ActionSystems CRM Workshop for General Insurance Reveals Execution Gap

London (PROTEXT) - CRM Pioneer to Insurance Companies: 'The Industry's Customer Retention Issue Masks the Real Problem - Attracting the Wrong Segments' General insurers have a daunting customer relationship management (CRM) task, according to a leading CRM solution provider. ActionSystems UK hosted a workshop on Customer Relationship Management in Insurance. The event drew delegates from several of the leading UK insurers, including Churchill, Folgate, Hastings Direct, Liverpool Victoria, and Royal & SunAlliance. Robert Hall, CEO of ActionSystems Inc., whose CRM solution EnAct(TM) is helping scores of financial services companies around the world optimize their customer relationships, opened the workshop by defining the CRM imperative. Said Hall, "As insurance companies face up to their CRM challenges, it has become habitual to focus on the problem of customer retention, which is indeed low. But nothing creates a retention problem like attracting the wrong customers in the first place. The real opportunity lies in determining which customers to 'REAC' -- that is, which to Retain, which to Expand, which to Attract, and which to Cost-manage." Hall is author of The Streetcorner Strategy for Winning Local Markets, the best-selling business book widely credited with inspiring CRM in the financial services industry. His firm's clients include UK financial and travel services companies (Abbey National, NatWest, and Thomas Cook) as well as Equitable Insurance and Cigna Insurance in the U.S. The delegates concurred with Hall's comments. Richard Drinkwater, Director, Marketing Practices, Royal & SunAlliance noted, "We want to integrate the various parts of our organization with sales and marketing -- actuaries, claims, call center, and so forth -- so that we know which customers we should target and how." Another major composite insurer present pointed out, "The broker aspect of insurance means that it is more than customer relationship management. We also need to do broker relationship management." David Cotterell, Managing Director of ActionSystems UK, said, "Today customers have more options, and providers have less leverage. CRM technology can assist, but what the industry really needs is a sales and service delivery work force capable of delivering the right value to the right customers. Our experience shows us that just a 3-5% improvement in shifting the mix of customers can yield 15-30% improvement in profitability." Also on the program were David Moore of InFront Solutions Ltd, risk and cost management consultants on Implementing CRM Solutions and Michael Brockman of English Matthews Brockman, consulting actuaries on identifying customer value and building pricing models. At the conclusion of the workshop, delegates were given an overview of ActionSystems' General Insurance Opportunity Assessment. On Thursday, November 18, ActionSystems UK will present a second insurance seminar at its Berkeley Square offices, this one for Life and Pensions, again featuring Robert Hall. For an invitation, contact Louise Bellerby at (+44 (0)171 887 1508) or lbellerby@actsys.com. (Note to editor: we would appreciate your featuring this November event in your Diary section.) About ActionSystems: The firm was founded 20 years ago by Hall and has since provided solutions and thought leadership in sales and marketing fields. Its CRM solution consists of consulting, software, and business methodology, and is credited by client Abbey National with increasing targeted sales by 25% while decreasing costs by 14% -- with a 20% positive impact on the bank's stock price. Similar results are claimed by such organizations as Fleet Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Thomas Cook Global, Chase Manhattan, Standard Bank of South Africa, and Interbank of Peru. ActionSystems employs approximately 150, including six at ActionSystems UK Ltd, and has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, Houston, Johannesburg besides London and the corporate headquarters in Dallas. ots Original Text Service: ActionSystems Inc. Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact: Louise Bellerby of ActionSystems UK, +44-0-171-887-1508, or email, lbellerby@actsys.com; or Ann Cain of ActionSystems USA, 001-972- 715-0549, or email, acain@actsys.com Web site: http://www.actsys.com Subscribers please note that material bearing the slug "PROTEXT" is not part of CTK's news service and is not to be published under the "CTK" slug. Protext is a commercial service providing distribution of press releases from clients, who are identified in the text of Protext reports and who bear full responsibility for their contents. PROTEXT