How Zurich's CCO Is Ensuring it Meets Customer Expectations And Remains Human

Conny Kalcher has recently celebrated five years at Zurich Insurance – one of the world’s oldest and largest insurance companies – during which time she’s talked of ambitions for Zurich to become “the Apple of insurance”. No an easy task for a brand that she says was previously seen as “cold and distant.”

“Here we have a super tanker…they don't turn easily, and they don't turn into speed boats. We've been around for 150 years, so how do we make our 60,000 people think, act, and relate to customers differently?” asks Kalcher.

Her answer has been to shift the value proposition for Zurich, going beyond protection into prevention and service, and helping associates build meaningful relationships, because “every interaction matters,” especially when they don’t talk to their customers very often.

“It's difficult because 50 per cent of customers don't even have a claim during a year. They've signed up for this insurance, but they don't get anything back. So, the more we can provide services, help prevent things from going wrong, engage with our customers to prove that we can add value, as well as the protection when something happens - we know from our data that their loyalty and satisfaction go up,” Kalcher says. “We had to move into the more emotional space, where every interaction is about building a meaningful relationship.”

Kalcher set out frameworks for the organisation to start acting in a different way, while considering the experience that Zurich wanted its customers to have, and “what good should look like.”

When Kalcher first joined the multi-line insurer, customer focus was one of three strategic priorities – and had been since 2016. At that time, a major initiative for Zurich was net promoter score (NPS) a market research metric based on the likelihood of customer recommendations.

“It was a good start,” says Kalcher. “But when I joined, we rewired our whole approach to customers: the value proposition, purpose, building a brand house for Zurich, changing the visual identity to became much more relatable and engaging. We started to use real people in our photography, and talking more on eye level to our customers, and then defining customer experience (CX) standards for the group.”

It’s one thing to have a value proposition and a new identity, Kalcher explains, but she wanted to go further and explore what Zurich is really delivering to customers. With that in mind, Kalcher and her team defined 33 service standards and rolled them out across the organisation, with metrics linking customer relationships to remuneration, because “what you measure gets done. It’s one thing to develop these programmes, and another thing to actually make them happen,” explains Kalcher.

Next came a new 10-point tone-of-voice strategy involving “communicating optimistically.” This was something she found had come more instinctively within the culture at Lego, Kalcher’s previous brand. Having spent three decades immersed in play and creativity, she built up many elements and disciplines into a toolkit that has been put into play at Zurich over the past five years.

“But it's not copy and paste. It's a whole different industry and mindset,” admits Kalcher. “In FMCG, marketing drives everything: it is at the centre of decision-making. Whereas in financial industries, the numbers and the technical discipline sit at the centre, and marketing sits around it.”

Within Lego there were thousands of marketers, Zurich’s marketers are in the hundreds. And although it’s a very different set-up, the CX philosophy applies, says Kalcher.

“Whether it’s a five-year-old boy or a 40-year-old mother, the eureka is that customers are the same. They all wanted to be treated in a meaningful way, they all want to be understood. They want to be serviced in the channel that matters to them. If you stick to that very simple rule, the more you know about your customer the more you understand them, the more you understand the environment they're in – and the better you adjust all of your processes to servicing that – the more successful you will be.”

Introducing empathy training and AI support

And it’s a journey Kalcher went through at Lego too. There may be a perception that the plastic brick brand has always been super-successful, but that’s not true, she says, remembering a not so long ago time when Lego was “hopelessly old-fashioned and the kids wouldn't be seen near it once they were past eight years old.”

At Zurich, “hybrid segmentation” has been a key tool for Kalcher: marrying the insurance giant’s proprietary data with market data to understand how many individual segments the brand is servicing, compared to its potential. A young starter with simple insurance needs may want to be served digitally, while a 57-year-old male with a wife and kids who are no longer living at home, might have complex needs and want an agent to talk to them and offer more focused advice,” explains Kalcher.

Part of the CX transformation at Zurich is training the whole organisation to start in a different place. It’s about understanding the customer needs, and “teaching the organisation that it doesn't start with a policy number. It starts with understanding who is at the other end of the phone line or the WhatsApp or whatever channel you service them in and how to talk to and engage with them,” says Kalcher.

Empathy training for frontline staff at contact centres was introduced at the end of 2023, teaching employees to listen first before offering advice.

