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Customer Service – Getsafe Team Stories

On a mission to make customers happy: What does it take and why it's fun? Sina, Mirna, Maren, and Martin from the Customer Support Team tell you more about it

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3 minute read2021-11-29
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Their mission: Customer Happiness. They always have an ear for Getsafe customers and have the necessary know-how in insurance matters to help when they are in trouble or report a claim. We asked Maren, Martin, Mirna, and Sina (in this order on the picture) how they experience their work and what makes a customer happiness manager happy.

What do you find cool about working in Customer Service?

Martin: When customers are happy after a quick response to a claim, I'm happy too. And sometimes there are really funny damage stories: For example when someone sat down on their toilet bowl with too much momentum and it broke, that made me smile. Every new damage is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get.

Maren: That's true, it never gets boring. And I have many nice conversations with a lot of the customers. I'm also happy every time we get lovely messages from particularly satisfied customers who are thanking us.

Sina: I think our team spirit is particularly great. We do lots of stuff together  in our private time as well and talk openly about everything. I see Mirna almost every day. And our team lead Rebecca always has an open ear and takes on a lot to keep our backs free.

Mirna: I also think it's remarkable just how involved Rebecca gets. As our team lead, she obviously has to deal with the big picture stuff first and foremost. But when things get stressful, she's with us at the front lines and helps wherever needed.

Getsafe now has over 250,000 customers. Of course, this also means a higher volume of customer inquiries for Customer Service. How do you ensure that the service continues to be fast and good?

Maren: As our customer base grows, so does our team. We also work differently today than we did a year ago. Back then, everyone was still responsible for everything. In 2021, the team has become more professional and specialised: We work either in the front or the back office and are each responsible for one to a maximum of three insurance products.

Martin: We have a very heterogeneous team. In the claims area, for example, I work with Bianca, who brings 20 years of regulatory experience: there's nothing she doesn't know. So everyone has an indispensable task.

Sina: Working in a technology startup like Getsafe also has a clear advantage: Customers can easily make changes like address or bank data in the app themselves. In the future, we also plan to automate other processes. That will take a lot of work off our hands, so that we can increasingly focus on the more complex issues that come up

Why is it actually called back office and front office?

Maren: Front office catches all the general inquiries and the first calls, it’s the face to the outside world. Anyone who calls or writes an email lands in the front office first. Many inquiries are answered right there. The back office is responsible for when it goes more into the specific questions, product depth, or when damage is reported. For example, I'm responsible in the back office for car, dental, and legal protection insurance, with a focus on car.

Sina: In the back office, we are basically responsible for claims. That means Martin and I process inquiries about claims, talk to claimants, and forward everything to our Third Party Administrators (TPA), the service providers who settle the claims. I work in HOME, which includes inquiries for contents insurance, dog liability, liability and bicycle insurance.

How do you have to be knit to do this job well?

Sina: Being helpful helps. When there is a claim, it is important to respond and listen to people individually and empathetically. For example, if someone has just knocked down a pedestrian with a bicycle, the person is naturally upset at first. After such an extreme situation, you want to give the customer this feeling of: "We're here for you no matter what, we won't let you down now," that's totally up my alley.

Mirna, do you serve another special area? What do you love about your job?

Mirna: I'm in the front office as a Payment Specialist, dealing with customers who have general questions about or problems with their payment, or can't pay for a variety of reasons. What I like about it is that I have a lot of leeway and there are no standard solutions. In the beginning, I was still unsure on what to do if someone still owes us 200 euros and doesn't want to pay. Now I have a strategy for everything. I get a lot of stories, sometimes blatant ones. In such cases, I may simply call the customer, listen to them and find a solution together: This could be an installment payment, for example, or we extend the payment deadline. If it's a matter of a few euros, you can sometimes turn a blind eye. During Corona, for example, many people lost their jobs, so we offered a two-month Corona break, which went down very well.

What is particularly challenging about working in CS?

Martin: We have to be insurance experts, we have to know the conditions well, and we have to keep up with changes. After all, there is not just one set of conditions, but several. Sometimes the liability insurance covers the loss of a key, while in another set of conditions only the replacement of the entire lock is covered. But after a few months, you have internalized the differences. At the latest when you've said something wrong once - you don't forget that again (laughs).

Mirna: It's also often challenging to deal with customers whose claims have been rejected or who are dissatisfied for some other reason.

Do you have any tips on how best to do that?

Sina: You need a lot of patience and you have to be very clear in your own mind: We'll find a solution to the problem. I stick to a few principles: Let people finish, calm them down, and don't take it personally if they're upset.

Mirna: I get it when customers are unhappy, for example, if a claim is not covered by insurance. And when we show that we can understand the customer's perspective, they usually become friendlier again.

Carina
Author: Carina