Setting Your Priorities

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Steve:
For companies new to customer experience, it's sometimes difficult to get everyone on board with your CX program,

Adam:
And we never had a formal CX strategy. So the research that we did really helped build the foundation for that CX strategy. Once we built that and had kind of the other foundational elements of a CX program, a decision was made again with support from our leadership team and board to start a formal, dedicated CX program.

Steve:
Prioritizing customer experience efforts in your organization. On this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.

Announcer:
The CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.

Steve:
Hello, everyone. I'm Steve Walker, host of The CX Leader Podcast and thank you for listening. It's never been a better time to be a CX leader, and we explore the topics and themes to help leaders like you deliver amazing experiences for your customers. I'm not going to lie. Starting a CX program in any organization can be difficult, and one of the more challenging aspects of spinning up a new program is getting your company, especially leadership, to make it a priority. And to make things even more complicated, what areas of customer experience do you prioritize? Do you start with surveys? Closed loop feedback? Journey mapping? Well, I'm delighted that my guest has been willing to come on to the program today and share his experience in this particular adventure. Adam Shapourian is the associate vice president for experience at United Educators, a member owned insurance company for educators in the US. Adam, welcome to The CX Leader Podcast.

Adam:
Thank you so much, Steve. Big fan of Walker and The CX Leader Podcast. It's great to be with you today.

Steve:
Yeah, well, first of all, full disclosure, Adam is a client and a great practitioner and we were talking off the air. It's I'm always grateful when practitioners will come on and share their specific story. I'm not sure we can create better content for our listeners than that because most of our listeners are just like you. They're in the battle day to day grinding it out. And so the fact that you're willing to come on and tell your story is great. We always start with just a little bit of context. So if you wouldn't mind, Adam, give us a little bit about your journey to becoming a CX pro and then tell us a little more about United Educators as well.

Adam:
Sure. Sure. Happy to do that. So people in CX come from all walks of life, as we know. I got my start in marketing and at a hospital, part of a health care system here in the in the D.C. area. And from there, I transitioned over and worked at a consulting company that was building a marketing automation and CRM platform supporting hospital clients. Got some really good agency experience there, got to pursue some passions in product development and building technology. From there, I went to a national media organization that had a national brand, as well as hundreds of local news organizations in its portfolio, and I was brought in to help start a digital subscription sales marketing team. It was a really great experience. I really learned how to scale digital marketing and really help bring local news into those communities that needed it the most. So it was a really rewarding and challenging experience. I was very fortunate to be approached by someone in the marketing team who had experience launching an enterprise customer experience program at a at a company prior to the company that we were working with. And she kind of introduced me to CX management, really energized me around ways that I could continue to learn and develop. And I was fortunate enough to to be brought on to help start an enterprise CX program at that company. So that's how I got my start in CX and it's been a great journey since.

Steve:
Yeah, well, you know, it is… it's everyone's journey to becoming a CX pro is unique and generally we don't set out to become one. But your experiences, I think, are really a nice combination with the marketing, the healthcare and the media and the digital experience. So tell us a little bit about United Educators, because I know it's a unique model and really a cool organization. Probably most people don't know about it, but I think once you describe it, it'll become quite apparent what a neat organization it is.

Adam:
Yes, it really is. And very different than your typical commercial insurance liability carrier. So as you said, we we insure educational institutions, so primarily K-12 schools, colleges and universities across the US. We provide liability insurance and risk management services to help them keep their campuses safe from all types of risks, from slips, trips and falls to vehicle incidents to employment matters as well. We were founded in 1987 at a time where schools found it difficult or even impossible to get liability insurance, which is crucial for those schools to be able to operate and serve their mission. And so about 60 schools got together and formed a retention group, which is kind of like a captive insurance group if you're. If you're familiar with that, to provide liability insurance to those schools. Since our formation, we've now grown to serve nearly 1600 educational institutions. We've expanded the types of liability and risk management services we provide to them. So we we frequently are publishing research and insights on how to prevent bad things from happening on campus. We've developed online training courses to help schools train their faculty, staff, students on how to be safe around campus, and we also have consulting services to really partner closely with risk managers on campus to help them fulfill their mission. So it's been an interesting ride thus far for United educators. And what makes us different is we're member owned, so all of the schools that we insure own a part of the company. So why does that make us different? It certainly provides some benefits for those schools and being able to access coverage that they may not be able to otherwise. It also. It also fuels our philosophy for our company so we don't have any outside shareholders. Our number one priority is serving our customers, our members and helping them do what they need to do to keep students and faculty safe every day. So the mission of of supporting education is really part of our DNA. And it really it really helps fuel a lot of our CX efforts as well.