“It's difficult because 50 per cent of customers don't even have a claim during a year. They've signed up for this insurance, but they don't get anything back. So, the more we can provide services, help prevent things from going wrong, engage with our customers to prove that we can add value, as well as the protection when something happens - we know from our data that their loyalty and satisfaction go up,” Kalcher says. “We had to move into the more emotional space, where every interaction is about building a meaningful relationship.”

As part of that approach, Zurich Insurance, alongside agency FCB London, launched the “Sustain Your World” campaign. That offered a look at how the company protects customers by insuring all the things they did and did not think about in their everyday lives.

Rewiring Zurich's Customer Approach

Kalcher set out frameworks for the organisation to start acting in a different way, while considering the experience that Zurich wanted its customers to have, and “what good should look like.”

When Kalcher first joined the multi-line insurer, customer focus was one of three strategic priorities – and had been since 2016. At that time, a major initiative for Zurich was net promoter score (NPS) a market research metric based on the likelihood of customer recommendations.

“It was a good start,” says Kalcher. “But when I joined, we rewired our whole approach to customers: the value proposition, purpose, building a brand house for Zurich, changing the visual identity to became much more relatable and engaging. We started to use real people in our photography, and talking more on eye level to our customers, and then defining customer experience (CX) standards for the group.”

It’s one thing to have a value proposition and a new identity, Kalcher explains, but she wanted to go further and explore what Zurich is really delivering to customers. With that in mind, Kalcher and her team defined 33 service standards and rolled them out across the organisation, with metrics linking customer relationships to remuneration, because “what you measure gets done. It’s one thing to develop these programmes, and another thing to actually make them happen,” explains Kalcher.

Next came a new 10-point tone-of-voice strategy involving “communicating optimistically.” This was something she found had come more instinctively within the culture at Lego, Kalcher’s previous brand. Having spent three decades immersed in play and creativity, she built up many elements and disciplines into a toolkit that has been put into play at Zurich over the past five years.

“But it's not copy and paste. It's a whole different industry and mindset,” admits Kalcher. “In FMCG, marketing drives everything: it is at the centre of decision-making. Whereas in financial industries, the numbers and the technical discipline sit at the centre, and marketing sits around it.”

“Are we fully there yet? No, we're not. But we can see in the countries where we've done it, that the NPS scores go up quite dramatically, in some instances by as much as 20 per cent. And team collaboration has improved,” Kalcher says.

Embracing AI

The empathy training extends to written customer messaging, for example about a price rise or a new product, which is generated by artificial intelligence (AI) according to the 10 principles of the brand’s tone-of-voice strategy, and then edited by employees according to their own judgement.

“We're all doing the rewriting based on the same principles across the organisation and with the help of AI, it goes faster,” Kalcher explains.

But does the use of AI make the customer experience less human?

“I don't want us to be a machine company,” says Kalcher. “We need to be a human company with human values, and human contact but when it makes sense then AI can speed things up, and that's a good thing.”

She says that it is used within the company’s claims analytics where decisions can be made in seconds around potential fraud to speed up responses to claims for those that are not fraudulent.

“We should embrace AI where it helps our customer experience, but not be slaves to it,” continues Kalcher.

The emerging trend, she says, is that digitisation is making the insurance experience much more customer-friendly – since (almost) everyone has a smartphone in hand, people can all take a picture of the damage, call up an agent and discuss the claim. Or customers can deal with their whole claim via WhatsApp.

“It's just enabling a tool that the customer already has to hand, and they love that. It doesn't mean forcing them that way. Many customers would prefer to get on WhatsApp instead of having to call somebody or email, or even write a letter, God forbid,” laughs Kalcher. “It's really about being where the customers are and following what they do.”

It can feel uncomfortable to begin with, she admits, remembering when social media was introduced at Lego. “Everybody was afraid of it. They thought we would be bashing the brand all over social media, but it turned out exactly the opposite. It's about speed. It's about taking hassle out of the customer’s everyday life.”

Becoming even more customer centric

To keep up with challenges posed by digitisation, Zurich has introduced safety mechanisms such as software that deciphers the authenticity of claims images sent digitally, and internal cyber-security training. As well as streamlining customer relationships, Kalcher has focused on improving and understanding loyalty, through net revenue retention and measuring the value of each customer according to the services they buy into.

Today’s marketers need to be experts in data and finance explains Kalcher, who recommends to her peers becoming best friends with the chief finance officer and the chief intelligence officer. “You need to speak the language of these people in order to create real change,” she says.

