Achieving optimized customer service for cross-channel … · customer service for cross-channel profitability Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts Executive summary

Thought Leadership White PaperIBM Industry Solutions Insurance

Achieving optimized customer service for cross-channel profitabilityPreventing and managing insurance channel conflicts

Executive summaryToday’s customers are more and more self supporting, deciding for themselves when, where and how to interact with the insurer or agents/brokers. They value multi-channel integration and expect all inter-actions to be fully harmonized. Delivering high-quality service across all customer channels requires a new working model between agents and brokers and the insurer, in response to the changing environment. Ignoring this market demand may lead to profitability challenges; a coordinated, comprehensive response is needed. A better multi-channel strategy includes the direct and online as well as offline channels—agents and brokers and prevents potential channel conflicts.

This paper describes the opportunity available to insurers to com-petitively differentiate based on a superb integrated cross channel customer experience, and the levers available to prevent and manage channel conflicts and create valuable relationships across the complete value chain. Innovating the insurance enterprise via a consumer-centric strategy can provide both agility and profitability. This topic should be seen in the light of an overall multi-channel distribution strategy which is centered on customer behavior, wants and needs.

Insurers must strike a very careful balance, embrac- ing and capitalizing on the new while enhancing current successful avenues to strong business production. In the end, it’s about the customer and doing business in a way that best meets his needs and preferences. —Mark Breading, SMA Partner, June 20101

Contents 1 Executive Summary 2 Introduction: Addressing the trust gap 2 The benefits of multi-channel integration 2 Knowing your customer 3 Creating a single view of the customer 3 High tech, high touch care 4 The value of agents and brokers 5 Using levers to prevent and manage channel conflicts 6 Configuring the levers 6 Customer relationship management 7 Services to customers 8 Services to agents and brokers 8 Product and price 9 Commission and incentives 9 Agent and broker enablement 9 Tools and technology 10 Conclusion 10 About the authors 10 Getting started

Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 2

Introduction: Addressing the trust gapThe recent economic upheavals have resulted in a trust gap between insurers, agents and brokers, and their customers. Despite an increasing number of touch points, more than half of insurance customers responding in an IBM Institute for Business Value survey said they did not trust the industry per se.2

Prospects and customers demand multiple ways to interact with insurers, and insurers must provide direct and online channels next to traditional agent and broker channels to remain competitive. Minimum table stakes require insurers to provide online quotes, research, applications and claims tracking. But simply being available 24 hours a day is insufficient for strategic advantage.

The 2010 IBM CEO Study3 revealed that insurance industry “standouts” who outdo the market regularly reinvent custo-mer relationships. They ‘get closer’ to customers, better understand customer needs and use information to deliver first class services. Today’s customers are more and more self support-ing, deciding for themselves when, where and how to interact with the insurer or agents/brokers. They value multi-channel integration and expect all interactions to be fully harmonized.

The benefits of multi-channel integrationDelivering high-quality service across all customer channels requires a new working model between agents and brokers and the insurer, in response to the changing environment. Ignoring this market demand may lead to profitability challenges; a coordinated, comprehensive response is needed. A better multi- channel strategy includes the direct and online as well as offline channels—agents and brokers and prevents potential channel conflicts.

The customer perceives the insurer as the institution that meets his wants and understands his needs—in context with his latest interaction, regardless of point of entry. Customers expect high-quality services and rich customer experience in all channels which involve insurers, agents and brokers. Insur- ers must therefore deliver seamless, personalized and infor-med interaction across all.

Insurers struggle with the impact of new direct and digital interaction capabilities on existing relationships. Leaving agents and brokers out of the scope of a direct/digital channel strategy may cause resistance, lead to channel conflict and threaten return. Involve agents and brokers in strategic collaboration, planning and reward, however, and such resistance can be bent to cooperation and exhilaration.

