Average score complaint handling (1-10)
8.1
Within a.s.r., a dedicated complaints management team monitors the implementation of the a.s.r. complaints policy and oversees the complaints procedure. The actual handling of complaints is centralised within the organisation. The key principles of complaints management are:
a.s.r. is open to complaints and facilitates customers to submit a complaint;
a.s.r. communicates its view and the proposed solution for the complaint in a comprehensible and transparent manner;
a.s.r. aims to learn and improve from complaints.
a.s.r. regards the handling of complaints as a matter requiring specific knowledge and skills. Complaints handlers keep their knowledge up-to-date through continuous education, for instance by following training courses in the field of customer service. Customers assign the a.s.r. complaints handlers an average score of 8.1 out of 10 (2022: 8.4).
A Unifying Communications training course was developed together with an external trainer. In this training course, complaints handlers learn the skills for making more in-depth contacts with customers. This increases the chances of strengthening the relationship with customers and of customer calls leading to win-win outcomes, with both customers and complaints handlers themselves feeling that they have been heard and understood.
Complaints upheld/rejected
The complaints management team decides whether complaints will be upheld or rejected. The ‘four-eyes’ principle is applied for every complaint. The first employee checks the position to be taken with a second employee, in order to avoid subjectivity. The same employee never handles the same case twice.
The figure below shows the number of complaints upheld and rejected. a.s.r. divides complaints into three categories:
Upheld complaints; partially or fully justified complaints;
Unjustified complaints: complaints qualified as unjustified by a.s.r.;
Unfounded complaints; complaints that are not intended for a.s.r.
(in numbers)
Service and performance complaints
Under the premise 'What doing can do,' in 2022 a.s.r. launched a campaign to reduce the number of service and performance complaints. Service and performance complaints are complaints that arise during the contact phase with the customer service. At the start of the campaign, the share of these service and performance complaints was 65% of the total complaints. a.s.r. started working on determining the causes of the service and performance complaints and deployed four improvement initiatives for this. In addition, all employees were requested to contribute ideas on better compliance with agreements. In the first instance, the number of complaints decreased as a result of the campaign. The total number of complaints increased again in 2023 due to an unexpectedly high increase of customers in health, in combination with the indexation of the funeral fees. The percentage of service and performance complaints remained at the former levels.
(in %)
a.s.r. engages with customers following feedback
Across the organisation, colleagues are working to further improve the customer experience. They learn from the feedback customers provide after a moment of contact, or after asking how the customer experiences its relationship with a.s.r.: the NPS-r.
Following a pilot, where customers who had given negative feedback were called back, great results have been booked in 2023. By engaging with customers and listening to what they experienced, more than half of these customers were demonstrably more positive about a.s.r.1
Because of these insights, all business lines have committed to, start calling back customers who give negative feedback from 2024 onwards. The improvement opportunities this provides, are another step closer to becoming the best financial services provider in the Netherlands for customers and advisors.
- 1Service Recovery Pilot 2023 – Marketing Strategy and Innovation