FST Media features The Buzz Insurance CEO, Jacki Johnson in their Who's Who of Financial Services
Tala Jahangiri 10 Mar 2010
Video interview link: http://www.fst.net.au/Whoswho.aspx?id=226&op=au
Jahangiri: How do you see social media evolving at The Buzz and in the wider insurance sector?
Johnson: I think it’s very important to look at why consumers are actually using social media. We have found three things: consumers are using social media to have a sense of community. This means a community is no longer a geographical position; rather it is a community of topics or areas of interest where customers actually actively want to have a voice. Secondly, we have found customers want us to hear them. Customers want to tell you what’s happening to them; at The Buzz we monitor feedback about us, other insurers, and what people are looking for in insurers and the broader financial services sector. Thirdly, it is about an opportunity to communicate with the customer, not just listen. We also try to give messages to our customers such as alerts (i.e. weather alerts). I think the word of caution for any corporation is to understand the difference between a social contract and a commercial contract and the minute you blur those is when you are not taken seriously by the customer. At The Buzz we have a line for this with our team.
Jahangiri: From the get go you invited the public to contribute ideas to The Buzz’s insurance model. What were the most requested features?
Johnson: The key feature we heard from customers was that they want to access their online insurance company 24/7. When a customer says I want to access you 24/7 we automatically think about our call centre hours or our braches. In reality that’s not what they are talking about. Rather the customers want a website that does not go down for maintenance, and they want clear communication on the website where they can access information. Given this, we built artificial intelligence technology which is designed to allow customers to type in a question and someone on our end can answer. Customers also wanted a chat line allowing longer hours of being able to communicate by chat. Customers also noted they did not want a traditional phone model which makes you go through a phone queue.
The next most requested feature of an online insurer was transparency and fairness of price. Very few customers said we want the cheapest price possible. They understood the tradeoffs that get made on price, that if it’s too cheap I’m probably going to pay a high excess or I may not be covered for something. We heard from customers that they want a quality claims service if and when they need it and they want a product they understand that’s fair in its pricing and transparent in what they are paying for.
Jahangiri: As more insurers shift their claims processing and risk assessments online how will The Buzz continue to differentiate itself in the future?
Johnson: I think one of the beauties of the co-created model is that it allows us to listen to the consumer and our business partners. The business partners are the people who are actually repairing the cars on behalf of our customers. These are the companies who are repairing windows and glass for our customer’s vehicles. This allows us to hear what the business partner’s view is and what the customers view is. At The Buzz we are actively engaging with these entities and not allowing ourselves to be fixated on just our five year plan, because if you do you will miss what’s on the mind of your own customer group.
Jahangiri: What are your top priorities for 2010; and how do they align with parent company IAG’s plans?
Johnson: Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has a devolved model in our business where we have different brands headed up by different CEOs. We are all meant to be able to lead and deliver to our targeted consumer group for our respective brands. In saying that, there are some similarities in the purpose of our overall strategy which is about decreasing risk for our customers and also being customer-centric while driving innovation. These goals are very clear for The Buzz, and for all the other businesses within IAG. Since The Buzz is a brand new company we need to grow and we need to make sure we grow in the areas where the target proposition actually meets the needs of those consumers. Our key priority is how do to make sure we grow and continue to engage and co-create. Its one thing co-create in the initial creation phase, it’s another thing to be operational and continue to listen and engage the consumer.
Jahangiri: In the event of online theft or fraud who bears the financial burden – The Buzz or the customer and why?
Johnson: At the moment this is a quite an interesting topic given there are many things happening in financial transactions. We are very pleased to say that in the life of The Buzz we have not had any issues within identity theft or fraud on our website. We have built in controls in terms of the online verification and some very tight controls around our firewall. If there is an issue where a consumer’s privacy is compromised we would evaluate every single circumstance. If in anyway the consumer was not involved or there was no responsibility that could be taken by the consumer, and the fraud simply happened online then The Buzz would not want the customer to suffer a financial burden. We would work with the authorities and the financial institution if it was a banking issue to actually resolve it on behalf of the customer.
The interesting issue is insurance isn’t quite like the other financial sector, it’s not an area where there’s huge financial gain or financial transactions going through by individual customers. Insurance is different to banking, but online security breaches are something we take very, very seriously.
Jahangiri: How do you see your key demographic evolving in the next five years?
Johnson: I think our demographic is growing. We have been amazed that our key demographic is in fact the over 55 group. They actively want to engage with us and purchase online. Generally the minute people talk about internet companies they automatically think of under 25s. Not in our case. The majority of consumers at The Buzz are 30 to 40, and we our growing group is over 55. I think this is attributed to the activist baby boomer. We have actually found the over 55 voice online and they are spending a lot of time online many of which are being set up by grandkids on Facebook to communicate. This demographic is also more mobile and has more time on their hands.
Jahangiri: The Buzz only provides car insurance. Are there plans to expand the online model to other types of insurance?
Johnson: We are currently consulting with customers about the next products look like and what they would want from us. Within our model we would release the information to our customers before we actually make a public statement.
Jahangiri: How involved are you in the development of The Buzz’s IT roadmap?
Johnson: I am well across it. I have always been interested in technology, however I am not a technologist, but I have worked closely with technology teams and technology. In terms of a thought leadership I am very lucky to have our Chief Information Officer and his level of expertise. We also have group resources and some of our external partners to help with this, but I must say I know the roadmap extremely well and they communicate much of it to me in very plain English because I don’t understand all the technical components. I do want to understand how it’s going to perform and how we’re setting the business up for the future.
Jahangiri: What advice can you give to IT executives wanting to pitch a project to the CEO?
Johnson: I have had this conversation with many technologists throughout my career. If you think about what the CEO is being measured on and it’s often not short-term objectives. So often technologists both internally and externally will come and pitch about the technology itself, but as the CEO we want to know that but more importantly we want to know how it’s going to make us meet our customer objectives, our financial objectives and how it will reduce risk in our business? And if you think about those three key things and the impact on then the people in the business then the CEO will really want to listen because you’re looking at how it’s enabling the business, not the technology in its own right.
Jahangiri: Every leader, particularly at your level, has a legacy they wish to be remembered for. As CEO of The Buzz what is yours?
Johnson: For me the legacy is really about revolutionising insurance. Now that we have really immersed ourselves in the voice of the customer more so than ever before, I think what the customers are looking for is can insurance be that same experience? And for me getting that transparency and fairness and then developing leadership models where it’s very much based on collaboration. This collaboration is with our partners in our outsourced model, our own internal teams as well as the customer. This is another level of leadership and teamwork that is very rare to get in a major organisation.
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