Knowing your customer How well do you know your customer? Traditional relation-ships between the customer and insurer, or agent/broker, have changed due to the availability of multiple interaction possibilities. Contact center proliferation, online customer support, click-to-call, non-traditional agent and broker venues, and new internet-enabled devices—smartphones, tablet readers and web-enabled TVs—make it as easy to switch insurers as switch channels.

A clear majority of insurers realize that understanding their customers is the key to future success yet fail to accurately assess their customers’ preferences beyond product purchas-ing, as demonstrated in Figure 1. When asked what features for which they believed their customers would pay higher pre- miums, insurers generally overestimated customer willing- ness, sometimes by wide margins.

The key question in a customer-centric approach is not how valuable a customer is for the insurance company, but what value customers believe they get from an insurance relationship. —IBM Institute for Business Value, 2008.4

“I don’t think the insurance industry and its customers will change in the long term—and we know pretty well what they need.” —Insurance executive, Europe, IBM CEO Study, 2008


Creating a single view of the customer To obtain a thorough understanding of customers, insurers must employ customer segmentation, and advanced and predictive analytics, to create a single view of each customer. This thorough insight can help strengthen the relationships with customers, agents and brokers, and provide more effective customer care across channels.6

• Customerdemographics—Defining customers by demo-graphic preferences, values and attitudes. These character-istics can determine the way a particular segment interacts with the insurer. Familiar demographic groups include baby boomers, “Generation X” and “Gen Y.”

• Valuedrivers—An IBM study of insurance customers grouped segments based on values: support-seeking individ-ualists, product optimizers, uninterested minimalists, price- sensitive analyzers or relationship-oriented traditionalists. For more, read the report, Trust, transparency and technology: European customers’ perspectives on insurance and innovation.7

• Spaces—Another way of learning about your customers is to be where they are, using the same tools—of particular importance in the online space. User experience, along with ease of use and high availability on multiple devices, is crucial.

• Analyticalinsight—Over time, advanced predictive analytics can be applied to propose new products and offer advice on which channel will provide the most satisfying customer experience. The goal is to capture and enrich relevant, accurate and consistent information with application data to create informed interactions with customers. This information must be shared across the enterprise, agents and brokers.

High tech, high touch care Depending on the type of contact wanted—personal or more anonymous—customers and prospects today look for different interaction possibilities. Further distinction can be made in face-to-face versus remote personal touchpoints, and exclusive response versus multiple in anonymous touchpoints. Each customer will interact in different ways with the insurer, and most likely there will be a mix of communication styles. Cus- tomers more and more relate to a brand (the insurance company) and choose the channel and device of their preference for the service needed at a certain moment.

Channel groupingsChannels can be grouped by provider:

• Channels provided and managed by the insurance company

–– Direct internet, including social media–– Contact centers–– Branches–– Advisors

• Independent channels–– Agents–– Brokers–– Banks–– Aggregators

• Channels provided by business partners–– Affiliates–– Retailers

Figure 1: Disconnects about what customers value.5


Insurers must deliver informed and personalized interaction across all channels and integrate these channels seamlessly—combining traditional, ‘high touch’ interactions with contin- uously evolving, ‘high tech’ ones. Customers will reward those standout insurers that use new or different channels8 while ‘remembering’ them when they ‘channel hop’.

Insurers can evaluate which channels to support as part of the distribution strategy and the overall company strategy and goals. There is no one answer about how to deal with all channels, but insurers who ignore forward channel integration can find their firm acting as a risk capacity supplier.

High tech, high touch care: Case study To retain and capture market share while mitigating costs, a U.S. Fortune 100 insurance company sought to increase speed to market for its most competitive products. It became critical for the company to present a single face to the customer, regardless of their choice of venue. The online channel needed to show parity but also innovate and deliver quality service, quickly, to the marketplace.

The company executed a multi-channel strategy by creating an approach that explicitly integrates the agent and broker in the overall strategy. Taking advantage of Web 2.0 technology, the company engaged IBM to build a nationwide online auto

quote and bind application that would serve as the e-business channel going forward. More than half of the company’s new auto customers enter through this channel.

