Online client contact is not possible without personal attention

Transparency and interaction: theme of CED Jubilee symposium

Online client contact is not possible without personal attention

‘In the future, personal client contact will be replaced principally by online client contact'. The majority of the experts present at the CED symposium voted in favour of this view. CED organised the meeting in collaboration with the Rotterdam School of Management at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in honour of its fortieth anniversary.

The plenary discussion, chaired by Jeroen Smit, which took place after the views had been expressed of those present, namely the management of insurance companies, interest groups, consultants, adjusters and students, reached the conclusion that the use of online communication systems will indeed increase greatly in the future, but that the key to regaining consumers’ trust lies in the personal attention which financial service providers give to their clients.

Cross-media contact with the client in the insurance market was the topic of the symposium. From a political, scientific and business management perspective the position of the participants was shaped by appealing speakers. CED chairman of the board Stef Witteveen spent a moment to remember the fortieth anniversary of CED before passing over to Guy Verhofstadt. The ex-Prime Minister of Belgium, Minister of State and member of the European Parliament spoke about the way in which the European Union needs to work on its resurrection. Inspiring and resolute; (“We need a European bond, otherwise I do not give the Union more than a month”). Verhofstadt managed to convince European Claims Expert CED and its guests of the opportunities that still exist in Europe. Hans Strikwerda, professor of Innovation and Organizational Sciences at the University of Amsterdam and Hans Borgman, professor of Business Administration and Information Management at the University of Leiden, during their introductions, focused on the Dutch insurance sector. Strikwerda presented models of organisations which respond strongly to changing trends in consumer preferences and information technology. Borgman emphasized the various interpretations which can be given to ‘transparency’ these days.

In between the three introductions CED announced the result of an extensive client survey which it had conducted from January to September of this year amongst 4,500 clients. Not only did CED get an eight out of ten regarding client satisfaction, but it also identified a need for differentiation in the area of desired client contact.
The survey results revealed that a considerable range exists between personal client contact and online client contact. As the complexity of the service increases, so does the need for personal contact on the client’s end. When reporting damages, in more than half of the cases contact via the Internet (e-mail) suffices. However, during the stage of claim management almost 40 per cent of the clients want personal telephone contact. And in the event of a complaint that need rises to 45 per cent. Contact transpired to correlate strongest with the satisfaction amongst clients (70.5 per cent). CED concluded that it is difficult to find the perfect balance between the various types of contact, from personal/face-to-face to online. However, it was possible to record that service providers should ideally opt for the ‘hybrid model’, where all forms are applied. The client, rather than the service provider, decides.

The conclusion of the discussion was that trust in financial services does not exist without personal contact between the client and the service provider. “These days the product is too complex and frequently very client-centred”, said a participant to the symposium. “For this you need trust and therefore a personal relationship with a service provider who knows how to combine efficient communication with attention to the individual client”.