Steve:
Yeah, it is a fascinating story. Born out of necessity and a really unique, I think, stakeholder model. You called them members, you called them customers, you called them owners. But they're all the same, right?

Adam:
That's right.

Steve:
And so that kind of creates, I think, a little bit of a unique spin on how you would go about setting up a CX function. So why don't we get into that? What was the kind of the genesis and and when did you come in? Was there anything in place at the time? Just kind of tell us the the journey once you joined United Educators?

Adam:
Yeah, it's been a great journey so far. So it all really started in about 2017 when we were creating our next strategic plan. We were doing research about our members and customers and really, really trying to better understand what their needs were going to be as the education and insurance market was evolving. And so with support from our board and our CEO, who was really championing the beginnings of a CX program, we partnered with a research firm to study this. And through that work we learned that there's been a new generation of decision makers coming in to those institutions with different preferences and expectations for how they want to interact with an insurance company. Technology was a critical part of that. Service was also a critical part of that. And through that work we we started to journey map. We started to better understand the claims journey, the policy renewal journey where the the current pain points were within that journey where our members were having a difficult time accessing the various resources and tools that they need to manage their policy and claim.

Adam:
We started to better understand what a VOC, a voice of constituent program would look like so that we could continue to listen and understand those needs, but do so in a more systematic way. You know, because UE is very mission driven, we've always focused on our members, but we never had the systematic processes to be able to do that on an ongoing basis. And and we never had a formal CX strategy. So the research that we did really helped build the foundation for that CX strategy. Helped develop a customer promise, which for us is to assure care for and enlighten our constituents. It's about being relationship focused. It's about getting our members what they need easily. It's about helping them anticipate the future of risk and do what they can to mitigate those risks. And so once we built that CX strategy and had kind of the other foundational elements of a CX program, a decision was made, again with support from our leadership team and board to start a formal, dedicated CX program. And so I came on board in January of 2020 to build that program.

Steve:
Well, and there was nothing happening in the world there in January of 2020. So we we did a lot of episodes on the impacts of COVID and stuff. But so a couple of things you said I think are really key for our listeners. One, it was born out of strategy and this is something I can't overemphasize, but really as CX pros in today's environment, we are really right at the cornerstone of of of organizational strategy. There's numerous studies out there that show that most organizations are differentiated on some sort of experience with their customers. So I really like that it was born out of strategy. You also had top management support. We talk about this all the time on the podcast is you can do it without top management support, but it's a lot harder. So having leadership role model, what you're trying to accomplish and and really buy into it and then your discussion of the mission and vision of the organization is just essential. You know, risk management is something that I think all leaders of organizations worry about and think about, but it's not central to their mission and purpose. So the fact that you can take that off the plate of the educator, who, you know, the educators are really their central mission is to prepare young people for a brighter future and deliver the education. So the way that you can kind of take care of it, that's how you add value to these constituents, as you called them. So you get there in January of 2020. The strategies in place, but there's really no formal mechanism. How did you prioritize? What did you do first and kind of take us through that story as much as you can from January 2020 to now, what, almost three and a half years later?

