EnvoyWorldWide Inc., a Bedford, Mass.-based provider of enterprise notification services, and Unitrin Direct, the direct, personal auto insurance arm of Unitrin Inc., Chicago, have unveiled details of Unitrin Directs successful pilot of EnvoyConnect, the campaign management suite from EnvoyWorldWide.Implemented in September 2003, EnvoyWorldWides solution enabled Unitrin Direct to deliver automated, personalized messages to policyholders, proving to be very cost effective while improving customer satisfaction and retention. Unitrin Direct is now live with a full implementation of EnvoyConnect.
Unitrin Direct began looking for a solution that would help the company communicate with its customer base more easily and efficiently and in a cost effective manner. While researching options, Brian Crumbaker, senior vice president of operations, came across a case study outlining an automated notification solution from EnvoyWorldWide in support of customer care applications for a national property and casualty insurer. The solution yielded increased customer coverage and improved customer service, including the ability to identify policyholders for whom Unitrin Directs contact information was outdated, while improving customer service agent productivity and saving money.
"We were very impressed by the rapid ROI offered by EnvoyConnect and knew that this was a great solution that could help us continue to showcase our dedication to our customers," explains Wilma Richardson-Tidwell, director of special projects, who oversaw the implementation. "The ability to automate routine customer care tasks such as policy renewal calls, giving us more time to focus on our customers unique and complex needs, was a huge incentive to sign on with EnvoyWorldWide. Combined with their familiarity with the dynamics of the insurance market, we are seeing, and expect to see, increasing benefits from our investment."
Unitrin Direct piloted EnvoyConnect to manage payment reminders, leveraging the service to deliver personal and specific account information when policies neared past due status. EnvoyConnect provides companies with the tools to set up, provision and monitor outbound campaigns, with the ability to control calling windows, call volumes and stop/pause/restart functions.
Once the policyholder receives the proactive message, the customer can either schedule a convenient time for a Unitrin Direct customer service agent to follow up with them, pay their statement through Unitrin Directs IVR system or acknowledge that payment has already been sent directly through the telephone keypad. During the test phase, Unitrin Direct was able to contact customers at less than $.20 per call and the number of non-lockbox payments (meaning those payments that were made as a direct result of the campaign) made by policyholders more than doubled after the proactive message was sent.
"Our goal is to provide companies like Unitrin Direct with the tools to do business more efficiently, increasing productivity without driving up the cost," explains Ben Levitan, president and CEO of EnvoyWorldWide. "Our successful pilot with Unitrin Direct, as well as with other insurance providers who are committed to offering superior value to its customers, continues to support the value of our real-time interactive notification services in this industry."
Source: EnvoyWorldWide Inc.