Now that many of the hard yards of internal communication and customer experience delivery have been covered, the Zurich brand is looking to “open up more towards customers,” with increased outward messaging and more emotional communication. Kalcher is working with agencies including Ogilvy for strategy, PR and branding, 72andSunny for advertising, and Recipe for social media. Campaigns are already running globally via social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram, with more to come over the next year.

“We’re focusing on the life moments that matter. When you discover you're pregnant, or you're buying a house, or opening a business…those stories can be told in a very engaging emotional way, because we all know those situations. And what Ogilvy and 72andSunny are helping us with is; how to create and deliver these messages in the right way, how to make the message even bigger, and break out from the crowd.”

The transformation is already beginning to reap results: Kalcher points to an experience while visiting Zurich offices in Malaysia, when she overheard customer agents who were completely on message.

“I believe that it's making a change when our people on the front line are telling the same story and acting accordingly. Then we're on the right track. You can see the passion in their eyes and the belief that this is the right thing to do. I strongly believe that everybody wants to do the right thing – and it's actually very rewarding to get it right for our customers.”

It seems Kalcher is also getting it right for the business: the past year has been Zurich’s most successful yet, with group business operating profit up 21 per cent to a record $7.4 billion, topping a successive run of five years’ worth of record financial results, and strong growth reported across all businesses.

Meanwhile, millions of new customers have come on board over the past five years, transactional NPS has increased by 14 points over the past three years, and brand consideration is growing across all markets, explains Kalcher.

Even so, the brand is not yet where she wants it to be. In another two or three years, she says, “we will be radically different” but for now, Kalcher is happy that the rudder of the super tanker is turning in the right direction.

Some further insights from Kalcher on how she maintains creative excellence.

Who is your creative hero or favourite piece of creativity?

“My favourite piece of creativity is the Barbie movie. It's such a groundbreaking piece of creative work from a courageous brand. Mattel teamed up with a highly talented team to do it and they even mocked themselves as a brand. They took risks with their brand and I appreciate that – and they tapped right into current culture. That was courageous and bold - it was super-clever, and I love it.”

What’s been feeding your imagination lately?

“I've just been to Cannes Lions, which of course is like a bombardment of creativity. You get to see lots of amazing campaigns, and talented people on stage.

“And for me, one of the campaigns that stood out was Coca-Cola's sustainability campaign Recycle Me, [by WPP Open X led by Ogilvy] which won a Grand Prix.

“They squashed the tins, and then they focused on the squashed logo. Again, I thought that was very bold. Having worked in company brands for many, many years, to try and distort your own logo is not the thing to do. But it talks to the power of the Coke logo – we all recognise it, even if it's squashed. So I thought that was a very clever, unique idea that has newsworthiness and was very, very powerful.”

What do you think has been your boldest creative play?

“There were so many bold creative plays at my time at Lego, but if I focus on my time here at Zurich, I think one of the bold positions we've taken is to focus on optimistic communication.

“So instead of doom and gloom and what can go wrong in insurance, to focus on what can go right. And always talk about the positive scenario, not the doom and gloom. I think that's bold, it's different. And optimistic communication is not only more appealing internally, but also externally to our customers.”

How did it pay off, and what lessons did that teach you?

“I think we've become more relatable. At least that's what our customers are saying to us. They used to say we were cold and distant, because of the way we were communicating both visually and in words. And now, by very distinctively taking a position about optimistic communication, it really resonates with our customers. It's not the only thing we're doing, but it's different: they can they buy into it and they like it.”

What do you enjoy most about being a marketer?

“I enjoy the creativity and innovation, and I love moving fast and breaking things. So doing things that are not so usual in the industry, but there's space for that in marketing, and that's what I enjoy the most, and working with smart people.”

What makes a good creative marketer?

“I think it's the level of strategic thinking. That ability to rise above the obvious, and then combine that with execution power.”

What makes a good creative agency partner?

“Being very, very good at strategic thinking and challenging the client. Taking the client to the next level, I think that's a good creative agency.”

And what frustrates you?

“Lack of speed. Things not moving fast enough. I know things take time but I think we sometimes move very slowly in our industry, and I think we should go much faster, be bolder.”

What excites you about the future?

“The transformation aspect. The future is filled with transformation across industries, and within our own marketing industry, in the way we work and the way we use AI... That whole aspect of: ‘how do you keep on adapting to these new scenarios?’ That inspires me a lot.”