With the new channel and working model in place, the company has tripled new monthly business and purchase percentages. The new platform will continue to serve as a flexible, agile space to realize future growth goals, which include broadening its agency network and product scope.

The value of agents and brokersWith increased individualism and consumerization9 it may be expected that direct and online channels will increase in popu- larity at the expense of agent and broker channels. This expec- tation might lead to resistance from agents and brokers to support new channels due to the fear of lost business.

However, research shows that face-to-face contact remains an important driver for the industry. The advice of an experienced, knowledgeable agent or broker is appreciated by customer segments for different reasons. Agents remain therefore an important distribution channel for insurers for sales.

Figure 2: Multi-channel contact moments between customer and insurer.


Issues with the agent/broker channel still exist, however, that must be addressed according to the insurer’s overall corporate strategy for this channel:

• Lossoftrustintheindustry—With the financial crisis, consumers lost trust in financial institutions, a reality that affects insurance. Research by the Dutch Association of Insurers indicated that trust in insurers is lower than trust in the economy as a whole.10

• Brandreputationsdiequickly—Customers have more trust in social networks and peer opinions. In social networks, reputations can be repaired with the right mix of communi-cators and collaborative tools.

• Financialinstability—While product margins are lowering, commissions and incentives are under pressure, and better earning models are needed.

• Employeeretention—A serious challenge for the industry is the capture and retention of qualified advisors.

Agents and brokers who have a small customer base or emphasize low margin property and casualty product portfolios will be agi- tated by multi-channel initiatives. On the other end are agents and brokers who will embrace the possibility to improve the overall customer experience. These are typically agents and brokers that focus on more complex products and have a larger customer base.

Insurers, agents and brokers have to work together to determine the best business model for service, and which services to provide in the various channels. The mutual needs of insurance companies and agents and brokers to solve the issues around multi-channel distribution, become innovative, and stay in business are obvious.

The common area of agreement is the customer. Regardless of choice of venue, it is in the best interest of all parties to manage channel conflicts and present a single face to the customer. The key to managing channel conflicts is leverage.

Using levers to prevent and manage channel conflictsEvery insurer must develop a company vision and define a distribution strategy with clear ambitions and goals. This requires collaboration with both internal and external stakeholders to obtain involvement and commitment for the real- ization of the overall strategy. The insurer can explain the company’s direction and discuss how to achieve the desired distribution model, with incorporation of a direct channel.

Insurers, agents and brokers are dependent on each other to create an alliance that leads to the high customer satisfaction which empowers competitive advantage. There are many levers that can be applied to create harmony and cooperation in the relationships between customer, broker and insurer. The application of the levers on relationships is shown in Figure 3 and listed here:

1. Customer relationship management2. Services to customers3. Services to agents and brokers4. Product and price5. Commissions and incentives6. Agent and broker enablement7. Tools and technology

The key to managing insurance channel conflict is leverage.

Figure 3: Levers for managing relations between customers, agents, brokers and the insurer.


Configuring the leversThe best way to get started configuring the levers is to ask customers how they want to engage with the insurer and their agents and brokers. As previously mentioned, the IBM Insti- tute for Business Value has discovered that there is a large gap between what customers expect and what insurers think that customers expect.11

Using customer panels, valuable insight can be gained which might lead to different views. In these panel sessions customers can be asked which services they expect through which channel, and what the channel experience must be. Real customer understanding will prevent an ineffective, undervalued distribution strategy from being implemented, and can specify actual needs across channels saving valuable time and money. The same approach can be followed to discover the expectations of agents and brokers.

Unfortunately there is no one golden rule on how to define a multi-channel distribution strategy which incorporates a direct channel while preventing channel conflicts and gaining the maximum business benefits for all stakeholders. The levers discussed here, however, provide some means to apply and deal with channel conflict by describing models and tools to consider when applying each lever.

