How Groupama reduced its check-in times by 40% using Qmatic Orchestra

”Our customers are very satisfied with the solution we
selected. Furthermore, the reporting functions allow us
to maintain full control over what happens in the Claims Settlement Center. ”

Sandro Bisogno, Claims Area Manager at Groupama Claims Settlement Center

13 million customers, 34,000 employees, 130 years of history in 11 countries worldwide. This is Groupama, a major insurance group which originated in France and whose aim is to “help its customers at key moments in their lives, using highly specialized skills and experience.”

The Challenge

The Groupama Claims Settlement Centre in Rome wanted to provide its customers with a better organized, more satisfying and more engaging experience. As Mr. Bisogno, Claims Area Manager, explains, “Customers arriving at the branch had to wait to sign up in a register, manually entering data, taking a corresponding number for a given department and waiting their turn. The claims area is divided into three floors, each housing a specific department. For this
reason, the paper system for receiving and directing customers was inefficient and
laborious.”

The Solution
“Groupama is a company which pays a great deal of attention to its customers’ needs,” Bisogno continues. “To improve the experience at the Claims Settlement Centre, we therefore turned to Qmatic, a company that specializes in the Customer Experience.” To effectively connect Groupama customers with the correct services, the Claims Settlement Centre implemented Qmatic Orchestra, a platform that manages all contact points with the customer in an organic, flexible and personalized way. With Orchestra, the Claims Settlement Centre journey begins at the check-in (selfservice totem) where the customer can select the relevant department in a swift and intuitive manner. This check-in counter also displays relevant information about waiting times and directions (Wayfinding). During the waiting period, at each point of contact, Groupama Insurance continues communicating with customers, showing them videos, images and specific marketing messages via all of the available devices (display, monitors, touch screens, etc.). Branch managers can create and update their own media using a special playlist configuration screen. Through the Business Configuration system, Orchestra manages the user flow according to an automated procedure, optimizing the performance of its advisors who can then work at a suitable speed. At the same time, operators use a monitoring screen to view information about the flow of users in the queue. In short, whereas before they were “passively submitting to” the flow of customers, they now have full control over the situation.
The Business Intelligence module provides three different levels of data analysis for management:
 KPIs updated in real time
 Office performance analysis over a longer period of time
 Comparative analysis based on “What if” scenarios

Results
With Qmatic Orchestra, Groupama has cut its user registration time by 40%, regained full control over all points of contact with customers, regulated the user flow via an automatic system and thereby improved the organization of labor for its employees. For Groupama Insurance, Qmatic Orchestra is both a marketing tool (Digital Signage) and a performance analysis tool. These functions are essential for identifying any corrective measures that may need to be taken and engaging customers in an increasingly effective way. “We will be extending Orchestra to other branches,” continues Mr. Bisogno.” The customer remains our priority, so we plan to expand our platform soon by adding a preappointment
calendar.”

THE PROJECT
GROUPAMA ASSICURAZIONI SPA,
Italian subsidiary of Groupama, a major insurance group with over 13 million customers in 11 countries around the world
SECTOR: Insurance
COUNTRY: Italy
DISTRIBUTION: 21 Claims Settlement Centers in Italy with 1.8 million customers
THE CHALLENGES
 Improve the customer experience at the Claims Settlement Center
 Reduce waiting times
 Reduce pressure on employees
THE SOLUTION
 Qmatic Orchestra Enterprise Platform
 Digital Signage systems
 Check-in Totem
 Business Intelligence Module
MAIN ADVANTAGES
 Customer waiting and admission times cut by up to 40%
 Customers feel more satisfied and engaged
 Option of carrying out detailed analysis of branch performance to monitor activity and implement any necessary corrective measures
 Optimization of the working activities of relevant employees

A word to the wise

Voice-controlled virtual assistants are gaining ground and will soon become integrated into many service situations. Maybe it will become the universal way of getting things done. Maybe not.

It’s been more than six years since Apple introduced Siri and voice became one more way to interact with tech and the internet. Now, all the strong players in the digital arena have launched their own voice-controlled virtual assistants.

To see just how far some of these technologies have advanced, take a look at this demo that Google released:

To be fair, the video is just a piece of marketing, but Google claims it will launch the first implementations “within a few weeks”. And the potential for transforming Customer Experiences with this tech is huge. Recently a hotel installed Amazon Alexa-enabled units in their rooms to handle requests for restaurant reservations, translation, travel arrangements etc. That is a brilliant idea! A glimpse of the future.

On the other hand, machine learning AI’s that replicate human speech are not “thinking” in a contextually relevant way. It is, in fact, quite easy to trip up an AI like Alexa by simply asking it the most mundane questions. With Alexa in the hotel room, what do people *actually* want to find out when in an unknown place? Well, how about: “Alexa, where’s the blow-dryer?” You’re not going to solve that by searching the internet.

On the whole, AI assistance and voice-control is an impressive leap forward in simplifying access to services and information, and at Qmatic this is the stuff of enthusiastic experimentation right now. But while we mine technology for its potential we also have to balance its limitations.

Sometimes, it might just be easier to put a sticker on the drawer where the blow-dryer is kept.

