The General's Jack Martin: How tech is changing customer experience

August 6, 2024 4:39 PM

A person using a phone in front of two cars after a rear-end collision.

Digital Insurance spoke with Jack Martin, senior manager of user experience and creative at The General, owned by American Family Insurance, about how technology is changing the customer experience.

Martin has been at The General for six years and has worked on a variety of projects including launching an app and upgrading service sites.

What customer experience technology are you deploying?

We see all the time a lot of opportunities to help out the customer, and technology is one of the best ways to do it, because we want to be able to meet the customer where they are. One of the ways that we do that is with our app. And then we also have online self service. You can buy online. You can buy on the phone. We'll go wherever you want to be.

Jack Martin

We deliver a lot of our new features to the app. For example, you can file a claim on our app, and that actually turns into a very quick turnaround for us, because it allows us to get a set format for everything to our people, and you're able to file claims very, very quickly. We also have flexible payment options, which is very in tune with our message of providing a break to our customers when they need it most. And flexible payment options really give our customers a chance to push forward in their life. And if we can be understanding and empathetic in that moment, it's awesome for us to be able to do that for them.

One is a payment plan option, which a lot of carriers are going to have, but we actually blow that out, and we have tons of options that you can qualify for and it really just depends on what you need and what coverages you're selecting. It's personalized to your quote, what your payment plans are, and then on the back-end, when it comes time to actually follow through on the payment plan in the app, we have split payments, scheduled payments, automatic payments, so you can use multiple cards, and you can even pay cash. We try to meet you wherever you are, if you want to make a cash payment, and that's easiest, we want to be there and understand that's a part of your life.

That's one of the main places where we try to add features, use technology to our advantage and get those benefits to the customer.

Are you considering using artificial intelligence for customer interactions?

It's obviously a big part of every industry right now, and, for better and for worse in some scenarios. It's a tool, and we want to understand it and its best uses. We have teams at The General and with American Family that look into this stuff and they figure out the best way to do it. We've been experimenting in customer service, and I think in claims, a little bit, especially with getting you where you need to be. So instead of a traditional interactive voice response (IVR), we've been exploring how AI can help bring some speed into that, because nobody wants to wait on the phone. Nobody wants to hit seven numbers before they get to talk to a person. That's really where the user experience and the customer experience gets into this, and where the technology and the benefit marry really well, because we know that your life is fast-paced and that you have a lot of stuff going on, so as fast as we can get you what you need, and as easy as we can make it for you, is really what we want to do.

We've been experimenting with that to some success, but we continue to vet the technology to make sure that it's used appropriately. It's used where it's needed most and not, you know, blanketly applied and wasteful. It's something that we're looking into. We think we can make things better for the customer. We're just trying to do it the right way.

Is it difficult to weigh deploying technologies versus concern over customer experience?

One of the principles in user experience (UX) involves the idea of understanding that people spend most of their time online, not on your site. So, keeping in tune with what the industry is doing, it can be very helpful. Any change can be painful, even if it is for the better in the long run, sure, that's where we're trying to be cautious. Yes, of course, deploying any technology is very difficult.

We have been serving insurance for over 60 years, and changing an IVR number on somebody who has called us a bunch of times and hits one, then four, then three, and they know that they don't have to wait. You know, we want to make sure that when we implement it, we implement it the right way, and it is going to make things better for the customer. That would be the biggest difficulty, change is hard, and we want to do it the right way and when it makes the biggest impact

Testing is a big thing for The General. We're in many states, and that helps us break up things. And we also have different channels and platforms, so we're able to target pretty well and get the testing results we need when we're working on something like this. And that's why I said experimenting earlier because some people will be exposed to it, and some people won't

Can you explain how technology has impacted the claims process?

Speed and ease is the name of the game for user experience and customer experience. That's what we're trying to bring to that claims process. We have updated the app and online with new first notice of loss processes, and really standardized across the board the way that we consume these claims and the way they get filed.

So in some scenarios you can be paid within hours of filing. That is something that can happen. And getting that technology to a place where it can deliver exactly what's needed to our customers has been a focus. The app does that through a step-by-step process, not overwhelming the user. You know, we don't want too much cognitive overload. Fun, fun stuff like that. But just making it quick and easy and not full of jargon is really a focal point of all of our technology implementation, because it's supposed to be for the customer, right? We're improving our product, but the point is for the customer to get the benefit. We want to make sure that it is quick and easy, it does save you time, it understands your circumstances in life and really helps us be there for you.

How difficult is it to get policyholders to download the app?

We have almost 2 million downloads just on iOS. There was a big launch effort, and we did a ton of multi-channel marketing to push the app. And it's a part of our onboarding when you do buy with us. And there's a lot of great stuff in there. We do push it, but we, like I said before, we meet people where they are. So our web experience is just as good. That was one of our focal points in the last year, is getting parity because the app was the newest thing. And so making sure that no matter where you want to go, you can get that. I think on our website now we have some non-login transactions, which I know is always really helpful, and that was something that we've been seeing in the industry. We try to make sure that we're paying attention to how everybody's improving, and this was something that our customers were responding to. You can now pay a bill and get your ID cards and stuff without ending entering your password.

What’s ahead?

We want to give our customers a break when they need it most, and that's no matter how the future plays out. Everybody, I think, has a lot of fatigue right now, just across the board, and so we want to make it as easy as possible for you, whether you're coming to us or going from us, it should be a good experience, and we should understand what you need. So that next time you're shopping for insurance, you think of us and you come back and in the spirit of technological advancements, we'll be better next time, as in, be even more of a fit for you.

I think it's really understanding that technology needs to solve customers' problems, not invent new ones. We try really, really hard to solve the known problems. To make things easier, faster and smoother, so that you can get done what you need to get done.