“...an extra $19 million in sales and services costs that could have been avoided
if the website had enabled users to complete their goals online.”
Megan Burns, Forrester Research*
PGGM
The Client
Pension fund PGGM insures almost two million former health care industry employees. The goal of PGGM is to offer a complete pension solution for modest pension payments. In this strategy, the internet plays an important role as the main communication channel with its customers for two reasons: keeping cost to a minimum by reducing calls in the call center and learning from customer questions on the website how to improve communication.
The Challenge: Increased Communication
PGGM noticed that the need for information on pension plans was steadily increasing. Due to political changes, pension plans became an even more important topic for many former employees in the health care industry. The result was that more and more people wanted personal advice on how the changes would affect their situation. The number of inbound calls to the call center exploded with a more than 100% increase per year.
To deal with this enormous need for information, PGGM started a significant internet initiative. The use of the internet self-service options was quickly adopted by the customers, however a large number of common and relatively simple questions kept coming into the call center.
"The costs increased significantly as a result of the increase in the number of calls. Therefore, we were looking for a solution to answer these common questions quickly and at low cost, so the customer contact center would have time to answer the more complex questions. At the same time, we wanted to gain more insight into the information needs of our customers, so we could improve our one-to-one communication over time."
Karin Dompselaar
PGGM
The Solution: Ask PGGM
In close cooperation with PGGM, Q-go introduced “Ask PGGM” on the company’s website. This online answering system allows customers to ask their questions in their own words and the Q-go application makes sure that the customers are provided with relevant answers instantly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
PGGM has also gained insight into the nature of the questions of its customers, allowing it to adjust its website content proactively and making sure that the content better matches the interests of its customers.
The Results: Better Service and Fewer Calls
The internet strategy of PGGM has paid off significantly. Since implementing the Q-go application the number of calls in the customer contact center has decreased by 20% compared to previous periods. PGGM has experienced significant cost savings and an improvement of its customer service at the same time. Call center agents can better help customers with complex questions as result of the decrease in every day calls.
PGGM has also learned the language of its customers through the analysis of online questions. As a result, online content, as well as flyers and brochures have been adjusted to make sure that PGGM addresses its customers effectively. Finally, PGGM has started initiatives to address hot topics in mailings and newsletters to its customers.