Customer relationship managementCustomers are in the lead, and a variety of customer infor-mation is available and captured. Each moment of contact with a customer in a channel will result in additional data. All the data available must be analyzed and used to provide the best customer insight and experience.

Issues with the agent/broker channel still exist, however, that must be addressed according to the insurer’s overall corporate strategy for this channel:

• Customerownershipischanging. Traditionally the party who had first contact ‘owned’ the customer, but today’s customers desire self control and a point of contact that already ‘knows’ them. A way to manage this new reality is to make clear arrangements on how to contact each customer; segmentation can provide the basic engagement model. New direct channel customers can be asked to choose an agent for service or to prefer direct contact with the insurer. The combination of personal relationships combined with advanced technology can create a strong offering.

• Customerinformationandinsightmustbeshared. There is a need for a central repository that is accessible by the insurer as well as agents and brokers. All use the information and must update it accordingly. Complimentary to the agents and brokers channel the insurer must actively reach out across the borders of the organization to capture information, trans- actions and communications from other business participants to create a single and integrated view of the customer.

• Aplanofactiontodirectreferralsmustbeinplace. The insurer might direct leads of online abandonment to high performing agents and brokers to determine the reason and provide additional information which might transform browsers into customers. On the other hand agents and brokers should be able to refer to the online channel for self-service features.

• Advancedcustomeranalyticsisimportanttounderstandcustomersegmentsandcustomerbehavior. Analytics can offer significant competitive advantage when an enterprise data strategy is implemented.12 A simple example is segmen-tation on basic customer data like location to determine preferred agents or brokers who can be aligned to customers. State-of-the-art tools can be implemented by the insurer and used in all channels.

• Proactiveuseofcustomerinsightderivedfromadvancedanalyticsisthebasisforactionsundertakentowardcustomers. Actions must be taken by the entity best capable of bringing about the wanted results—whether this is an agent, broker or the insurer. Feedback from the actions must again be available to all channels to be used in other customer contacts and to maintain a rich customer experience.


Services to customersWhich services will you provide to which customer segment via which channel at what stage of the insurance value chain? This is the lever that triggers innovation in customer experience.

• Consistentinformationandpricesacrossallchannels. Customers expect a wealth of information about products and services which is easy to understand. Many customers will begin their research online. Quotation tools are a must-have function for the online channel. The calculation engines for quotes must be transparent and deliver the same quotes in all channels for the same parameters. Customer information and data provided by the customer must be shared across all channels.

• Serviceleveldefinition. Based on customer segmentation various types of services can be offered to customers. Customers can choose between self service, assisted self service through a contact center or agents and brokers, or full service through agents/brokers. Some direction or push can be given based on the business model and distribution strategy. Concepts that have been successful in other service industries, such as memberships levels (in the travel industry) customer groups (banks often have normal, preferred, and private clients) and/or loyalty programs can be applied. Banks are reinventing their branches, and insurers using banks as distribution channels can take advantage of this to implement innovative solutions. Finally, some customer segments will be prepared to pay fees for services on top of the premium, but any additional fees must be transparent.

• Calibratedselfservice. Assisted self service functions can be increased to lower workloads. Some administrative tasks can be performed by the customer that gives him control over his insurances. For instance, address change or increasing coverage of existing travel insurance is easy to complete via assisted self service applications. Insurers can provide online claim tools to support the First Notice of Loss process. The tools can also be used by agents and brokers. A new trend is to provide mobile device applications for easy initial claim registration for auto accidents. All provided data must be shared across all channels.

• Singleviewofthecustomer. A consistent customer profile must be shared and used across channels, media, divisions and customer touch points.13 An important enabler for a true multi-channel experience is an online customer folder accessible in all channels to view and update information by the customer, agents and brokers, and the insurer (which includes the company’s contact center). Customer privacy rules and laws must never be violated to prevent reputation damage. This customer folder can contain customer information like quotation, policies and claims, and provides services to work with the stored information, such as quotation updates or claim tracking.

