Inviting customers to have their say

In 2005, the CGU Workers’ Compensation business did something unconventional.

They talked to their customers … and they listened.

Talking to their customers is something they do every day – in fact, the nature of workplace accidents means that there are several customers they need to work with over an extended period of time: the injured worker, employer, rehabilitation specialists and medical professionals.

But, in 2005, the workers’ compensation leadership team brought in an external party to ask how these people really felt about the service they were receiving.

Malcolm Freeman, State Manager CGU Workers’ Compensation NSW, gives his insights.

“The watershed moment for me was when we compared our perceptions of the world with the reality of how our customers were experiencing our service,” says Malcolm.

“We were aware that we had no formal mechanism for tracking customer comments and feedback, and the research just reinforced we needed to be more responsive.”

After the initial research, a number of structural changes were made across each business. In NSW this included establishing an Intermediary Services team to help service brokers; segmenting the business along customer lines; and structuring the claims teams to improve performance of providing payments.

Each State also established a complaints and compliments database and provided a single point of accountability to manage it full time. All disputes are escalated and logged, with a preliminary response given within 24 hours. A monthly report is provided to the State Manager and their senior management team, allowing them to assess trends and the performance of respondents.

“We wanted to be transparent about the results of the process so we shared them with the NSW WorkCover Authority,” says Malcolm. CGU is an agent of the NSW WorkCover Scheme.

Malcolm and his team are now conducting similar customer research every six months, striving for continuous service improvements.