Macif received the "Prix des Prix", which rewards the most awarded company of the year. For this mutual group, it is now essential to go beyond its role as an insurer and to go beyond the commercial approach. Dominique Russo, Director of Customer and Member Experience at Macif, explains its projects and ambitions.
Last December, you received the "Prix des Prix", which rewards the most awarded company of the year. What does this award mean to you?
It's an enormous source of pride and recognition for the collective work and commitment of our teams. This distinction also shows that we have succeeded in transferring our values to customer relations and making them a differentiating factor. Listening is at the heart of Macif's DNA, and the challenge is not to think in the place of our members and customers, but to succeed in listening to them without filters, without intermediaries. It is important to translate our values into evidence in a logic of co-construction.
This award is part of a global approach led by Macif around customer satisfaction. For example, our raison d'être was not written on a table corner by a few people but was the subject of a wide consultation of 15,000 people. When we emerged from the various health crises, we also asked our 5.7 million members for their feedback. We were surprised by the number of responses: 10% of them, i.e. 550,000 members, answered the questionnaire. 78% said they were doing quite well, while 22% said they were in difficulty, which enabled us to direct them to our solidarity mechanisms.
We have also set up a "complaints committee" made up of member representatives who meet every week to analyze complaints made by other clients. This approach has a double benefit: it brings a greater human dimension to the analysis of complaints and helps us improve our offers and services. When certain reasons become recurrent, these members help us to improve our contracts. To make a difference, there is no magic formula. You have to stay permanently connected to the realities on the ground by being close to the expectations of your customers within the framework of a relationship of trust.
Consumers are very sensitive to the issue of purchasing power and to price discussions. How do you respond to these expectations?
Price remains the primary reason for choosing an insurer. While it is essential to be competitive from a price point of view, it is not enough. What makes us different is our redistribution model. We pay back the value created to our stakeholders, i.e. our employees and members, by also participating in the evolution of society; we have no shareholders to remunerate. Our mutualist model is one of competitiveness and solidarity. We have developed a Macif "solidarity unemployment" scheme, which consists of not adding insecurity to insecurity. Under certain conditions, we pay the insurance contributions of our members who find themselves unemployed and lose their income.
Repair costs have a significant impact on insurance premiums, and we must contribute to controlling these costs by using, for example, reused parts in car repairs, which also helps to preserve our environment. In the same spirit, in February 2023 Macif acquired Mondial Pare-Brise, a major player in glass repair and replacement. When we see the differences in rates charged by the various players in this market, this acquisition will enable us to play a regulatory role with virtues that correspond to our mutualist model. Our objective is also clearly to improve the customer experience in the area of glass damage, in order to provide a positive experience for all our members.
What projects will be undertaken in 2023?
It is important to rethink and innovate around our relationship model. Beyond technological evolutions, consumers expect a human and close relationship, including in the context of a remote relationship. The role of the branches is evolving with a hybridization of the relationship and the use of several channels in addition to physical visits with the development of a telephone relationship and the deployment of videoconference appointments in the branch, which limits the efforts of our customers when they interact with Macif.
We are also working on the construction of an omnichannel, multi-business customer information system that will give us better customer knowledge, simplified access to information, and a 360° view of all interactions with our members.
Various studies show that the French population is tired of this succession of health, geopolitical, climatic, and economic crises. It is therefore important to pay attention to this state of mind and we must do everything we can to limit the efforts of our members, with an important issue of human connection and operational efficiency. Reducing processing times and providing the right information at the right time are at the heart of our relationship model. Of the 15 million telephone calls we receive, our ambition is to have a minimum efficiency of 90%, to take 9 out of 10 calls.
We listen to our customers first and foremost through trust. Consumers expect companies to be committed and useful to society. Macif is in daily contact with the reality on the ground in the field of prevention and the development of risk culture. Awareness-raising and training initiatives enable our members to play an active role in their own prevention, with, for example, workshops to reduce their impact on the environment. In 2022, we will have implemented 2,000 actions in the regions. The company is a place of the common good that must respond to the urgency of social, ecological, and societal challenges for a sustainable and responsible customer relationship.