Customer Satisfaction & Tracking Programs

Global Insurance Services
Client Satisfaction and Balanced Scorecard

Designed and executed global client satisfaction program to feed client's new Balanced Scorecard program and to improve marketing operations. Worked with SVP Marketing and CEO to develop objectives and build the organizational consensus to support an ongoing program. Created a monitoring and measurement system to evaluate not only satisfaction, but also competitive value and loyalty.

Attributes measured were constructed with input from clients as well as functional management, and are tied to value delivery. Reporting and communication of results facilitates immediate use across a diverse organization.

Corporate Services Outsourcer
Client Satisfaction Study

Client satisfaction study performed annually for global corporate services client to provide metrics for performance measurement and to guide account managers in their planning. Clients are segmented by size and location, and surveyed using methodologies specific to the type of client. Includes web, telephone and mail responses.

All responses combined in a master database which tracks client perceptions from year to year. Marketing Leverage provides complete analysis and reporting by segment, region and sales and account management teams. Occasionally, we address the client's customer advisory group on the results.

Property/Casualty Insurance Carrier
Lost Account Study

An unacceptable level of account losses contributed to a declining market share. Additionally, key functions operated independently and reported to different parts of the parent company. To understand the account loss problem and determine the impact of the organization, Marketing Leverage was engaged to conduct in-depth interviews with brokers and risk managers for large accounts who moved their business to another insurer, or who declined our client's proposal for services. Analysis pinpointed problems in several areas. Reports on each interview educated field offices and overall conclusions provided a vehicle for discussion among divisional and functional top management.

Hearing the 'voice of the customer' prompted unprecedented cooperation and action among the management group. Subsequent studies show improved market responsiveness and service levels.

Consulting Services

Insurance Carrier
Due Diligence for the New CEO

New management of an acquired company needed to understand the stability and loyalty of the customers who generated the majority of its revenues. With January renewals approaching, it was important to know if there were any issues with service, coverage or pricing, and with the changes occurring in the organization as a result of the acquisition. Marketing Leverage was engaged to conduct in-depth interviews, by telephone, with senior executives of the large customers. We reported results by customer to aid in account planning, and provided an overall view of the likelihood of successful long term relationships with the new management.

Tax Software and Services Provider
Competitive Assessment

Identified competitive strengths and weaknesses of corporate property tax software product, and opportunities for client to improve marketing, sales and service. In-depth interviews with customers, competitor customers and prospects who had considered the software but not purchased any product. Described the mindset of tax professionals who make the decision on this software so that client could sell more effectively to these individuals. Identified client's undersold strength. Client decided to keep product in their portfolio and leverage the information from the research toward increased sales.

Health Plan
Marketing Review - Medicaid Risk

Marketing Leverage was engaged by the General Manager of Government Programs to take a "focused look" at the Medicaid Risk operation. Our mission was to establish the framework for a data-driven marketing strategy for this business. We created a "Design Team" of Medicaid Risk and other company management to undertake an analysis of the current situation, threats and opportunities in the changing market, and growth issues.

The issues were complex, involving the need for the Medicaid Risk management team to think more as business owners, the introduction of "marketing" as a discipline in a "take all comers" model, improvements in the network and in management information, and the need to better manage member retention and recapture of disenrollments. The results were these: the team coalesced and began to drive improvements that were needed according to the plan we jointly developed. An improved bottom line became a key measurement of success.

Top 100 Medical Center
Marketing Strategy for Women's Health Care

Guided multidisciplinary team effort to define hospital position in the minds of urban and suburban women, and determine strategy for developing reputation and increased patient volume. Marketing Leverage created a six-phase project to understand the unique challenges of this hospital, deliver objective market information and perceptions, and work through the identification and discussion of strategy alternatives. Results included the "four pillars" of strategy - which included marketing elements such as promotion and involvement of doctors as the access channels to the hospital, as well as infrastructure and communications improvements that were needed to make the strategy work. Additional work further crystallized the service set for Ob/Gyn and established the "hooks" to draw more women to the hospital.

Care Management Provider, subsidiary of health plan
Strategic Marketing Plan

Worked with new CEO to turn around the performance and market position of this network provider of care management services to Long Term Care insurance companies. Multiple part project included assessment of potential within current client base, competitive assessment, creation of a marketing plan, and interim marketing management including re-imaging the company, development of account management functions, rationalizing the product set, and revising the pricing strategy.