• Communication. Customers are more assertive and demand instantaneous response. The quality of information must be high, personalized and convenient to receive. The customer will decide who, how, when and where to contact the insurer. The channels must support this by telephone, face-to-face contact and web-enabled tools like chat, co-browsing and/or social networking. Insurers, agents and brokers can deter-mine who will respond and how. It must be clear when to hand over or refer the customer to another channel. Insurers must be careful with unsolicited communication; especially electronic communication should be in the context of the receiver.


Services to agents and brokersWith the rise of direct and online channels, agents, brokers and insurers must define new business models and use advanced technology to attract customers. Insurers can provide services to agents and brokers to build strong and successful business relations.

• Solutionsthatlowerworkloadsandincreaseefficiency, including effective tools to do business and collaborate with the insurer will have a positive impact on agents and brokers. Through an extranet, the insurer can provide access to information, processes and systems. Additional analytic reports on customers, commission and portfolio can be delivered to agents and brokers. The customer file, for example, must be available to agents and brokers as it is to the customer and insurer.

• Innovative,portabletoolsforadviceandquotations, such as a web-enabled tablet or multi-touch surface table can be employed to enhance customer experience. The insurer can provide applications and devices for the agents and brokers which enable interactivity with the customer.

• Considerleveragingtheinsurer’scontactcenter for agents and brokers. The contact center can support agents and brokers by providing after-hours service answering phone calls into the agent’s office. Contact center agents answer the phone as the individual agency or broker office instead of an anonymous contact center or message recorder.

• Newcollaborationtools enable faster and richer two-way communication between the insurer and agents and brokers. Tools like blogs, wikis, chat and co-browsing are available to share information and communicate. These tools can also be used to communicate with customers.

Product and priceInsurers can differentiate channels on product and price. Part of an effective multi-channel distribution strategy is to define which products and prices are offered through each channel.

• Launchaspecificbrandforthedirectoronlinechannel. It is particular expensive to develop and market the brand and keep a new brand viable. New web-enabled tools like social media help launch the brand but can also damage a brand rapidly. Insurers who do launch a new brand must optimize operations across brands to compensate for the additional costs—operations must be white-labeled.

• Productscanbeadaptedtothechannelorcustomersegmentinwhichtheyaresold. Price, coverage, conditions, advice and service are the product components that can be differentiated for various channels. Direct channels may offer less complexity to attract customers. Referral to agents and brokers can be done when a more sophisticated product or service is wanted. Insurers must make product difference clear so customers may make informed decisions. Agent and broker services can also be a product component. The customer can choose to have support from an agent or broker for an additional fee.


Commissions and incentivesThe lever that may lead to the most discussion between insurers, agents and brokers will be the reward model for services provided. With multi-channel distribution and the ability of customers to randomly switch between channels, it becomes necessary to define new ways of rewarding channel partners. Regulatory changes for fee-based services make it even more challenging.

• Incentivesagentsandbrokersreceiveshouldbeinlinewiththeinsurer’slong-termstrategy. It should reward multi-channel collaboration and encourage harmony.14 Commissions can be awarded based on new business, cross sell or up sell, renewal and services provided by the agents and brokers for the insurer. The height of the commission must be dependent on the channel, how the channel got involved, value added and the effort undertaken. For example, new business through an agent or broker may be awarded differently than when a lead passed on by the insurer leads to new business. The role and rewarding of contact center agents must also be considered.

• Providenon-financialrewardstorecognizeachievements.As mentioned before, insurers can pass on leads to high performing agents and brokers. Other options are promotion of agents or brokers to prospects and customers, or granting product exclusivity.

• Measuretheeffectivenessofallchannelstodetermineincentives. All stakeholders should be involved in defining key performance indicators (KPIs) for a specific channel. Once defined, the next challenge is capturing all the data. Advanced analytics on a repository which records all rele-vant data is the basis.

