Service delivery… good or bad?
Service levels… since the start of the pandemic, some have voiced their frustrations about service delivery with sentiments such as, “Claims took a lot longer to be finalised”, “I could not get a hold of the right people to help me”, “I was sent from pillar to post on most things”, “The overall service level was worse than ever” and “There was no accountability from anyone at the service provider”.
FAnews spoke to Andrew Coutts, Head Intermediated Distribution at Santam, Michael Field, Chief Operations Officer at Fedgroup and Sunil Nagar, Managing Executive: Client and Adviser Service Centre at Liberty Group South Africa about service delivery since the start of the pandemic, what frustrated them the most with staff working from home and what was and still is the most frustrating thing.
Service levels during the pandemic
With the sentiments shared above, Field said, “I have seen this trend throughout the industry and many others as well, it is absolutely real. We have seen industry turnarounds slip from days to weeks, if not months.”
“Fedgroup returned to our offices in a staged approach but have been back 100% full time since September 2021. We run state of the art systems and are able to track just about anything. But it was never a problem of visibility, it was a problem of practicality. We saw, very early on, that the quality of client service was starting to slip when staff began working remotely. We took numerous steps to halt this slide but the value of simple inter person interactions is irreplaceable,” emphasised Field.
When asked if he agrees that there was a decline in service delivery since the start of the pandemic and that service levels went from good to bad, Field said, “Absolutely. More importantly, it was not a once off. Service levels have continued to decline, and the gap is widening between organisations operating remotely versus in the office. I have not seen a single example of a company who delivered superior service under remote conditions.”
At the onset of the pandemic, Nagar said there certainly was some deterioration, however, as we settled into and adjusted to working from home, overall service levels improved. “More recently, as lockdown fatigue and later waves of the pandemic manifested, there certainly were times where service levels did come under tremendous pressure, which resulted in the service levels not being that which were experienced previously.”
Some frustrating issues
When asked what frustrated him the most with staff working from home Nagar said, “Initially our biggest concern was making sure that our teams were able to work effectively from home. The reality is that very few of our homes were setup for remote working and this initially caused frustration. As we've adapted, the biggest frustrations have remained connectivity, load shedding and communicating effectively with various teams.”
Field said, “We saw many issues. These issues were often subtle, and the effect was limited until the total effect was considered. The large number of small issues added up to a large problem. One particular example we saw was frustration between colleagues, which started to emerge very early on. Having analysed this, we realised that every staff member believed they were working harder than their peers. The simple effect of sitting near to one another allows everyone to have an understanding of what their colleagues are doing, when this was removed assumptions took over from fact.”
“Another item is the relationship between teammates. It was nearly impossible to properly onboard new staff remotely and have them integrate and get up to full operational efficiency. Similarly, staff with existing relationships saw those bonds drift over time. Unprompted communication declined, which diminished the relationships, this in turn made people less likely to reach out which perpetuates the problem,” he added.
When it comes to claims specifically, Field said, “At the time we saw difficulties that clients experienced in trying to secure various documents or medical assessments. Since the restrictions have relaxed, we have not found any.”
Nagar added that the most frustrating aspect from a claims perspective for all parties is the management of requirements. “Upfront, if all requirements are not sent through, it can certainly prolong the claims process and frustrate both clients and advisers.”
When it comes to underwriting, Field said that during the hard lockdown phase “this was very difficult, and we generally made concessions to enable our clients to get their full cover. Since the relaxations, we have not found it to be overly onerous.”
Nagar added that underwriters specifically have enjoyed working from home, given the technical nature of their work, whilst “our tele-assessors have, at times, struggled from a telephony perspective and our nurses have had to change a lot of their interaction with clients to cater for COVID related protocols.”
Some have adapted very well
Like all other industries, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the Santam Group adapting to the business, health and societal challenges posed by the pandemic.
“The investment in technology and a culture of agility enabled us to swiftly transition over 95% of our people to work remotely. Intermediaries stepped up to the challenge, they took those calls, and they proved their value and worth over and over again. Together, with our intermediaries, we managed to deal with a multitude of challenges during the pandemic,” said Coutts.
“As we now move into the new ways of work, that combines the best of working physically with remote working in a new hybrid model, our clients remain our number one priority. To that end, we have adapted our ways of working when it comes to service delivery. In our new hybrid mode, each job role also has been reviewed to establish the right mix between office work and remote work,” Coutts continued.
Sustainability of the hybrid model
With the new hybrid model, where employees only work one or two days per week at the office, we asked whether this will be sustainable, specifically in terms of service delivery.
Field said no. “I believe many organisations were overzealous in reducing their office space. I ran the numbers, and it was extremely tempting, fortunately we did not act hastily. They reviewed results too soon and convinced themselves that it was working. We have seen countless declarations that ‘productivity is up’, what they have failed to grasp is that this is only true at the individual level. Once the efficiency of the collective is analysed, the opposite is true. Reduced collaboration and alignment have led to more busyness with less effectiveness. In addition, the early days benefited from strong relationships already being in place, as well as the novelty of working from home. Once these started to wear off, the declines started to accelerate. This is what has led service levels to continue declining. One can add in the well-publicised difficulties with mental health and unconducive environments to work from, and the problems really compound.”
Nagar, however, said “We believe that hybrid models of work with varying number of days in the office will be sustainable and assist us in maintaining and ultimately improving our service levels.”
Advice around service levels
“Remember what the client need is and ensure you are solving it better than anyone else. Attempting to solve it more cheaply than anyone else is a short-term strategy. In a service industry we cannot afford to sacrifice quality in the name of short-term cost saving. Focus more on revenue than cost, the old adage that you cannot cost cut your way to prosperity is truer than ever. There is enormous opportunity for those who emerge early, while their competitors are at home in their pyjamas,” concluded Field.
In closing, Coutts said, “We assure you Santam has dramatically increased service delivery to ensure we keep our clients happy and will continue to do so in the new hybrid way of work.”
In his concluding remarks Nagar said, “Through the pandemic we've certainly demonstrated the value of insurance. We see ourselves partnering with intermediaries to deliver excellent service. As such, we need to continue to work in a collaborative manner to achieve the correct outcomes.”
Writer’s Thoughts
In this new normal, a lot of organisaions have decided remote working or 50/50 is the way to go. With the gap widening between organisations operating remotely versus in the office, do you believe service levels will remain the same, or deteriorate? If you have any questions please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews_online or email me - myra@fanews.co.za
Comments
Thank you for your response. This is something we can look into and delve a little deeper, and I certainly agree with you that it is time to go back to normal.
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