Voice of Customer Drives Customer Experience Program at Guardian Life Insurance

Customer ExperienceThe Voice of the Customer program at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America drives its Customer Experience program.

Kimberly L. Delaney, 2nd Vice President, Business Services, Project Management Office and Operational Excellence, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America participated in a fascinating interview with Loyalty360 to discuss her company’s commitment to customer experience excellence.

How does the “Voice of the Customer feedback” impact your customer experiences?

Our VOC program is a driving force in our Customer Experience program. Our philosophy that drives our Customer Experience Program is to build a relationship with our customers, not just provide a service by processing their request or directing them to self-service. To do this, we invest a lot of time in collecting information about our customer needs. Our program leverages the Six Sigma methodology to engineer a Customer Experience program that measures both Active (solicited customer feedback) and Passive (customer contacts & behavior) data, known as “Voice of the Customer” and employs multivariate statistical analysis to analyze relationships between feedback, behavior, operational service metrics and customer demographic data. 

Unlike many of our competitors, quarterly or annual surveys are not enough. We collect customer feedback daily and offer feedback mechanisms at every chance we get to ensure we have a constant pulse on our customer’s experience. This customer feedback, along with other customer data, is continually run through rigorous statistical analysis to produce daily, weekly and monthly reports. This constant flow of information enables us to build a relationship with the customer by not only understanding their current needs, but more importantly by enabling us to proactively anticipate their needs and meet those needs before the customer even has to ask. 

Who is the champion of Customer Experience at The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America?

In Guardian Retirement Solutions, the Customer Experience and Quality Department reports in to the Vice President of Operational Excellence with a direct line to the Senior Leadership Team. Guardian’s executive leadership, including our CEO Deanna Mulligan, champions our customers and regularly speaks to the importance of understanding our customer experience.  

How do you define CX?

We define customer experience as “how our customers perceive Guardian” and we measure this from the best source: The perspective of our customers through a robust Voice of the Customer program. We also engage J.D. Power to objectively ask our customers directly how their experience is with Guardian Retirement Solutions.

How do you measure the effectiveness/efficacy of the program?

We use the Customer Experience Index measurements of loyalty, ease of doing business and value as key drivers of the customer’s perception of our business.  Only our customers can tell us what they think of their experience with Guardian Retirement Solutions – so we ask them directly, we ask them frequently and we ask them over the lifecycle of their relationship with us.

We also engage the services of J.D. Power to objectively survey our customers directly and provide us with the results.  We measure everything we can about the customer experience in efforts to help us understand and continually improve. 

Is the basis of your CX strategy short term, medium, long term or all three?

All three. VOC is a key component to our strategic planning. We collect active and passive VOC over the lifecycle of the customer and use that information to inform our business decisions regarding services, products, and technology that will make our customer’s experience unprecedented. 

Is the measurement process for efficacy different based on the term?

Yes. To Guardian Retirement Solutions, the effectiveness of a strong Customer Experience program is measured ultimately by Customer Loyalty. From our viewpoint, Customer Loyalty is something we believe we need to earn. It means developing a relationship with our customer’s that survives competitive, economic and environmental challenges that threaten their relationship with us.  We measure throughout the lifecycle of the customer because the customer needs change over time. We have a broad spectrum of measurements that range from key metrics such as First Contact Resolution, Customer Satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, and “at risk” relationships, to key benefits such as retention, brand advocacy, referrals, and price insensitivity. 

Has there been an “ah-ha” moment in this journey?

One of the most eye-opening moments was the statistical validation that the level of empathy a customer feels directly impacts their experience and consequently their perception of Guardian Retirement Solutions. When the customer indicated that their interaction left them with a sense that Guardian empathizes with them and cares about making their experience a good one, their satisfaction and loyalty indicators were significantly higher. Despite the increasingly technical self service capabilities of the business environment, customers still want to feel a personal connection–they value knowing that a company sees them as a person and cares about their needs. 

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