Agent and broker enablementInsurers must enable agents and brokers to do business, while agent and broker effort must be aligned with the insurer’s multi-channel distribution strategy.

• Findingtherightpeople to successfully execute the strat-egy requires recruiting people with the right cultural fit. Insurers can assist in recruiting through their brand. Social networks are a new way to connect to potential employees.

• Trainingandsharingknowledge are important enablers insurers already use. This should incorporate aspects of multi-channel distribution, its importance and implementations. Cus- tomer centricity and customer empathy must be developed to make every employee a customer and insurers advocate.

Tools and technologyInsurance is an electronic product and therefore IT is ideal to optimize the processes of insurers, agents and brokers. It should be determined how IT can be used by to gain the most successful combination of high touch, high care and high tech.

• Centralizationandreuse. For agents and brokers it may not be possible to implement the advanced technology needed to remain competitive. The insurer can facilitate IT by implementing it centrally and allowing channel partners to make use of it. Reuse of technology across channels is a best practice to minimize costs and provide a consistent customer experience across channels. Components of technology to consider include analytics, electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), e-forms, e-signatures, customer relationship management (CRM), business process management and document management.

• Optimizationacrosstheenterprise. There is a tight link between the front and back office of the insurance process. The complete value chain must be optimized to deliver superior customer service. To deliver faster responses, straight though processing capabilities can be implemented by the insurer, but these capabilities require input accuracy on the part of the customer or agents and brokers.

“Organizations that have information advan- tages know how to identify and optimize data from many sources and use the information in many different ways. In particular, they combine internal and external data integration; predictive analytics and econometrics; data warehousing; data visualization; layering and advanced systems dynamics and agent-based simulation to help them understand customer experiences so they can quickly act on opportunities. These actions can ultimately drive enterprise-wide financial performance.” —Jamie Yoder, Insurance Networking News, October 13, 201015


• Socialbusinesstools. Communication tools can be provided to agents and brokers, including but not necessarily limited to click-to-call, co-browsing, text and video chat. Social networks can be leveraged to create company profiles and connect to customers as well as agents and brokers.

• Innovativeapplications. These can be developed for use in the channels using state of the art technology. Mobile devices are becoming more integral into the lives of customers, agent and brokers, and providing appealing applications will lead to an innovative brand image and improved customer ratings. The mobile channel also allows the insurer to connect to a new generation of customers.

ConclusionImplementation of a multi-channel distribution strategy is key for insurers, agents and brokers to survive and remain competitive. The potential channel conflicts that can arise must be dealt with in early stages. Handling channel conflicts is not an easy topic; there are many stakeholders involved and there is no clear answer on how to prevent or solve it. Key aspects for guidance include customer centricity, vision, strategy and collaboration among all stakeholders. Insurance business models must innovate to keep up with market demands. Insurers that will reinvent themselves, leverage data and information, and use all available channels will have a major advantage. Empowered agents and brokers can expect more opportunities to be successful, and develop long lasting relations with customers and insurers. In the end, the winner will be the satisfied customer who receives superior service.

About the authorsPaul de Wildt is an IBM Global Business Services Senior Managing Consultant for the Financial Services Sector in the Netherlands. He has worked in various roles within insurance companies defining and implementing multi-channel solutions and improving operations. Paul can be contacted by email at [email protected].

David Lipien, PMP, MCP is an IBM Global Business Services Senior Managing Consultant for the Financial Services Sector in the United States. His specialties include complex systems integration, release management, internet-based technologies, wireless technologies and object-based project methodologies. David can be contacted at [email protected].

Getting startedThe IBM Insurance Industry Framework is an integrated approach to insurance business transformation. Built by IBM from years of experience meeting industry-specific challenges, it holds the vision and blueprints for creating innovative products and services that are intuitive to the user, and building dynamic value chains using new information and capabilities.

