Customer-Centricity Spotlight:
Gore Mutual
Data-Driven Customer Experience

We sat down with Mikael Honore, Director of Auto Claims and Special Investigations at Gore Mutual, to discuss the organization’s recent progress as the team implements initiatives designed to improve the customer experience within the claims department.

“We are committed to delivering excellence in both our customer experiences and our business results” says Mikael. “We are constantly looking for ways to enhance our capabilities and provide value-added solutions to our customers that we believe will also deliver benefits to our bottom line.”

In this article, we will explore some of the practical steps that Gore Mutual has taken to improve its claims customer experience. We will also discuss how the organization uses data and feedback loops to better understand the drivers of customer satisfaction. Mikael explains, ”by putting our customers at the heart of everything we do, we aim to build lasting relationships and mutual trust.”

Customer-Centric Approach: The Key to Success

“Our customers are the lifeblood of our organization, and when their needs and goals align with our services, positive outcomes are likely to follow. We prioritize customer satisfaction as a core value – all our team members have internalised it. How this comes to life is that we take time to think about our customer’s intended outcome – whether buying a policy or making a claim and ensure that every interaction helps our customer toward achieving their goal.”

Outside-In Design: Understanding the Customer Journey

Mikael describes how Gore Mutual thinks about customer experience from the outside-in…“Our own journey began by taking the time to deeply understand our customers. We conducted interviews and focus groups, developed personas, and mapped out customer journeys to identify the different touchpoints and pain points they might experience. Level5 helped us identify our moments of truth – the critical junctures where customer perceptions are formed. Whether it’s a first interaction or a resolution, these moments are pivotal and must be handled with care. We made it a priority to train our front-line team members on the moments of truth: what they are, where they take place, and what they mean. This helps them to know to pay extra close attention on the moments that matter.”

Gore Mutual’s Approach: Insightful, Data-Driven, and Agile

Below, Mikael outlines the principles that have guided Gore Mutual’s approach to putting a customer-centricity mindset into practice:

• Collect Data: Gore Mutual constantly collects customer insights through Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys to understand what delights or frustrates customers.
• Understand Root Causes: Data-driven root cause analysis helps Mikael and his team to identify patterns in customer data and analyse root causes of persistent issues to address them systematically.
• Aligned Team Objectives: Gore Mutual aligns individual front-line performance targets with the broader company goals, such as setting NPS targets and call response times, encouraging staff to exceed customer expectations.
• Feedback Loops: Front-line team members review their performance metrics regularly with their team leader – so they can see how their actions impact customer satisfaction. In addition to data visibility, Team Leaders invest time in providing personalized side-by-side coaching, which helps team members learn and improve faster, and helps to deliver meaningful outcomes for both employee and customer satisfaction. Applicable learnings from individual coaching sessions are also shared with the broader team to further contribute to team learning and performance.
• Continuous Improvement: A continuous improvement mindset is at the heart of Gore Mutual’s operations. The organization has built a culture that embraces agility, iteration, and progress over perfection. Mikael’s team is always on the lookout to improve processes based on new insights and changing customer needs. An example of this principle in action is a recent pilot program to change the way Gore Mutual handles escalations in auto claims. “Whenever a customer initiates an escalation, both the supervisor and the front-line adjuster join the call with the customer. This allows the customer to receive escalated service while also allowing the adjuster to learn how to resolve escalations more effectively. An incremental change that is already yielding positive results.” Mikael added.
• Executive Commitment: “None of this would be possible without strong commitment from our executive team” says Mikael, “NPS is reported to our Board of Directors as a key metric that we are committed to continuously improve, and this ensures that emphasis pervades through our entire organization”.

Gore Mutual is a great example of an organization that puts customer-centric principles into practice. The company has instilled a customer-centric mindset, and used outside-in design and a methodical approach to customer-centricity that is delivering measurable improvements quarter over quarter.

Mikael summarises it neatly with: “By putting the customer at the heart of everything we do, we foster a culture of excellence and continuous improvement that drives our success.”

A big thank you to Mikael Honore and Gore Mutual for their collaboration on this article. For previous articles covering insights about Gore Mutual’s customer experience, see here and here.