Adam:
Yeah, Yeah. So we had a great start from the research that we did. The journey mapping that we did uncovered several opportunities to improve the experience. And before I got to UE, there had been some prioritization really, really looking at what were the key moments that matter in the journey. The policy renewal is a key one. If you have a claim and often you know, the types of claims we see are very sensitive, very complex. So there's a lot at stake for the institution from an operational and a reputational standpoint. Those those are the really big moments that matter for for our members. And so getting them right, as you said, has a big effect on the school's ability to continue its mission. So through that work, we we had a good starting point, but there were a couple of things that that, you know, a couple of opportunities that that I saw, two layers, if you will, to add to the prioritization process. And and one of my previous companies, I was introduced to a prioritization model that really looks at business and customer value as well as the level of effort to drive the CX priorities. And something that was unique about this model and what I had seen from other companies is that customer value was weighted two times what business value is typically weighted.

Adam:
And, you know, some of the kind of inputs for customer value would be, you know, things like are we making it easier to do business with us? Are we improving satisfaction? And some of the other CX metrics that we look at. From a business standpoint, we were looking at things like, you know, does this help increase risk management usage? Does this help retain members? Does it help reduce our cost to serve inputs such as those? And what I had seen in some of my previous experiences is companies can often prioritize business value first to drive revenue or EBITDA goals, often to the detriment of those long term customer relationships, which has the opposite effect of what you're trying to do. So by focusing more on serving your customer needs, building long term relationships with your customers that will have a positive impact on your business results. So it kind of flipped the thinking that I had seen in some of those other experiences that I had. So once we introduced the prioritization model, we started to get into the actual process of doing the prioritization. So we took the projects that had surfaced through that initial customer research study that we did. We brought people from across the organization together, from senior leaders to a cross-functional group of frontline staff who were really passionate about customer experience and helping better serve our members.

Adam:
So we bring them all into the room to participate in this work. And so we start by reviewing the projects, giving a description of what is the problem here that we're trying to solve? What is that customer pain point that we're trying to improve upon? It's a very interactive process where everyone is kind of in a spreadsheet kind of inputting their ratings. This was going on, of course, during the beginning of the pandemic all remotely, which made it even that much more challenging as we were starting this this new CX program. But it was it was really cool just to hear the different perspectives from all of the diverse, you know, people that were in the room from underwriting from our resolutions team to risk management, customer service, digital. We were bringing all of those people together to really try and solve these challenges for our members. So the output of that is an actual, a quantifiable way that we can understand the projects that are going to deliver the most value for our customers, our business as well as those that, you know, we're in a good position to to deliver because of the level of effort involved with delivering those improvements.

Steve:
Remember the CX Now series we just wrapped up not too long ago here on The CX Leader Podcast? Well, we just published a new e-book highlighting each of the essential themes driving CX. You can download it at walkerinfo.com/cxnow. And don't forget about our blog. That's right. We have a blog and we update it regularly. Check it out at walkerinfo.com/blog. There's a ton of great experience management content available and the best part, it's free. That's walkerinfo.com/blog.

Steve:
Yeah. So you kept mentioning a couple things, claims as a as a big process area and then also policy renewal. Were those the ones that came out with the the highest priority through the process?

Adam:
Many of the interactions that our members have in those journeys did rise to the top from a value standpoint. But when we started to look at the effort, you know, things, things shifted, right?

Steve:
Yeah.

Adam:
Because, you know, you have a policy and claims system that is heavily enables those experiences and we were still working through the culture change that that needed to happen to for people to really embrace the work that we were doing. There were other opportunities around digital, around service that we felt like we're still going to drive the value that our members needed from us, but were opportunities to demonstrate some quick wins to the organization. Since then, we've we've improved a lot of our back of the house technologies as well as our customer facing technologies. We've had the opportunity to work more closely to understand the processes for our underwriting and our resolutions teams, and we have been able to dramatically improve both of those journeys since. But at the beginning we kind of had to balance the work that we did move forward, really looking at the value and effort as inputs.

Steve:
Yeah, I love that, you know, that whole prioritization model that you're describing and I'm intrigued to learn more about that. Maybe I'll do that offline with you at some point, because I, I do think you've got to look at the potential ROI for the investment without giving away any trade secrets or anything. Could you give us an example of what the prioritization process led you to and then how did you act upon that? And then, you know, some general understanding of what the results were from taking the action?

