'Trust' was identified as the most expected quality from an insurance company and thus became the cornerstone of AXA's UK strategy. The business needed a high impact, behaviour changing communications programme in the UK that involved all employees in helping to achieve the new strategy.
AXA
The Solution
In order to establish what ‘trust’ actually meant, a definition based on extensive internal and external research was developed. The conclusion was that trusted relationships are created by being Caring, Competent and Reliable to its customers and employees.
Phase 1 – Input & Buy-in
To give every single employee the opportunity to be involved in the creation of the final plan, the leadership team took to the road. Over a period of three months, the CEO and his team toured all AXA UK offices and gave each of their 13,000 employees the opportunity to input, ask questions and generally gain a solid understanding of the company objectives so that they could contribute.
Phase 2 – Intensive Customer Experience (ICE)
INVOLVE’s approach to embed these principles of care, competency and reliability involved plunging employees both physically and emotionally into an intense, live situation that would put them in the customers’ shoes. This allowed them to discover for themselves how their own behaviour could make, or indeed break, trust in their customer relationships.
Over the course of a day, employees were gradually introduced to six typical AXA customers – played by actors and based on their customer segmentation model. Various media including film and audio revealed more and more of their characteristics.
In the course of one of these filmed sequences a dramatic gas explosion blew the front of a residential building off, directly affecting each of the customers – one had lost her car, another his business, another her husband.
The process of this intensive and totally immersive experience allowed the attendees to test their own ability to deliver trust and hone their skills in a ‘safe’ environment.
The ultimate goal was to restore trust with each of the customers before they went public with their grievances, in a live press conference at the end of the day.
The Results
13,000 AXA employees took part in the ICE day, and many have gone on to train new recruits using a DIY ‘Ice in a Box’ format, to ensure that all employees follow the same principles in their customer dealings.
Care, competency and reliability are now part of everyday office life, and ICE is part of Global Best Practice at AXA Worldwide.
Overall employee satisfaction scores across the organisation rose by 8%, an increase previously unheard of.
Employee Engagement increased by 4% – two percentage points over target.
The programme has also won a number of awards including: HR Excellence Award; CiB’s Communication Strategy Award including Overall Class Winner for Employee Engagement, and a CBI Human Capital Award for Managing Change.
