Moving Customers to Success with a Customer-First Mindset

The past year and a half has been enormously challenging for people, communities, and businesses. The human toll exacted by COVID-19 is heartbreaking. I’m grateful many geographies are emerging from what’s hopefully the worst effects of an unprecedented pandemic and hope the trend continues. But I’m acutely aware that the Delta variant has brought with it new realities—and this and other variants will continue to test how we learn to live with this virus.  

Disrupted supply chains and labor shortages are just two indicators that underscore how businesses are still figuring out how to work in this new world. Verisk has remained resilient during this period because of the commitment and perseverance of our 9,000 teammates around the globe. They’ve enabled us to anticipate customer needs and consistently deliver in challenging times. Proof positive that if ever there was a time to turn up the dial on customer experience, it’s now 

I’d like to share some thoughts on customer experience (CX) and how it’s integral to the success of any business.  

Investing in Technology and Teams  

Exceptional CX as a business strategy comes to fruition when companies learn from and collaborate across teams and functions. Assessing the current state and seeing where teams can improve is an optimal way to help companies evaluate how they manage and operate internally to enable unrivaled customer experiences. Business leaders can then better prioritize which customer segments to focus on and realize the most valuable improvements.   

By leveraging Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, which are ubiquitous in today’s business world, companies can measure and track customer satisfaction, continually improve, and have an understanding if they’ve been successful. NPS feedback closes the loop—enabling companies to respond directly to customer feedback—and has helped Verisk close the loop nearly 100% of the time. The greatest beneficiaries have been our customers.   

Companies that are serious about CX need to commit to appropriate levels of investment and create action plans to see how they can improve. Verisk has done both, and we see tangible benefits every day. Providing great customer experiences includes establishing a foundation of trust, demonstrating a recognizable and authentic brand, and always offering a solution—no matter how simple or complex. You also need a workforce that works to exceed customer expectations and build strong relationships.  

Verisk is on an exciting and successful journey to deliver best-in-class customer experiences. Our collaborations with experience management leaders, along with a customer-first mindset, help power our journey. Our teams remain focused and dedicated, and I was heartened to see about 2,500 of my colleagues from every part of Verisk participate in Verisk’s annual Discover CX Summit recently. It’s a moment in time when we came together to listen, learn, and collaborate on how we can be better partners for our customers. Leaders across every area of the company came together to focus on learning CX best practices. The ideas that emerge from events such as these lead to innovative solutions and outcomes, and I recommend that CX leaders plan these events at least annually.  

Celebrating Great Ideas and Great Execution 

A great way to recognize employees for their CX initiatives is through recognition programs. At Verisk, we’ve established the Chairman’s Award for Customer Experience, which recognizes teams that have delivered exceptional value to our customers and improved the customer experience. This was our best year yet for the quality and boldness of submissions.   

The award went to a team from our Sequel business, who consulted with the London Fire Brigade to develop new technology to help fight high-rise fires to improve the flow of information between the location of a fire and the mobilizing control center. The enhanced level of information and control allows the London Fire Brigade and fire services throughout the UK to be better prepared to respond and ensure that building occupants get accurate and timely advice—ultimately minimizing the number of casualties. This award truly highlights Verisk’s commitment to improving safety and operational effectiveness for municipal fire departments.  

That kind of impactful innovation—and a solution that helps people and communities become stronger and more resilient—is the result of embedding a CX mindset in company culture.  

Building Dedicated Customer Service Teams 

Customer service is another piece of overall CX. Taken together, top-quality customer service and customer experiences go a long way toward building strong brands and fostering innovation.  

In October, Verisk celebrated Customer Service Week, a global celebration of customer service and the people who support customers every day.   

A critical function contributing to the trusted partnerships our customers value, these teams must exhibit patience, excellent listening skills, persistence, initiative, and focus. Team members need to be jacks of all trades and have the flexibility to pivot and creativity to think outside of the box to solve challenging customer problems.  

Keeping pace with industry shifts helps companies raise customer service to new levels, ensuring that customers get top-notch service—and first-rate customer experiences. Businesses need to respond rapidly to these new approaches, and at Verisk, our methods are always evolving.  

Shifts include moving from 9 to 5/five-day-a-week coverage to 24/7 coverage; transitioning from a strictly “call center” operation to one where Live Chat comprises the majority of a service center’s volume; and converting from multiple systems to resolve customer issues to having one system of record to collect, track, and analyze customer data—supporting the ability to interact with customers anytime and anyplace—no matter the location of service teams or customers. 

Leveraging technologies, such as the cloud to better meet customer needs has been transformational in how businesses service customers. Verisk is implementing a phased rollout of a cloud-based customer relationship platform across our entire service community.  

Bringing It All Together 

Providing outstanding customer experiences takes unwavering commitment, strong leadership, state-of-the-art technologies, and ongoing learning and development. Providing customers with great experiences makes businesses more resilient—steering them through changes, supporting them in challenging situations, and building customer loyalty no matter what the issue. 

As companies gather and leverage customer intelligence and incorporate it into their business, operations, and culture, they’ll be well on their way. Having a seamless, integrated, and uniform way to validate the voice of the customer can help businesses identify their strategic growth priorities with the goal of getting the best outcomes for customers.  

Verisk’s 50th year in business is coming to a close in just a few short months. I feel blessed that we celebrated this milestone anniversary. Companies are at different stops on their customer journeys, and I’m proud of all our Verisk teammates leading the way and managing our CX transformation. I believe that it always comes back to people, and that people-first mentality is fundamental to success.    

I invite you to learn how we’ve moved the world forward for business, people, and society for more than 50 years and hear from some of our dedicated service professionals who help our customers reach their goals. Join us as we continue to cascade a customer-first mindset across all of Verisk globally to move our customers to the next level of success.