Adam:
Sure. So one of the projects that that came out of that work was a new onboarding program for some of our primary customers who were new to their institution. So I mentioned that the the research that we did kind of uncovered some insights that there were there was a wave of of new people coming into those institutions, new expectations for service. And as the pandemic was evolving, we also saw, you know, people were, you know, jobs were were being disrupted and people were moving in and out of of their their organizations and for our schools that we ensure a lot of these these risk managers have been in their roles for many years and they have a long relationship with United educators. So they really understand the value that we can bring to them. Some of these new folks coming in, we had to kind of we have to kind of introduce them to the value that we bring. They may have, you know, an understanding of what an insurance carrier looks like based on other carriers that they've worked with. Some of these folks come from other industries outside of education. And so we really saw an opportunity to introduce those new contacts to all of the great resources and benefits that their institution has access to as part of being a united educators member. Previous to this, we had been doing a new member onboarding series, so we had a good starting point that we could then adapt and meet the needs of these new contacts.

Adam:
When we started to understand who our primary insurance contact is, the primary buyer for the insurance relationship, we started to understand that they have some some varying needs. We we did some persona work to understand this because we we serve this diverse range of of customers. We really needed to understand what they expect and need from United Educators. And so through that that that work we designed a an onboarding program that was really tailored to their needs. What we found is that if we can have that that welcome call within 30 days and we do send out some some emails and other resources on our website to help them manage their their policy after that. But if we can get them to if they choose to participate in that welcome call, that typically leads to more interaction with our risk management services, more use of our policy and claim management platform as part of their their digital experience. And when they have a claim, if and when they have a claim, they know the processes that they need to get that claim reported into our resolutions team so that we can start working with them more quickly to develop that claim management strategy, which is just it's it's crucial in order to to manage these claims effectively. So getting, getting that welcome call has really supported a lot of the good outcomes for for our members.

Steve:
That's a great example. And I'm just going to reinforce here for our listeners, but this is a great way that you can add value for your organization as a CX pro. Adam did a really eloquent job of describing their process, But you know, if you have a roadmap to success for a customer, outlining that in a new client orientation is an immediate value add for your company. You know, there's tons of examples out there of great brands that sort of quote unquote, train their customers. And I use that, you know, with all due respect. But it's not just to make it easy for you, but it's to set the client up for a situation which, based on all the other things you do for your customers, we know creates value for the organization. So really nicely done. Let me flip now and talk about the change management aspects of it, because you're a service business and you know, when you're when you're changing the way you're going to interact with your customers, you also got to change the way the employees are going to behave. We talk a lot about on this podcast about, you know, CX pros, they can't just be change advocates. They have to be change seekers. So talk about how you engage your employee base. And I'm sure it goes back to some of your early work and having the buy in. But just talk a little bit about how you got the buy in from the employees to make the kind of changes that needed to occur in this process.

Adam:
Yeah, the change management aspect of our work is, is vital to to the success. So we are so fortunate… I'm so fortunate to have come into an organization that, like I said, was very customer centric and very mission driven from the start. People at United Educators have always worked very hard to find the solutions that our members need. And so when I got here, I, I was energized by and inspired by the people and how much they care about our members. But I started to learn there was sort of three groups of people at the company. There were the people who were really dedicated and wanted to dive in and support the CX work. Then there were people that really loved the mission. They understand what we were trying to do from a CX, you know, strategy standpoint, but they just either they didn't know how or they they didn't feel like they could because of all of the other day to day work that they were responsible for. So the third group and I'll come back and I'll talk a little bit more about this, the third group were the skeptics. Right. And there will always be skeptics at every company that's doing this work. So for that first group of folks who were really passionate about diving in and contributing to the CX work, we we brought them in and formed a cross-functional CX champions group. And that group is purpose was to really help us understand the pain points that they were seeing in their everyday interactions with our members, with brokers who we work with, with our outside defense counsel partner, and then help us design improvements to improve those interactions and journeys. That group is comprised of folks on the front line as well as leaders.

