Customer Operations

Entry requirements
What you might do
Training and professional qualifications
Rewards
Prospects
Useful links

Nothing stands still in the insurance industry. In this sector as in many others, successful business means being able to adapt to changing times - and changing customer needs.

It's not just new types of risk that are emerging daily. The evolution of new distribution channels, such as e-commerce systems and sophisticated call centres, mean insurers face even greater challenges to find ways of delivering a personalised and differentiated service. Effective customer operations are fundamental to every business.

Although this is a new type of role in many companies, some employer organisations are now recruiting people to become customer operations or customer services managers, while others are insisting on placements in such roles as an important part of a wider graduate development programme. These types of jobs are often closely aligned to claims handling or indeed the sales environment (customer contact or call centres) and there is a natural migration for individuals from sales consultancy to customer care roles.

Often the type of job ultimately depends on the customer profile: although many of the skill sets required are the same, selling or handling inquiries for personal insurance products, for example, is very different from dealing with technical queries from brokers in a commercial lines service centre.

Entry requirements

Many major employers now require that graduate recruits on their management or leadership development programmes - who typically have a good degree in any discipline - spend time in a customer operations role so that they can gain first hand experience of dealing with customers. But apart from such placements, it is rare for graduates to go directly into jobs in this area, and some employers take on school leavers with good A levels as trainees.

Top of the list of requirements are communication and empathy skills - a commitment to helping customers. You'll need to have the mindset that enables you to solve sometimes complex problems, delivering on service promises - usually in a fast-paced, highly automated environment: contact centres are often likened to trading floors.

What you might do

Customer operations roles cover a broad spectrum of tasks and responsibilities. At one end of the scale, you might be handling or supervising high volumes of customer queries, sales calls and complaints in an automated call centre aimed at consumers, focused on personal insurance products.

Conversely, you could be involved in complex technical and pricing negotiations with brokers on commercial insurance lines, for example for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Here you might be required to have or gain specific underwriting knowledge and skill to negotiate detailed insurance packages - a role in a commercial contact centre could be part of your training to become an underwriter.

Particularly in this commercial field, your role could also include strategy or project work, or team management. Or it might involve assessing profitability of certain products, developing new customer relationship mechanisms to meet demanding productivity and quality targets, or improving service delivery.

Training and professional qualifications

As a new entrant to this field, you will typically receive a comprehensive induction - both to familiarise you with products and systems, and to help you build the key behavioural skills you need to handle customer interaction. Then, depending on the profile of your customers, training is likely to be on the job, initially under close supervision and control. In due course, you will be expected to carry your own workload and, through a personal development programme, enhance your skill set with further behavioural or technical training, as required.

Increasingly, employers are offering e-learning modules and online academies to enable customer operations advisers to measure competencies in areas such as sales, claims and underwriting, and to gain formal accreditation through the Institute of Customer Services (see Link below).

Rewards

While graduates entering general development programmes are likely to command around £17,000 to £20,000 - depending on location - school leavers entering the customer operations field after A levels are likely to earn in the region of £14,000.

Team leaders who have several years' experience can command £25,000 - £30,000, while junior management roles fetch approximately £32,000 - £40,000. Senior managers with substantial skills and experience can expect £50,000 -£60,000, but, as in the sales environment, remuneration is often closely linked to performance and individuals in this field can earn significantly more through personal and company bonuses.

Prospects

Customer operations work is typically fast paced - and in larger organisations, people are inclined to move rapidly through a range of roles. That means prospects for progression are very good, as opportunities come up quickly. Team leader and junior management roles open up frequently - meaning you could find yourself heading up an operation of 70 or 80 people while still in your early to mid 30s.