Fed up with queuing? You won’t have to wait more than seven minutes here

New passport within the hour. Take a queue ticket and get married. Stay in your car and get drive-in service. In Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, the 14,000 people who visit Public Service Hall every day wait no more than seven minutes to get their business dealt with by 400 operators working at maximum efficiency.

Sounds like utopia, doesn’t it? But this is already a reality in the small country of Georgia, where the Public Service Hall agency has a presence in 16 cities. Just imagine having the passport authority, tax office, employment office and social services all under one roof, in an architecturally stimulating building that is a far cry from the dull public authority edifices you’re used to. Tbilisi’s Public Service Hall, for example, looks like a mushroom forest, while in the city of Mestia the building resembles a collection of large harps leaning towards one another.

Customer satisfaction levels are high – 94 percent are very happy with the service they get with the help of Qmatic’s platform Orchestra, which includes queue management, work force allocation, customer journey analysis and customer surveys.

“Georgia has a population of just 3.7 million and in terms of GDP it’s smaller than countries like Libya, Estonia and Botswana. Public Service Hall has been a success in Georgia, where the aim has been to offer everyone access to the best service, no matter where they live,” explains Oskar Fajerson, Senior Vice President of EMEA APAC at Qmatic.

“We can use Orchestra to continually measure and monitor services, to make further improvements. Effective cooperation with our distributor in Georgia, NGT Group (Next Generation Technology), has enabled us to do good business in the country, where NGT has 95 percent of the market.”

Oskar Fajerson sees major potential and an exciting future for these kinds of services both in Georgia and in other parts of the world.

“We’ve already started in Dubai, which is also investing in public service centres. I’m seeing a definite trend around the world when it comes to gathering public services under one roof. It’s important for the government to provide its citizens with the opportunity to get help with all kinds of public services quickly and seamlessly.”

The trend with Public Service Halls will primarily be developed in countries where citizens do not make their affairs online.

“We believe the trend of public authorities increasingly coordinating their services is here to stay. Such a solution becomes more appealing as services are improved and made more efficient,” concludes Oskar Fajerson.

Tbilisi’s Public Service Hall in Georgia is rather unusual looking. The architecture plays an important role here.

You don’t have to wait for months to get a new passport here. At Tbilisi Public Service Hall, it takes just one hour. And if you want to get a bite to eat while your passport photo is being processed, you can get lunch in the building’s restaurant.

“We have 14,000 visitors every day needing various kinds of assistance,” says Mariam Latsabidze, Deputy CEO at Tbilisi Public Service Hall.

Qmatic’s platform Orchestra is the world’s most robust solution on the market. In Tbilisi, Orchestra’s services manage IT security, payments and processing, video surveillance, cash handling and queue management. Meanwhile, 400 operators ensure the service runs as smoothly as possible.

Come in and get married! Public Service Hall in Tbilisi has a fast-track service for anyone who fancies getting married.

If you’re in a real hurry, you can use the Just Drive drive-in service. “Welcome!” say Oskar Fajerson, Senior Vice President of EMEA APAC at Qmatic and Mariam Latsabidze, Deputy CEO at Tbilisi Public Service Hall.

Videocare means everywhere and anytime

A visit to the doctor over the internet gives more people access to care regardless of time and location. It’s not the end of having “a physical”, but it’s a great complement.

You know what it’s like, trying to get help from your local hospital for yourself, your kids or your elderly parents.

You need to take time off from work (stressful), there’s travel time (traffic horrors), you have to expose yourself to the waiting area (kids sneezing and noses running), it takes time (boring and stressful), you’re there because you do not feel great in the first place and now you feel terrible, you run into your neighbor and have to explain (possibly embarrassing). And…

It. Takes. For. Ever.

It doesn’t have to be like this, and in fact, things are looking promising. With video conferencing re-purposed for healthcare many consultations can be handled online via your smartphone or computer, especially for people suffering chronic conditions where the underlying problem has already been diagnosed.

Not only does this alleviate some of the frustrations of visiting a hospital for the patient, it also takes some of the strain off the thinly stretched resources of the clinics and hospitals. And it allows better use of resources overall, allowing medical professionals to see patients while dedicating the rest of their time to research. On top of this, it makes resources available regardless of geography balancing uneven demand and supply between regions at different times.

Video visits are quickly gaining ground globally. Here are some examples from the US and Sweden:
https://www.youtube.com/user/sutterhealth
https://medicheck.se/doctor-online/

Setting up the structure to handle customer flow and customer journeys seamlessly between online and offline is an interesting technological and administrative challenge that Qmatic has been exploring for quite some time now. And we are happy to report; it is all looking good!

Customer Journey: The flow of citizens, managed by PSA

 The Public Services Agency launched a new electronic citizen management system on April 21st, based on the virtual e-ticketing line.

The application passed the first test at the launch of the Ocniţa Multifunctional Center, and the managers concluded that this is “a modern, useful and accessible method”.

So, in order to obtain a virtual ticket from the system, the applicant must have a mobile phone to connect to the WI-FI network of the Center. Later, using the Google Chrome browser, enter the code “10.7.26.10:81” and select the desired office and service.

The status information for the applicant in the system is updated online and can be viewed on the screen of the mobile phone within the coverage of the WI-FI network.

The Public Services Agency has so far opened four multifunctional centers on the territory of Moldova.