Happy Customers Make For More Business

Background

An insurance company was enjoying a profitable business. So, you might ask, "what was the problem?" The facilities for employees was absolutely maxed out. The pertinent question was how to increase productivity from existing employees and improve customer service. Secondly, to understand the reasons behind the average claim pay taking 28 days.

Objective

SGS partner was commissioned by the insurance company to analyze the following:

1. Existing workflows and procedures
2. Current workload and its fluctuations
3. Organizational and management structures in the department
4. Design and install a management tracking system to monitor productivity

The company knew that, eventually, a new building was going to be mandatory. However, the delay of the structure could prove to be beneficial for solid fiduciary reasons. In addition, it was management's desire to pay claims rapidly for public relations exposure in the market place.

Key Results

• A central call center was installed. All calls previously handled by the administrative staff were now routed to the central call center manned by industry-educated employees. Admin increased their throughput and customer service improved dramatically.
• Team leaders for processing staff were put in place to allow for day-to-day "management decisions" to be made instantaneously.
• Incentive plans were initiated to create an "overachiever" atmosphere.
• The central filing system was restructured to match the new workflows for the claims department.

Commentary

Once the work force was retrained, the company received many comments regarding their increased professionalism from customers. The restructuring of management layers and of work flows created a decrease in claims processing time from 28 days to 7.