Botswana Insurance Company (BIC) is heavily invested in the overall customer experience. As a testament of its efforts to continually be in search of new ways to improve in this regard is the appointment of BIC Executive Head of Sales and Business Development, William Surmon, as Council Member by the Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM).
CICM is a new organisation in Botswana with representation in three continents, whose primary focus is customer service. CICM provides training in this regard, as well as research, mystery shopping and call centre training and audits.
The institute aims to inspire achievement of the highest standards of professionalism in all aspects of customer service in every international market.
In response to what this appointment means for BIC, Surmon noted: “This is a very good initiative for Botswana in particular because of the need for improved customer service and customer awareness. We at BIC are very passionate about customer service, hence the launch of our “A re Bue” customer service rating tool that all customers can access through mobile or in branch.
“We were ecstatic when we were selected by CICM to be a Council Member because the relationship between the institute and BIC will be very beneficial to our policyholders and customers. The experience and learnings we have had will also greatly benefit the institute.”
Surmon went on to point out that BIC’s primary objective is to always improve customer service for their policyholders and that being part of the institute provides the opportunity to have access to and engage in best practice, both in Botswana and across the African continent. Being a part of the CICM institute brings with it the potential to uplift the customer service experience and could unlock the customer service standard which can for now only be aspired to.
Following the realisation of the challenge faced by customers regarding visiting BIC premises, BIC made strides towards ensuring the continuation of provision of services while adhering to the COVID-19 protocols in place. “We revamped our customer website (www.bic.co.bw) so that customers could interact and do more including applying for a policy and rate our service,” said Surmon. “We saw a lot of take-up customers as a result of this, which was an indication to us of our customers’ readiness for digital migration.
“Another sign was the amount of services ratings we received. A QR Code is available online which customers may use to rate their experience as well as an online complaints register that is directly linked to our CEO who will address them immediately. BIC strives to continuously provide our valued clients with services that surpass expectation.”