Limiting the damage

An unpopular decision by a major health insurance company offended its customers. The staff needed to understand the causes and have the tools to react to customers in the best possible way.

A strategic decision by the insurance company was clumsily communicated and reported negatively by the media. This reinforced their already wounded satisfaction and generated an outcry among its customers. DEVAS Consulting was assigned to conduct during two weeks workshops for more than 500 employees all over Switzerland.

A structured approach, despite the urgency

• Initialisation: two consultants read and attempted to understand the official line. Then they drafted the approaches and tools that would be used during the workshops. At a work meeting with the client’s representatives, these proposals were completed and validated.
• Preparation: the following day a detailed script was written, events were prepared, and a brief-ing was held. It was hoped that the workshop participants would discover a new way to interpret the facts and use tools to better manage the various customer reactions.
• Realisation: just a few days after initialisation, the first workshops were held. In all, six consult-ants crisscrossed Switzerland’s three linguistic regions, holding dozens of workshops using the same approaches and tools.
• Debriefing: A debriefing session concluded the process and summarised the consultants’ and participants’ experiences and feedback.

The personnel felt more relaxed

All the front office staff were able to understand and absorb the decisions taken by management and learned simple, pragmatic tools for positively influencing customer perceptions. Although the damage was huge, this approach reinforced and reassured the employees and reduced the negative impact among customers.

A large-team intervention

The DEVAS Consulting project leader prepared and managed the entire project. He ensured good communications with the client’s HR management, selected other consultants, briefed them and did quality assurance. The consultants all followed the same methodology, thereby ensuring a uniform approach in all languages and regions.

BUSINESS AREA

Crisis management

Getting beyond crisis turbulence and seizing opportunities.

CASE STUDY

Getting out of the crisis

Despite fine products and an excellent reputation, management failures led to negative financial results. And no one had realised it.