Once the ship was righted and things were improving, we worked with the parent and the company to develop a strategy for leadership. This involved company management and senior management of the parent including the CEO, head of medical management and government programs, head of strategic planning, and head of marketing. The short-term result was increased utilization of the subsidiary's protocols in Medicare Risk Care Management and proof that these protocols do indeed deliver lower cost of care. Longer term, the parent decided to sell the subsidiary and we helped them assess potential partners.

Association of Health Care Providers
Communications Plan

Guided the Board of Directors and Management team through the process of developing a communications plan that would strengthen the central voice for this health care discipline and provide evidence of the Association's continuing value to members. Through a series of workshops and meetings, the team defined and prioritized its key audiences, evaluated its value proposition, identified communications problems and opportunities, and developed a detailed plan and budget for the next year.

Systems Outsourcer
Marketing Strategy

After shutting down a product line, a leading insurance company was left with a substantial investment in operating systems and staff. There was a possibility that this "back room" servicing capability could be marketed to other companies. Marketing Leverage worked with senior management in a series of projects that began with the initial testing of the "outsourcing" concept, and continued with product line expansions. Work included:

• Interviews with CEO's of other companies in the same industry to uncover issues and determine receptivity toward outsourcing.
• Competitor analysis showing product lines, revenues and pricing.
• Two day planning session to examine segmentation strategy and build internal support.
• Marketing planning process and format design.
• Prospect identification and profiling.
• New product concept testing and market size and composition analyses.

The new subsidiary built a prestigious client list with sales exceeding $100 million.

Retirement Savings
Channel and Product Portfolio Decisions

A recent acquisition left the client with two partially overlapping wholesaling organizations for its variable and group annuity programs. Management was considering several options - a) combining and downsizing the two organizations, b) allowing the two organizations to compete across the combined product portfolio, or c) realigning the product portfolios and specializing by wholesaler. The critical questions involved assessing wholesaler and product portfolio strengths and understanding the factors employed by decision-makers.

We first helped the client confirm the critical role played by broker-dealers in the selling process for their markets and then designed a two-stage assessment model involving in-depth interviews with managing executives followed by quantitative interviews with registered representatives concerning their decision processes and recommendations to their customers.

Management had the basis for making its decision on the wholesaling forces, plus they were in a position to realign the two product portfolios — as well as their broker-dealer support services — to better meet channel needs. Based on the information obtained, the company moved quickly to restructure the wholesaling operations and to modify the support service delivery system.

Technology Services Company
Customer Retention Strategy

The company had been growing rapidly. Competition intensified; its core market was maturing, and they had begun to focus on the new "middle market." Unfortunately, customers were leaving and revenue growth objectives were not being met. The engagement had four major parts:

• Measurement of the retention problem, lifetime values of different customer segments.
• Understanding of retention challenges and current systems in place.
• Assessment of customer value criteria and switching behavior.
• Strategy development and communication.

New pricing and account management structures were implemented; and communications and tracking improvements begun. We identified service segmentation issues and a new way to think about pricing that recognized the changes in the market and the higher payback of investing in certain groups of customers.

Web-Based Research and Training
Insurance Company

Client's web portal for their customers and brokers was not being used, despite a year of encouragement from the client. We were asked to diagnose the problem and figure out how to build usage of the portal at the same time. We devised a series of web-based "training exercises" with a mechanism for real time feedback on the experience, in addition to pre- and post-exercise impressions of the insurer. A panel of risk managers and their brokers were recruited (and incented) to participate in the exercises.

Program extended over five months with outstanding results - despite 9/11. Web functionality issues were uncovered and cured. Interviews with panel members mid-way through the effort pointed the way to using this as a training tool for all customers. Portal usage by panelists soared once they became familiar with the capability through the exercises. Now being rolled out to rest of customer base with supporting communications.

Research Services

Health Care
New Products and Services

Marketing Leverage clients have tested and brought to market a number of interesting, and needed, products and services that help reduce health care and health insurance costs, and/or improve the health and lives of consumers who use them. These have included elements of population health management, more effective utilization and case management services, outsourced capability in technology applications, new products for previously unserved consumers, improved products for individuals with disabilities, and new delivery channels for consumer health care products.

The research for these products and services was conducted among consumers and among hard-to-reach buyers including C-level executives, low incidence industry segments and low incidence consumer categories. Clients received information on purchase behaviors and philosophies, receptivity and interest in various concepts, competing products, positioning, and barriers and accelerators to successful introduction.