Accelerating innovation and enabling effective change is highly dependent on the ability to manage effective business transformation and software delivery. The IBM Insurance Industry Framework provides strategic solutions organized around IBM capabilities in critical business areas, or domains, enabling smarter industries to:

• Deliver enhanced customer care and insight.• Coordinate and collaborate across distribution channels for

streamlined business development.• Support a holistic approach to fraud analysis and preven-

tion, compliance, and operational and IT risk.• Improve operational effectiveness, automation and product-

ivity while strengthening customer loyalty.

The IBM Insurance Industry Framework approach meets the needs of an insurer for an agile business infrastructure. Apart from a strong foundation of software that is scalable on dynamic infrastructure, the Framework brings insurance-specific capabilities in the form of:

• Acceleratorsandassets—Jump-starts delivery of insurance solutions and ensures reuse across different projects.

• Methods,architectureandpatterns—Provides gover-nance for configurability and extensibility of solutions.

• Customization—Solution can be tailored to an insurer’s specific business needs without starting from scratch.

For more information about the IBM Insurance Industry Framework, please contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/software/industry/insurance/framework.


About IBM Global Business ServicesWith business experts in more than 160 countries, IBM Global Business Services provides clients with deep business process and industry expertise across 17 industries, using innovation to identify, create and deliver value faster. We draw on the full breadth of IBM capabilities, standing behind our advice to help clients implement solutions designed to deliver business out- comes with far-reaching impact and sustainable results.

For more informationTo learn more about the IBM solutions for insurance or the IBM Insurance Industry Framework, please contact your IBM marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/software/industry/insurance.

For more information on the insurance industry from IBM and thought leaders and others, visit: ibm.com/services/insurance.

Additionally, financing solutions from IBM Global Financing can enable effective cash management, protection from technology obsolescence, improved total cost of ownership and return on investment. Also, our Global Asset Recovery Services help address environmental concerns with new, more energy-efficient solutions. For more information about IBM Global Financing, visit: ibm.com/financing.

References1 Mark Breading, Back to the future: customer relationships in

insurance, SMA (Strategy Meets Action), June 2010.

2 Christian Bieck, Mareike Bodderas, Peter Maas and Tobias Schlager, Powerful interaction points: Saying goodbye to the channel, IBM Institute for Business Value, December, 2010.

3 Capitalizing on complexity: Insights from the global CEO study—Insurance industry perspective, IBM Institute for Business Value, May 2010.

4 Peter Maas, Albert Graf and Christian Bieck, Trust, trans-parency and technology: European customers’ perspectives on insurance and innovation, IBM Institute for Business Value, January 2008.

5 Christian Bieck and David Notestein, Balancing the scales: Toward a stable and dynamic insurance future, IBM Institute for Business Value, July 2009.

6 Mark Breading, Back to the future: customer relationships in insurance, SMA (Strategy Meets Action), June 2010.

7 Peter Maas, Albert Graf and Christian Bieck, Trust, trans-parency and technology: European customers’ perspectives on insurance and innovation, IBM Institute for Business Value, January 2008.

8 Capitalizing on complexity: Insights from the global CEO study—Insurance industry perspective, IBM Institute for Business Value, May 2010.

9 “Consumerization drives forced innovation in P&C and Life insurance,” Gartner, June 24, 2010.

10 Vertrouwen in verzekeraars (Trust in insurers) Q3 2010, Dutch Association of Insurers, 2010.

11 Christian Bieck and David Notestein, Balancing the scales: Toward a stable and dynamic insurance future, IBM Institute for Business Value, July 2009.

12 Mark Breading, Back to the future: customer relationships in insurance, SMA (Strategy Meets Action), June 2010.

13 Turning shoppers into advocates: The customer focused retail enterprise, IBM Institute for Business Value, 2006.

14 “How to develop an effective multichannel insurance distribution strategy,” Forrester, June 8, 2009.

15 Jamie Yoder, “The Ultimate Competitive Differentiator,” Insurance Networking News, October 13, 2010.


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Achieving optimized customer service for cross-channel … · customer service for cross-channel profitability Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts Executive summary