right technology and tools to help them do their work, and provide quick, efficient service? THEME: Underpin necessary risks with educated processes (strong) Leadership Team support and communication
- Last pillar, company culture
- - Galvanized around business success & growth – sense of affinity and togetherness - Empowerment – recall about Leadership team members doing marketing, in startups everyone tends to step in – no silos - Tendency to embrace (and learn from) failure - Unique benefits and quirks ... it's a different atmosphere
- - Very strong, positive and collaborative culture - Family-oriented - Strong level of comfort within organization
- - Sense of comfort - with so many well-tenured employees, sense of comfort with the way things are; change can be difficult - Disconnect between Head Office and field – makes it challenging when rolling our programs and initiatives - Sporadic levels of digital savvy through organization – plays into well-tenured employees - Hesitancy to fail
- - Organizational effort – engaging with multiple stakeholders, focus on HR at early stage Areas to focus on - Training – sales and frontline staff - HR – hire for cultural fit and customer experience expertise - Employee empowerment – focus on training people managers,
- - Training programs on digital and social media - Hiring criteria has changed for frontline staff - Embracing experimentation and failure across organization
- Be methodical and involve key stakeholders THEME: Underpin necessary risks with educated processes (strong) Leadership Team support and communication
- - STARTUPS DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHO OWNS THE CUSTOMER - their product development is based on customer feedback - Moving from product-centric to customer-centric - Reframe EVERYTHING around the customer, and think less about WHO OWNS WHAT .... the CUSTOMER OWNS YOU, YOU ARE AT THEIR MERCY - this mindset needs to shift throughout organization
- - Know there are a lot of companies that excel at customer service - Large number of companies that didn’t exist 5, 10 15 years ago are redefining customer experience …