The foundation of delivering a fantastic experience to customers is listening to them. How can you provide relevant and personalized experiences without understanding your customers and hearing their feedback?
Nationwide Insurance is known for its customer-centricity, largely because of its company-wide focus on listening to customers and using their feedback to continually improve the experience. EVP and Chief Customer Officer Amy Shore says Nationwide’s dedication to offering extraordinary care to its customers starts by listening to their feedback and ideas.
When building up the CX discipline inside the 100-year-old company, Shore looked for quick wins and customer-centric processes she could implement quickly. To see immediate results, Nationwide tapped into a valuable resource: its customer-facing associates. Nationwide embedded a tool called The Voice into its internal solutions for frontline associates to provide insights and feedback. And the results came quickly, with thousands of ideas and feedback that are forwarded to the appropriate teams within the company. Every department at Nationwide is connected to customer feedback and continually receives insights and ideas on improving the customer experience—whether or not they regularly interact with customers.
The key to effectively listening to customers is doing something with their feedback. Every meeting of the customer service leaders starts by sharing feedback from customers and employees. Shore says having a standing opportunity to share feedback and pain points with leaders has opened the door for crucial conversations and changes to the customer and employee experience.
At Nationwide, feedback isn’t limited to frontline associates. The bi-annual State of the Customer report shares insights, trends, and customer feedback so everyone can stay up to date with how customers interact with Nationwide and their thoughts and preferences. Nationwide leverages a customer feedback management platform that analyzes calls, emails, social posts, complaints, and more daily to highlight patterns and issues. Staying on top of data allows Nationwide to step in and proactively solve problems when needed.
Nationwide’s company-wide focus on customers starts with the CEO, who believes that a great customer experience doesn’t cost, it pays. With that mindset, the company invests in technology and solutions to empower employees and serve customers. And that customer-first mindset permeates the company so that all employees continually think about customers and listen to their feedback and ideas.
Serving customers starts by getting to know them and understanding their ideas, priorities, and experiences. Nationwide shows that listening to customers is a company-wide effort.
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Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist and the bestselling author of The Customer of the Future. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.