DSI and Marketing Director: How to adapt to new expectations of customers?

The new face of the customer experience

Today, insurance companies are obliged to engage in a multitude of digital channelsincluding personal assistants such as Alexa or Google Assistant, to meet different needs: customer support available everywhere and at any time, personalization of the content offered, proposal for additional services …

In addition, many companies tend to overestimate the quality of their customer relationship. Very often, there is a considerable gap between the real feelings of the customers and the experience that insurance companies think they are offering them.

To overcome the challenges of digital transformationit therefore appears essential to decompartmentalize silos and bring together business directions. Indeed, most data, applications, analyzes and other integrations related to the customer experience are in the fold of the Information Systems Department.

Yet it is the Marketing function which has the best understanding of customers and who designs most of the company's digital experience. From the acquisition of customers to their detention, it plays a key role in continuous improvement in customer relations.

Thus, the IT management and the Marketing & Commercial Department must work hand in hand, despite the ditches which separate them.

Marketing and CIO management: fundamental differences

In most companies, there is a certain proximity between the Director of Information Systems (DSI) and the administrative and financial director (DAF), but also the commercial director … even if it means abandoning the Marketing managementwhose IT needs are however experiencing spectacular growth.

As part of the deployment of a CRM, for example, it is not uncommon for marketing to be excluded from the selection process, while it is one of the first concerned. It is therefore urgent to bring together these two business departmentsbecause the marketing function can become a precious source of income for the CIO.

Moreover, The Marketing Director and the IT Director pursue different objectives. The first acts according to customer requests: from the creation of a mobile application to communication on a new social network, each action is designed to meet the emerging needs of consumers. The function must therefore adapt constantly, but also produce more quickly and more efficiently.

To achieve this, it is based in particular on marketing automation tools, which considerably increase its productivity, and therefore the sales made by the insurance company. However, the Dsi would benefit from bringing his stone to the building, in order to help the Marketing & Commercial Department to achieve real operational excellence.

If she masters the data and new technologies better and better, the marketing function must still be able to count on the management of information systems. Starting from customer requests and needs, the CIO can help marketing set priorities, identifying constraints linked to an environment subject to strict rules and standards.

Beyond the marketing and computer control, cohesion between all business directions is today an essential ingredient to offer a customer experience quality.

How to improve collaboration between the ISD and the marketing director?

Despite their differences, The Director of Information Systems and the Marketing Director are not irreconcilable.

Among the different tracks to explore, one of the most ambitious is to create a post of Director of customer experienceManaging a common service bringing together marketing and IT, or even other departments of the company: sales, customer service, etc. Another possibility: to appoint a transversal computer and marketing director, depending on both the CIO and the marketing function.

Without going so far as to create a full direction, it is also possible to pool resources and employees from different services, to carry out joint projects In terms of customer experience. In all cases, it is essential to determine the role of each in the customer strategy and to define who is responsible for the various investments necessary.

In addition, to enhance these common efforts in favor of customer relations, it is important to communicate regularly to the Other business directions. Indeed, although the CIO and the Marketing Department largely contribute to the implementation of actions related to the customer experience, the entire organization is concerned by this question.

All the functions of the company must therefore be involved in this process, notably by providing the customer data they have. The insurance company thus has a 360 -degree vision of its customers and has all the information necessary to permanently improve the experience offered to consumers.