On many occasions, regardless of the sector and the activity to which the different companies are engaged, we speak of “client” as if we were referring to an abstract entity. Most companies are not customer-oriented, their internal organization, the objectives of the different departments are independent of the needs of customers.

Reflecting briefly on the way insurers work, it is easy to see how each department has a series of objectives that are not focused on the needs of clients, but rather on meeting their own objectives (number of policies sold or premium targets). media), without having analyzed the needs of their clients before setting these objectives.

Customer orientation must originate in the understanding of their needs and the company’s orientation towards satisfying them. To this end, it is necessary to set up a customer management department with specific weight within the organization; that develops the necessary knowledge of our clients and from this defines the management of their life cycle.

Organizational design can be done in various ways, the most common being the following:

  • Customer management is part of the Commercial and Marketing Management, with a common vision and management of the relationship with the customer and aligning the commercial, marketing and customer management objectives.

Figure 1. Commercial and Marketing Management

  • Client management is part of the Marketing department, focusing the marketing activity towards the integral management of the client, having to coordinate with Sales for the development of the portfolio.

Figure 2. Independent Marketing Management

  • In large organizations that have different corporate departments by branch or type of client (individuals, companies) , Client Management can be articulated as a department that provides service to the different Corporate Departments of the company.

Figure 3. Corporate Services

Among the multiple functions of customer management (knowledge of the insured, customer experience management, value management, etc.) we are going to highlight the  offer adapted to the needs and characteristics of the customer , and more specifically the  life cycle opportunities .

Identifying the customer’s life cycle, as well as having an estimate of the composition of the family nucleus and the level of income, allows defining an ideal basket of products that meets the needs of the current customer; being able to guide the commercial activity towards the needs of the client instead of defining the commercial activity based on the objectives of the insurer by branch.

Defining the customer management process oriented to their life cycle, adapting the commercial and marketing activity to the customer’s needs, allows us to know the composition and needs of our portfolio, its potential and define cross-selling, up-selling and retention tailored to customer needs.