A sad story of sewage, cracked walls, poor quality service & solutions, neglect of duty of care of vulnerable elderly customers and a brand that failed to deliver on its brand promise. Repeatedly.
Marketers, take note: If you are bold enough to confidently emblazon a strapline & position centred on your customer service all over your website - you need to deliver. Everytime.
At every touchpoint.
From the website UX, to the call centres.
From the quality of the solutions you provide, to the quality of 3rd parties you appoint to act for you. (In this case just the 1 star on TrustPilot). #awks
From the quality of documentation and correspondance provided to the response to complaints.
End to end. Attention to detail matters.
When you #fail, and in every business these things happen occasionally, you need to respond effectively, in timely fashion, be transparent about what happened and how future failures will be avoided, but then over-deliver to make good.
Ageas Home Insurance did none of these things. Repeatedly. #anythingbutEASYAS
Remedying broken trust is hard. Goodwill helps. Actions help. Empty apologies - don't.
Escalation processes need to be effective. Checks, balances, alerts and monitoring needs to be in place to wave big red flags & warn of things going awry so they can be addressed swiftly. There's a martech / AI solution to all of these things. Keywords are a brilliant start point.
Monitoring customer feedback on Twitter, Feefo, Yell, TrustPilot, TripAdvisor - pick what's relevant to your sector. It's not rocket science. It can readily be automated these days too. Just ensure you have the processes in place to monitor and manage the signals & datapoints.
Sometimes really senior staff do need to step in and take action. Or just not bother in the case of Ageas.
There's no point spending a few million on brand advertising a year
, (they do, I checked Nielsen, but I'm discreet enough not to be specific), if
you don't deliver against your promises. It's much cheaper to retain happy or
even just apathetic customers than it is to fill the acquisition funnel. This
is path to purchase 101. Junior brand manager territory.
Let's face it - no-one "enjoys" buying insurance of any kind. It's confusing and daunting. A sigh on a Sunday evening as the renewal deadline looms. No-one expects or hopes to have to use it.
But you buy it to give yourself peace of mind that if disaster strikes you will get help sorting out the problem, done with due diligence, quality and care in areas you probably aren't a specialist in yourself.
..unless you buy it from Ageas.. who in my experience just add stress to already stressful situations. Far from "Easy as" #failagain.
When you buy a service solution... you buy both - solutions & service. One is the "what" , the functional output, the other is "how" you deliver that. Attention to quality standards and consideration should apply to both elements. Service design is a rich and interesting field. Stakeholder and customer journey mapping are essential tools. Pain points sought and eradicated.
When you claim in your company report " "Customers are at the heart of how Ageas UK's business is conducted". The Ageas direct brand strategy has been underpinned by the theme "Easy as" reflecting our purpose to offer customers a simple straight forward, no nonsense customer experience". You need to deliver.
In the 13th months of my elderly parents ongoing & bungled home insurance claim as a result of flooding with sewage in February 2020 and subsequent subsidence of their home, I have written to the CEO, The Head of Brand, The Customer Operations Director. Twice.
I wrote as a management peer seeking to escalate to their attention, the poor processes & operations occurring in their business.
If it was my organisation, I'd want to know what was going on at ground level. Being out of touch doesn't help you make the right strategic decisions, or prioritise what you shine a light on and remedy.
None of them responded to me.
It's particularly awkward when the CEO used to be the Chief Customer
Officer. Clearly it all went awry after his watch somewhere. Ooops.
No-one had the smarts or the courtesy to recognise I was not just another rant-y disgruntled customer, and to pick up the phone or reply to the email. #ProcessFail on #ProcessFail.
As a consumer, let alone a peer - I read this as "Ageas really don't care".
Perhaps they don't. Perhaps that brand position is just dressing. Perhaps so
many of their customers receive an anything other than "easy as"
experience that 3 formal complaints in 9 months isn't enough
to be concerned. I don't know.
Plastering over the cracks of failed processes is not the solution, any more than Polyfilla is to some of the cracks that appeared in my parents house.
 |
| Cracks in the wall, cracks in Ageas process |
I wouldn't want to be an Ageas shareholder. I'd be deeply worried about my long term market value.
Oh wait... I am.
Without any other means to escalate my parents sorry plight, and raise the errors, the delays, the thousands of hours I've had to put in to project manage, hold to account, be over the details... I bought shares.
Bring on the AGM.
Methane from grey water residue left in your house stinks.💩💩
It's also flammable.🧯🧨
 |
| Tampons on the patio - blurry pic cos my Mum is losing her eyesight - pics aren't always in focus cos that's how life looks to her all the time. |
Just like Consumer Complaints.
Don't leave them unattended to. Eventually they catch fire.🔥
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