"Marketing Leverage added value at every step of the process, from the mundane aspects of securing facilities and labor, to the analytical and pragmatic requirements of delineating strategies and tactics. You hit the mark on all targets." – Market Intelligence Director

"We didn't have to explain the business to them; they were right up to speed." - VP Marketing

Health Plan
World Class Service Research

The company believes that health plans will be differentiated by the quality of service provided to members. Marketing Leverage assisted the World Class Service development team in understanding the perception of plan members and non-members regarding health plan service. We designed and conducted a series of focus groups among various demographic groups of consumers to elicit definitions of superior service and improvements to the health plan's current service levels. The result was a series of projects that improved various elements of the service relationship.

Insurance Company
Market Assessment - Expatriate Benefit Plans

Provided information foundation and implications for growth strategy among jumbo multinational employers and industry segments of mid-size employers. Included in-depth interviews with International operations managers, HR executives and returned top management expatriates to define needs, assess competition, determine the steps in the decision process, and identify opportunities for penetration. The company has achieved its growth targets, including contracts with many of the companies who participated in the market assessment we conducted. These studies used as models for market assessments within the company.

Global Technology Firm
E-Market Assessment

Conducted market research among potential buyers of services to determine optimal combination of e-market features, services, partners, and functionality; and to assess the potential evolution of the e-market. Participated as members of the interdisciplinary planning team to build the business case for the e-market guided by the client's e-business consulting team. Four research projects (in-depth interviews with internal customers, two rounds of qual/quant interviews with technology services buyers and users, and exploratory interviews with potential partners in other major firms) plus three two-day planning meetings, all accomplished within a period of eight weeks.

Insurance Brokerage
Understanding Buyer Behavior

To pursue its newly adopted strategy of industry specialization, an international insurance services firm needed to understand the issues and buying behaviors of decision-makers in its target segments. This was the management group's first experience with market research. An extended qualitative approach allowed the management group to "hear the customer speak" and provided breadth of information within a budget stretched across four segments.

The four-phase project began with top management interviews within the client's organization to explore issues, current knowledge and information needs. It continued with in-depth in person interviews with buyers in each segment who were customers or friends of our client's company. These interviews shaped the inquiry which would follow, and made the internal decision-makers part of the process. The next two phases involved in-depth telephone interviews with randomly selected buyers in each industry, followed by a series of focus groups across the U.S.

Results were brought to life by our client in a multimedia presentation as the centerpiece of the national sales meeting — which energized and focused company management and the sales team. One segment was eliminated as a candidate for investment; growth by acquisition was chosen as the strategy for expansion in another. The study supported a subsequent repositioning.

Managed Care Services Provider
Ergonomic Consulting Service

Client wished to test new product concept of ergonomic evaluation consulting and remediation for mid to large size corporations with high incidence of repetitive stress injuries. Crystallized the service description. Helped the client define the intended positioning. Tested the service ideas and possible price levels with executives in companies with more than 1000 US employees. Research defined strong interest in certain segments. Client reported survey results for significant press coverage, aiding in sale of the product.

Corporate Services Provider/Global Technology Leader - Joint Venture
Travel & Entertainment Web-Based Administration

To assess the market potential for a travel and entertainment expense reporting and administration system, Marketing Leverage was engaged to conduct a quantitative market assessment. A telephone survey of 300 executives who make decisions about how their company manages such systems showed a reasonable market for the product, but several barriers to be overcome. This was a smart and curious client's first experience with quantitative research, so the process for designing and reporting on the survey was a very interactive one. Result: Joint venture did not proceed because of the barriers shown.

Web Site Testing - Consumer
National Automobile Insurer

Developed unique approach to web site testing for national automobile insurer including formation of a web-based panel of consumers fitting detailed selection criteria. Using web-based tools, the panelists performed a series of tasks on the client's site and provided real time feedback on their experience. They were then invited to a facilitated bulletin board to exchange ideas among themselves and with the moderator on how to improve the site. The result was an amount and depth of information that would have been difficult and expensive to obtain otherwise.

Web-based portion preceded by in-person observation of "knowledgeable users" completing tasks on the web site and discussing their experiences. Entire project from design through reporting completed in 4 weeks. Partnered with Greenfield Online for use of their consumer panel as a recruiting base. Response from over 70% of panel recruited.

Web-Based Communications Effectiveness Study
Employee Benefits Company

Communications effectiveness study utilized NFO's consumer panel and a split sample to gauge relative effectiveness of alternatives being considered for certain client communications. Marketing Leverage worked with the client to design the research, selected and managed the vendor, and analyzed and reported the results.