Adam:
So we got a good mix of people who really understood the problems that our members were facing, as well as what solutions we could provide to to address those. The second group, those that understood what we were trying to do, but, you know, were constrained by resources or they didn't have the formal education or skills to be able to contribute. We designed a training program to to support them. Some of the things that we focused on were around customer service principles. Empathy is a big part of the work that we do. I mentioned our Customer Promise is really focused on caring and understanding our constituent needs. We did some empathy training both in our communications that are happening from a service standpoint as well as our our written communications. The area around technology is more of a longer term endeavor, right? I mean, you can't just come in and replace a policy and claim administration system if it if it is holding you back, you're holding your organization back from delivering its CX promise. So on that front, we've really partnered closely with our IT teams and really with our finance teams to help, you know, better understand long term planning. What do we need to do to set up our teams to be able to work more efficiently, better, to be able to serve our customers. So a lot of that was also process re-engineering as well. You know, we've always kind of done things this way for so long, but you know, that has a kind of a snowball effect to it and it and it does prevent you from being able to serve your customer.

Adam:
The third area was around data, right? So we had a CRM platform that, you know, is it has the potential to give you all sorts of insights about the customer insights, the interactions that they're having. But, you know, there was some untapped potential there that we've also had to work on to better enable those those frontline teams to provide better service. Then we have the skeptics. And, you know, the I think there were some people who were were held out because they really just didn't see the value that that CX could provide. At United Educators, we've been so fortunate, I think, you know, partly because of the unique products that we offer, but also the the level of service that we provide. We've been lucky enough to enjoy high industry leading levels of retention and satisfaction, which is also, you know, very unique from the experiences that I've had. So, you know, the message that I got was sort of we've always been we've we've been doing fine up to this point. Why do we need to change? And so for for that group, it was really demonstrating the quick wins that that we were able to accomplish, showing them the impact of those things on shared goals. Right that was really critical, was really to align the work that we were doing in a way that helped them do their jobs better and helped achieve the goals that that they were after. And once we were able to start to show that impact, we they started to come in and really ask for us to contribute to work that we were doing, which was just very rewarding.

Steve:
Awesome. Adam, we have reached that point in the podcast where I ask every guest to give us their take home value. This can be a summary of something you already mentioned, or it can be a new concept. But the idea here is to give our listeners a very practical tip that they can take back and apply to their organization and make their program better. And I think I can't wait to hear what yours is because you've given us a ton of good content here today. So. Adam Shapourian, what's your take home value from today's podcast?

Adam:
The word that comes to my mind is persistence. No doubt you're going to have challenges along the way. You're going to run into, you know, times where, as I often hear from my CX colleagues, you're going to feel like you're constantly pushing a boulder up a mountain. It's not going to be easy, but this work that we do is is so vital for serving customers, for sustaining your your company and your customer's mission. You just have to keep demonstrating the quick wins, showing the value that CX can bring to the organization and just keep driving. It matters.

Steve:
Adam Shapourian is the associate vice president for experience at United Educators. He's given us a great overview of the program that he put in place there. It sounds like you're having a ball, Adam. You know, it really is fun to create something where where nothing existed before. And congratulations on the good work you've done there, and thank you for being a guest on the podcast.

Adam:
Thanks, Steve. It's been great to be on and it's been a rewarding experience so far. Thanks again so much for having me on the podcast today.

Steve:
If anybody would want to continue the conversation, they can find you on LinkedIn I assume.

Adam:
Absolutely. I'm the only Adam Shapourian on LinkedIn as far as I'm aware.

Steve:
Yeah. And if they download this episode, they'll have a nice little link and they'll see your name in in the, as I call it, the album cover. Thanks again for being on the program and best of luck and continue to do that good work you're doing. If you want to talk about anything you heard on this podcast or about how Walker can help your businesses customer experience, feel free to email us at podcast@walkerinfo.com. Remember to give The CX Leader Podcast a rating through your podcast service and give us a review. Your feedback will help us improve the show and deliver the best possible value to you, our listener. Check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com To subscribe to the show, find all of our previous episodes, podcast series and contact information. Drop us a note, let us know how we're doing. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We're an experience management firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success. You can read more about us at walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening and remember, it's a great time to be a CX leader. So go out there, be persistent, stay focused on your company strategy and we will see you back here again next time.

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