Using Vainu, LocalTapiola has increased yearly revenue by 200,000€ and saves over 1,500,000€ in customer service expenses.
LocalTapiola Group is a mutual group of companies owned by its customers. LocalTapiola's products and services cover non-life, life and pension insurance, as well as investment and saving services.
Helsinki, Finland
Insurance
3,400
LocalTapiola is one of the largest insurance companies in Finland, and a happy Vainu customer. In 2018, LocalTapiola Capital Region faced challenges with their sales and customer service, and started a search for the solution. To this day, collaboration with Vainu has saved them more than 1,500,000 euros in expenses and increased their estimated yearly revenue by 200,000€ with the help of new, data-driven way to book meetings.
For businesses, LocalTapiola provides services which help them face unexpected misfortune. “We give them more healthy years of life and help them reach economic independence,” Pehkonen says. About a year ago, Pehkonen realized their sales and customer service was not running smoothly enough, which was threatening their core promise of service.
Vainu has helped LocalTapiola Capital Region on two fronts. From the customer experience side, the company's internal processes were taking too long, while customer meetings were inefficient due to LocalTapiola employees knowing too little about the customer. Secondly, booking new meetings was an area, in which opportunities were lost due to insufficient information.
With Vainu, both issues were solved by leading LocalTapiola to the data-driven era.
LocalTapiola spent three months pinpointing the issue, and ultimately understood they simply needed more data on their customers. “The solution we found was to start cooperation with Vainu,” Pehkonen says. Vainu provides LocalTapiola with corporate data and analytics which is then integrated with their own BI- and CRM-data. All this is then combined with an AI-powered technology called Vainu View, which provides a comprehensive look at the customer when contacted.
“The solution brings us completely new ways to take care of our customers' needs," Pehkonen explains. “We now know how their business is going, what is written in the news and whether or not they have - for example - new people coming into the company, all of which gives us a lot of information to talk about,” Pehkonen summarizes the benefits.
For a sales organization, there's always a finite amount of companies to sell to. For some, there are tens of thousands of potential customers and for others, only a handful. For LocalTapiola Capital Region, there are more than a few available, but not enough to squander.
How do they make sure that every contact towards a potential customer is run smartly?
Jari Peltola is LocalTapiola Capital Region's Customer Relations Director responsible for a band of 70 insurance salespersons aiming to find new B2C and B2B customers. Daily, more than 500 staff hours are consumed on contacting new potential clients. Before Vainu, those hours were spent calling through static lists of companies, and the pitch from company to company was the same. For an experienced director, such as Peltola, the situation wasn't sustainable as several daily possibilities were missed due to lack of customer knowledge. Something needed to change, and during a meet-up with Vainu, the solution emerged.
The solution was formed in co-operation with Vainu and LocalTapiola staff and started by identifying most prosperous prospect organization segments. Eventually, three distinct segments were identified and salespersons were interviewed to find out the best ways to convince decision-makers at each segment. Based on the results, Vainu CEO Mikko Honkanen wrote three pitches to fit every target group. "It was a clear indication from Mikko's part that he genuinely wants to help his customers," Peltola praises.
After identifying the segments to focus their sales efforts on,they now needed the list of companies, divided into the newly created segments. Using Vainu's state-of-the-art company information, this was an effortless operation.
"Our first call resolution has gone up from 75% to around 90%. Also, our contact volume has gone down about 20%, and our net benefit can be counted in millions. And we’re just getting started."
Financial Director
Using Vainu, LocalTapiola's sales and customer service have improved their speed and quality, and also saved on expenses. “Our first call resolution has gone up from 75% to around 90%. Also, our contact volume has gone down about 20%," Pehkonen says.
On the booking front, salespeople have enjoyed having a crystal clear idea of why they are contacting each company. Starting from the first week of the new way of booking, hit rate increased by 23%. Statistically, this means 40 more meetings per quarter for LocalTapiola Capital Region and an estimated 200,000€ increased yearly revenue with the current closing hit rate.
"Our net benefit can be counted in millions. And we’re just getting started.” Pehkonen finishes.