Show you care
What can housing providers learn from a disruptive pet insurance company about valuing the customer, increasing engagement and improving satisfaction?
Show you care
What can housing providers learn from a disruptive pet insurance company about valuing the customer, increasing engagement and improving satisfaction?
“In terms of knowing me as a customer, social housing isn’t even close,” says Oke Eleazu, chief executive of disruptive pet insurance specialist Many Pets. “They should know everything about the houses they own and the people who live in them: what’s working well, what isn’t working. There’s so much more they could do to create a relationship between them and their customers.”
Eleazu knows a thing or two about being a disruptor in an industry, and how that disruption can create a vastly improved customer experience. In just six years, Many Pets has grown to become the trusted insurer for more than half a million pets, in part by using data to truly understand who their customers are and what they want.
But, as a current non-executive director at Hyde and former board member at Bromford, Eleazu is also very familiar with the housing sector and, crucially, what it has got wrong when it comes to customer engagement.
Show customers you care
“Part of the problem is that sometimes housing associations don’t think of customers as customers, they think of them as tenants; sometimes customers don’t think of themselves as customers,” he says. “They say they want to be number one in customer experience, but they don’t even think of customers in the right way. They all say they’re on a journey of transformation but it’s not for the customer; it’s so they can be leaner and cheaper. I’ve seen that story 100 times. But at the end of the day, it’s fairly easy to show – not tell – a customer that you care.”
In his day job, Eleazu is focused on trying to demonstrate to customers that his company both understands them and cares about them. And there are clear parallels between an insurance customer and a housing association customer. For starters, they often don’t want to know anything about the product they are using beyond the fact that it works. Eleazu recognises that as a fact of life.
Oke Eleazu
CEO, Many Pets
“They say they want to be number one in customer experience, but they don’t even think of customers in the right way. They all say they’re on a journey of transformation but it’s not for the customer; it’s so they can be leaner and cheaper. I’ve seen that story 100 times. But at the end of the day, it’s fairly easy to show – not tell – a customer that you care.”
No one cares about insurance
“One of our strategic pillars is that no one cares about insurance,” he explains. “It’s something you hope you never use. No one engages with it; no one cares.
“But if people aren’t passionate about insurance, [we thought] let’s insure the things they are passionate about – and pets are exactly that. That gave us licence to have more engagement with customers. We want it to be an ongoing conversation between us.”
Engagement for Many Pets isn’t something that is done for its own sake, but so that the company can understand exactly what customers need and then deliver a better service to them as a result. Eleazu says this ethos should apply no matter what sector you work in: “That should be the basis of every company, whether it’s a housing association or insurance company or retailer. It doesn’t mean you have to provide them with everything they want; it means you need to understand them, and then you also have to understand what you are going to be for them.”
Accept you can’t do everything
Eleazu says that understanding what you can do for customers might even mean accepting you can’t do everything – with housing associations this might mean admitting that customers – or tenants – don’t always have a choice, and that their landlord has finite resources.
“They all say they want to be the best for customers but they don’t really, because to be the best you have to be so much better than everyone else. So, you don’t really want to try to do that; you [might] actually want to be seven out of 10. But if you want to be seven out of 10 admit it, and be that seven.”
Collect the right data
When it comes to developing a true understanding of customers, it’s not a question of just accruing more and more data, but making sure it’s the right data. For Many Pets, this meant initially collecting less data than its peers, but making sure that customers are sufficiently engaged to continue to share and update that data. It’s what Eleazu describes as “progressive disclosure”.
“We’re saying [do] less to start with. So rather than ask 15 questions in a buying journey, why don’t you ask six because those are the six [for which] you actually need to provide the price? However, the other stuff that you may or may not need, you can ask later. The idea is the more that customers trust you and like you, the more they’ll tell you – so actually get them to come on the journey to start with.”
After that initial process where customers might just be looking for a good price, ongoing engagement comes from a dedicated account section on the Many Pets website. On the assumption that “no one cares about insurance”, this page offers discounts, competitions and other services, such as an online vet. “With most insurance companies there’s nothing for the customer to go to their account for,” explains Eleazu. “We wanted to engage customers more to help our service team.”
“We wanted to engage customers more to help our service team.”
Housing behind the curve
That’s the key point: customer engagement helps provide a better service, which in turn helps the end user. It’s the very epitome of a virtuous circle. But, as Eleazu says, to get to the point where you provide a better service, you have to truly value your customer. And that’s where he feels housing is behind the curve.
“Even if the data was there [for them to use], you have to have a real shift in what you believe your duty is for those customers,” he concludes. “I’ve been in many housing associations where staff think customers should be grateful for having a roof over their head. If you start in that position you’re not going to get anywhere.”
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